Kovach and Rosenstiel Know Why I Chose This Career

Kelsey Hoak
kh605810@ohio.edu

When I first decided that I wanted to be a journalist everyone wanted to know why. Why would you want to listen to all that depressing news? Why do you want to go into a dying field? Why would you want to open yourself up to so much public scrutiny? The answer is simple...at least I always thought it was simple. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel discuss part of the reason why I wanted to be a journalist in their book The Elements of Journalism. Kovach and Rosenstiel write about what journalism is, what it does and why journalists care so much about it.

What is Journalism For?

According to Kovach and Rosenstiel, journalism is for building a community, for democracy and for citizenship. They follow this explanation by saying that in the United States journalism is for whatever the journalists say it is. As an American journalist if I want to write about a bizarre looking web structure in the Peruvian Amazon, I'm allowed to and no one can tell me that it isn't newsworthy enough.

Journalism is used as a technique to bring communities and groups of people together. Kovach and Rosenstiel explain that the early forms of journalism consisted of people just telling stories in local pubs. These stories were simple and informed visitors in the pub of the events and happenings in the town. To me that is a basic definition of journalism -- storytelling to spread information to people. Journalism goes further than just bringing communities closer, it also helps to identify a community's goals, heroes and villains.

Defining Journalism Limits It

Kovach and Rosenstiel discuss in chapter one of their book that most journalists don't want to define their job title. Defining journalism means that you are putting a limit on what journalists actually do. But according to the authors, this whole "no defining me thing" is actually a recent development in the journalism world. A century ago, publishers printed their values right smack on the front page so readers could chose which newspaper they liked better. This seems like a good idea to me; get everything out there for your viewers to see right off the bat, no hidden surprises. Though, once the press became more corporate, things started to change. Lawyers told editors that it probably wasn't a good idea because anything written could be used against them in court.

So Why Did I Choose This Field? 

I guess this leads me back to the beginning of the list of questions of why I picked journalism. I have the "awareness instinct" that the authors describe in chapter one. I always want to know what is going on and I want to share that news with other people. Starting back in my elementary days I have always felt the need to inform people about things that would affect them. There's no sitting back and watching someone go into something uninformed.

I agree with everything Kovach and Rosenstiel are writing about when they say journalists have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience. Their Watergate example was perfect for this because it shows learning journalists that their job is to stand up for their audience. Journalists are supposed to serve the governed, not the governors. And like they said everyone will eventually have to make that "Springer decision."

Photo Credit to xfinity.comcast.net