Responsibility Behind Being a Journalist

Abigale Blashinsky

ab659218@ohio.edu

How to Become a Better Journalist 

As the world evolves and people share their opinions, many people have strong statements against journalists. News sources are not as trusted and people became more skeptical throughout the years. 

As a journalist, your responsibility is to be the watchdogs of society and you need to give the people as much information as possible. In Chapter 1 of "The Elements of Journalism" it states, how the "goal of democracy, was not to manage public affairs efficiently, it was to help people develop to their fullest potential." 

For young journalists wanting to join the field, it is extremely important to properly educate ourselves on how to be ethical, and morally correct. Forbes has an article showcasing tips on how young aspiring journalists can do just that.

Picture source: Women's eNews

Importance of Telling the Truth

Truth, in my personal opinion, is key to the start of becoming an excellent journalist and storyteller. Without truth, your story becomes nothing and you lose the trust and respect of your audience throughout your career. 

As a journalist, your duty is to gather credible and accurate stories in order for the audience to make their assessments with the information you provide. The American Press Institute wrote an informational article on the elements of journalism explaining how the first obligation as a journalist is telling the truth, and staying loyal to the people.

The book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, "The Elements of Journalism", states in Chapter 10 the story about an untruthful journalist, Jayson Blair. Only twenty-one months out of being an intern he was out on the field. 

The reporter was finding stories and landing them on the front page. Other reporters wouldn’t come close to matching his content. 

When questions began to arise the word got out. Blair was approached and his supervisors came to realize his stories were not credible and factual at all. 

As stated in Chapter 10, “After two days, it became clear that he had never visited the Texas home he wrote about, and his 'eyewitness' detail had come from pictures in the Times photo archives.”

With this reporter, Jayson Blair, it is only one small fraction of what makes other people outside of journalism raise their eyebrows. In other terms, when the news is called ‘fake news’ these cases like Blair's don't help the situation at all. It is important to talk about past journalist mistakes because it shows the current journalists now how important it is to tell the truth and be a credible reporter.