Journalistic Excellence

Throughout the semester Dr. Cressman has been continually presenting us with the question of what is journalism. Never before in my life have I given the subject a thought but this class has really opened my eyes to the journalistic world around me.
A very important element of journalism is objectivity. Objectivity can refer to fairness, disinterestedness, factuality, and nonpartisanship or some combination of all of them. It is an important element in journalism because society needs to feel like they are making up their own minds. Journalism is to present the facts in a non biased way as to let society do just that. Advocacy journalism is quite the opposite. If there ever was a place for opinion its in advocacy journalism. As a journalist it would be nearly impossible to have your own opinions at the same time practice objective journalism. Having your own opinions is the opposite of objective journalism. If I were to become a journalist I think I would work very hard to not put my own opinions in. I could see it being very hard if it was a situation I felt very strongly about. Honestly I most likely would put my own spin on things because I felt it was right.
Excellence in journalism is a very noble concept. As well it is an elusive one to many journalists. Excellence in journalism can be identified as journalism that meets all the elements of journalism such as objectivity, obligation to truth and loyalty first to citizens. Aspects such as independence and vigilance are also very essential to journalism. A journalist needs to not be influenced by outside sources as to what he or she reports on. As well they need to be vigilant in seeking after the facts and the truth. A true journalist is obligated to finding the truth and reporting that to the community they represent. In my semester long examination of the Alvin Sun I found that evidence of objectivity were rather lacking. They were very much biased in their reports of events such as a new “Grand Parkway” highway coming through the town as a bad thing for Alvin. I suppose in serving a smaller community that is obviously biased one way already as a whole, journalism must adapt to its environment in order to keep readers interested. The readers of Alvin Sun all felt that the new highway would only make the town grow unnecessarily and the paper reflected that feeling.
Journalistic truth could be described as a process. It is a “practical or functional form of truth…a process—or continuing journey toward understanding. Indeed, journalistic truth, as a nexus of much social communication, is perhaps the most pragmatic variety of all” (Scheuer 64). Reality or absolute truth is a “what you see is what you get” type of thing and journalistic truth simply isn’t. Journalistic truth contributes a continuous flow of facts to civic knowledge. That’s its job. Society needs that regular flow “make judgments, formulate opinions and arguments, and function as citizens” (Scheuer 68).
It seems like a regular thing now to read about a newspaper failing or a television news operation downsizing. The answer to why that is lies in part to where I personally read about them happening: the internet. I don’t get my news from the actual papers you pick up or buy from a newsstand; I get it from websites and certain reports with many top headlines. The old way of reporting news just can’t keep up with this new world of instantaneous gratification and the need to know now. The idea of having to wait until 6 o’clock that night to watch what happened that day or even worst, to have to read about today’s news tomorrow is just a horrible idea. I need to know now. That’s the attitude of society now. Sadly it is just impossible to keep up. The implications of this are already starting to show in our country. Many papers have already gone under and many more are heading that way. Honestly I think the impact of this won’t be good in the long run. Right now it seems great that so many independents are able to report the news but so many of them are just copying from the professional journalists which is really hurting the professionals. A new journalism is emerging and greatly changing the way the news is being reported. If I were going into a career of journalism I think I would make sure I had a degree in computer science of some sort and that I knew how to make a web page. I could see five years from now working exclusively on a web page for news. Ten years from now I can’t even imagine what news will be like, which is also probably one of the reasons I won’t be going into journalism. If I can’t see ten years down the road to what my career field might look like then I’m worried. It’s a tough path to take nowadays.
My own personal code of conduct if I were to become a journalist would, I hope, be a good one. From my upbringing I value truth. I know how to recognize truth and have always sought after it. I have always been taught that when you have the truth it is your responsibility to share it. I suppose I would treat the news the same way. When I had the facts I would share them in the most unbiased way I knew how. I would recognize the fact that it is not my job to tell society what to think, only to give it something to think about. And to give it to them constantly and the quickest way possible. There should be no room for my own opinion unless I was doing a type of advocacy journalism in which my opinion was asked. I enjoy coming up with my own feelings about the facts and I would reserve that right for my readers.
In conclusion, as Joseph Pulitzer once said, “Journalism is, or ought to be, one of the great and intellectual professions.” I agree with that. I hope journalism continues to grow in its new direction and I am excited to see how it evolves. Thank you Dr. Cressman for my teaching my favorite class of the semester.