What it all means now

Journalism is not just one thing. There is no one definition that describes specifically what journalism is. Some may argue this point by saying that journalism is the act of reporting and writing stories. Which, don’t get me wrong, is true but there is so much more to it. There are so many aspects of journalism that you have to take into consideration. When thinking about journalism you have to think about ethics, truth, verification, independence, power, relevance, the citizens and so much more. The tricky thing about journalism is making sure you are giving the people what they want to hear while at the same time giving them the hard facts and truth. Journalism is something that not just anyone can master. I personally believe journalism is a career. Yes journalists can be bloggers and their posts can be journalism but that is not always the case. This brings me to the next question, what is a journalist? A journalist is someone who writes articles and reports. A journalist is not just someone who posts on their blog a few times a week describing their life, with their cute families and fun experiences. Journalists, in my opinion, are people who do it for a living. These are the people who take into thought the different aspects talked about previously. True journalists are the people who know how to write, and know how to write while being ethical and honest. Journalists are those who know their limits and know what and what not to say. While coming to class and listening to all of the discussions in Principles of Journalism, I have learned all of this. I have learned that some “journalists” are not really journalists. The major point that I have learned and the one I believe to be most important is that, in order to be a true journalist and right real journalism you must me honest and true. Not only to yourself, but to the citizens and to the people or things that your article may be about.

Engagement and Relevance in Journalism

So the big question that was presented in class with this topic was, should journalists give people what they need or what they want? This is a difficult question that journalists are given everyday. Which one should it be? In a really good blog post that I found, they touched on this topic. Now I understand that it is just someone's opinion but I found it to be quite interesting and helpful. It gives both the pros and cons. In my personal opinion I think you have to give your audience a little bit of both. I think it's important they you give them what they need- hard facts and the truth. But at the same time you should add in a little bit of what they want. You should give them some excitement and something that will catch their attention. In a movie that came out not too long ago, Morning Glory, they really portray how excitement will capture viewers attention. A journalist has to make sure that they always have some sort of balance in these two. What they want and need.

Comprehensive and Proportional

In class this week we discussed comprehensive and proportional principles of journalism. A main point that we talked about that really got my attention was how journalism is very subjective because of targeted demographics. One example of this would be how the news is directly targeted towards the older generation. You never hear of kids just wanting to watch the news because its exciting to them. It is always the older people who are turning to the news. However while researching this more in depth I came across this article . It was quite interesting to read. Some other examples about how this subjectivity is used in journalism are sports, nature, traveling, and all different topics. The people who are writing these articles are going to direct them towards the people who enjoy these activities. Susan Kime is a journalist for traveling. In this article, she writes about traveling and what to do and all of that. So people who do not like traveling would have no interest in this article. I don't think that is something you can fix in journalism. People have to write about everything and some people may not like that, but they just have to deal with it and move on.