Journalism. What is it?

Christian Donald

cd341620@ohio.edu

After reading the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 10 of Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel's book, "The Elements of Journalism", I have a greater understanding of not only what journalism is, but also how it started and what its core values are.

Picture source: Teaching and Learning Center

Grass Roots

As humans, we have a need to know what is going on. We like to know what is going on 'over the next hill'. This allows us to feel safe, and secure. Societies adapted to the need for information by picking individuals that could gather information and retell it in an engaging way. People also use what they have learned -- the news -- to make acquaintances, as well as enemies. As societies progressed and technology expanded, news have become a part of our lives that is abundant and can be told by anybody.

Core Values

With societies' progression, news have become available at our fingertips, journalists and those they report on, have come to obtain a great deal of power, and as the saying goes, "with great power comes great responsibility." Even other journalists are critical of the job that their colleagues are doing. So in the book "The Elements of Journalism", mentioned earlier, the authors listed a set of ten codes for journalists to adhere to while reporting, with the first two hitting me the hardest. The first says that a journalist's first obligation is to the truth, and the second says that its first loyalty is to the citizens.

Will the Real Journalists' Please Stand Up

As people become more aware of the job that journalists are doing, even amongst themselves, it is imperative that citizens stay informed. The book mentioned that as politics become more polarized folks have started to just stick with the news sources that leans toward ones own values. I say all that to say this, as I was doing this assignment my father mentioned an article that he found, which reports on a survey findings of what people believe to be the most biased and unbiased news outlets. 

Concluding Thought

As I was doing the reading for this assignment, and contemplating my thoughts on these issues, the famous courtroom scene from the movie "A Few Good Men" popped in my mind where Tom Cruise's character asks Jack Nicholson's for the truth, and Jack Nicholson screams out, "You can't handle the truth!" If news isn't being reported accurately how can we as citizens know what is going on in our world?