Week 3 - Chapter 1

• Chapter 1 of the text defines a ‘journalist’ – why is this important?

- To remind a budding journalist of what their purpose is in society – ethical responsibility, social responsibility, civic responsibility.

- And to highlight the changing role of a journalist over the years.

• In today’s world, the text says, employers of journalists want someone who is good at learning how to learn, constantly.
• In class we came up with a list of skills and attributes that a good journalist should have:

- Listening skills, objectivity, determination, research skills, accuracy, curiosity, writing abilities, technology literacy, general knowledge or specialization, people skills, ability to work to a deadline, confidence, accept criticism, be fair, persuasive, empathy, notion of public responsibility, interviewing skills, analysis skills, resourcefulness, news sense, truthfulness, accuracy, integrity.

• In trying to describe what a journalist is – we have to merge theoretical perspectives and practical examples.
• Knowing what a journalist’s role is is also important for the public, “Otherwise news consumers may not be able to recognise or distinguish between good news, bad news and no news.” (Tapsall and Varley, 2001, p.4).
• Journalists are many things – they incorporate several roles.
• The text questions ‘who journalists are responsible to’? – The class concurred that in reality journalists foremostly see that their employers are who they should ‘serve’ or be accountable to – and in an ideal world it is the public that journalists should ‘serve’ or be accountable to.
• This conflict in theory and practice is why ethical standards exist and why in-house charters exist. However these standards have to be considered in conjunction with commercial/employment responsibilities in the making of decisions on a case by case basis.
• There is also a responsibility to sources, and a journalist must weigh up allegiances: to sources, to their employer and to ‘the public’ when making decisions about a story.
• Today journalists face perhaps more pressures in their occupation than ever before. Commercialisation of news media presents the ‘tyranny of the bottom line’ (Walsh 1998 cited in Tapsall and Varley), meaning news is business. This can translate into budget cuts, more responsibilities per journalist, time restraints (which lead to a reliance on PR bodies for ‘packaged information’) and also concentrated media ownership (which carries implications for hard, balanced, diverse and objective news content). Running news journalism as a business rather than a public service carries with it many implications and tends to have negative impacts on the news reports that journalists are able to produce. Or at least tends to produce journalistic work that doesn’t align with the theoretical perspectives of what journalists should be or do.
• But is it possible for news to not be treated as a ‘commodity’ or business? Besides the public service broadcasters, all other news providers have commercial responsibilities – which must be balanced with the ethical standards and theoretical expectations of what a journalist should do and be.
• Technology has changed what a journalist is. In class it was said that more and more today, journalists are defined by the way information is managed. This does not only refer to PR bodies or media ownership – but also to the impacts that the internet has for journalists. Now information is accessible to everyone – less time needs to be devoted to research, audiences expect constant online up-dates for news (more deadlines), it also increases the possibility for citizen journalism (camera phones, youtube, blogs etc).
• But what separates a journalist from the many citizen journalists out there? I think it all rests on the original reason for defining a journalist – they have ethical responsibilities, social responsibilities and civic responsibilities. They have to look beyond the commercial interests of their employer or self and serve the ‘public interest’.
• Opinion: I think that although the service to the ‘public interest’ is the one point that defines a journalist from any other position – it is often forgotten in the real world. I think that although this service to the public is represented in ethical standards and in the backs of the minds of many journalists – it is often too difficult, too time consuming, too conflicting with other interests (like an employers’ expectations) to take precedence. A journalist must, every day, weigh up the different interests that are at stake in a story; and it is all too often that other interests win over the public’s interest.
  
  References:
  Tapsall S and Varley C, 2001, ‘What is a journalist?’, Tapsall S and Varley C, Oxford University Press, New York.