In answering the question put forth in the reading of chapter 1, "What is journalism for?" That question made me think to elaborate on that question. What is journalism for, today?
Like the world around us, the field of journalism and all it's outlets are ever changing. Over the last 20 years journalism has changed at a more rapid speed than ever before. It was at the turn of the century that newspapers and that branch of journalism was dying. Two decades later newspaper companies are still but they've adapted as have other forms of journalism and media.
Journalism still is a way of keeping the public informed. Journalists are the link between powers that be and the people they govern. If not for journalism and journalists holding government and private entities accountable, the public would have very little clue as to what goes on behind the curtain. Journalism gives us a glimpse behind the smoke and mirrors and unveils oz for all to see.
But today journalism is many other things. It isn't always straight forward in presenting the news and what's going on. Many journalists have gone into the opinion business for the past couple of decades. Many time journalism isn't unbiased. The largest news corporations have an agenda and tend to skew further to one said than ever before.
One of the most notable news outlets, Fox News, makes it clear where they stand in the political landscape. There position on the right has become more and more blatant over the last few years. It was already obvious before but there's never been less questions about where Fox News stands than now. The same can be said for an outlet like NPR that leans left quite liberally. Listening to their shows and podcasts which are pretty good, but within minutes you can usually tell what side of the political poll they reside on.
Today's journalism has become more about entertaining opinions than it is about delivering news and information that people can use in their everyday lives. Knowing this brings to mind the question, what is news? I've always thought of news being information that people need to know. Now it feels like a lot of "news" is information that you may or may not need but what journalists and companies want to give you.
The same piece of new worthy information can vary in perspective and how it's delivered based on which outlet we decide to receive it from. The exact same story can be told three, four or more different ways based on agenda. The judgement of news and what it is or isn't is murky today and really depends on who you ask. So, journalism in itself can be many things to many people today. If you asked 10 journalists what journalism is today you'd likely get 10 different answers.
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