The field of journalism is ever-changing. Culture evolves and adapts to new technologies as methods of communication. While change can be a good thing that allows for a growing opportunity, it can also be bad and even dangerous. In journalism, the key values must remain the same. The need for transparency, honesty, and trust in journalists to the public is needed more than ever today.
Journalism is in our everyday encounters. It starts with one article or news blast that leads to a conversation and gives knowledge to the public. With such an important field in daily lives being questioned, there needs to be mended trust. So how did we get here?
In the 1980s, the public’s discontent with journalism began. According to the Pew Research Center, 64 percent of the public preferred receiving news from sources with no political affiliation. This number has barely changed to where the world is now.
Cartoon by Gatis Sluka
This credibility crisis has started from turning news into entertainment by giving falsified rather than factual pieces of information.
Along with that, people have been challenged and confused by the way news has changed from television to social media, and do not know how to adapt to that. There needs to be an acknowledgment of this change made known to the public so they can see the shift as a positive rather than a negative.
American Press Institute states, “Americans who place the greatest emphasis on trust factors are most likely to pay, share or follow that source.”
These problems have been considered by dedicated journalists. In Cambridge in 1997, The Committee of Concerned Journalists held public forums to ask two questions: if news people thought journalism was somehow different from other forms of communication, how was it different? And if they thought journalism needed to change but that some principles couldn’t be sacrificed, what were those principles?
This conclusion came to be known that rules needed to be changed to be less broad and make sense to modern-day. Words like “fairness” and “balance” are too broad. These values need a stronger position to back them up.
With all of this chaos, freedom of the press is under attack. Journalists have a right but need to reexamine things and go about it correctly. The last thing the journalism industry needs is to continue to break trust with the public and go down a slippery slope to end with bad journalism.
But if this is where journalism is, the change is ever needed. Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel give insight in “Elements of Journalism.” They state, “...the primary purpose is to provide citizens with the information they need to be self-governing.” This is a simple statement that journalists need to follow. This ethical responsibility to ensure the public is the duty to journalists across the globe.
The New York Times states, “News reporters and editors are human, and make mistakes. Correcting them is core to our job.”
Journalists need to own up to their wrongdoings and attempt to right them. The shift in culture will continue, but journalism values must remain the same.
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