The Importance of Journalism

Sabrina Fawley

sf339111@ohio.edu

The History of Journalism

Authors, Kovach and Rosenstiel, mention in the article that modern journalism emerged in the early 17th century from public places; in England newspapers grew out of coffeehouses and in America journalism grew out of pubs. These examples of how the news media formed in the 17th century reinforce the idea that community and news cannot be separated.

Journalism Today

           

Today journalism looks differently than it did 300 years ago. The media in today's marketplace has over grown the pubs and coffee houses where news was once shared to only a set amount of people. Today, there are a variety of ways for people to acquire news, and each news medium is constantly competing for the public's interest over a competitor.

Over the years, the media has been able to reach larger amounts of people than ever before, but at the same time the traditional "old" media has (in a sense) grown smaller because of the many mergers and acquisitions that have overtaken the media landscape.  

New technology has created a surge in "we media" and the "new media" that has risen to popularity in only a short number of years (e.g. Huffington Post). "We media" and newer media outlets have flooded the Internet and mixed with more traditional/older forms of media. We are now in a world where anyone can produce news content that the public can see. During this time in history, the journalist's job is no longer based on the concept of being a "watchdog." The journalist's job is to help the public makes sense of information they are given which may bring up the question: Is the purpose of journalism the same?

Basics Still the Same?

There are many different sources for news today, and people have a limited amount of time in which to understand the news. This means journalists need to adapt and become more resourceful when telling people why news matters, while still keeping their individual journalistic conscience. Journalists have the moral obligation to cover news in a way that will makes it newsworthy and not sensational by telling those consuming the medium why a story really matters to the public.

The concept of  the moral compass and ethics still exists today, even though the relationship between traditional media and "new media" has changed.

Richard Sambrook of BBC News stated that the terrorist bombings in London in 2005 permanently changed the news' relationship with "we media." He said it was a "tipping point."

Photo Credit: jacksonsun.com

According to Poynter, Tom Curley, president of the Associated Press, said that the Associated Press has accepted how important citizen journalism is for more than a century. Curley said that the only difference between then and now is that the amateur/witness content has become more pervasive than ever before.

The authors, Kovach and Rosenstie, remarked that every generation creates its own journalism. Kovach and Rosensteil added, "the purpose and the underlying elements of journalism are the same." Those underlying concepts, "to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing," are the reasons why traditional journalism will never disappear. People still need the resources that traditional news possess.