INTRODUCTION TO JOURNALISM

What is journalism?

Journalism is both an art and a profession which records events and opinions and seeks to interpret and mould them for the benefit of the educated public. Journalism is anything that contributes in some way in gathering, selection, processing of news and current affairs for the press, radio, television, film, cable, internet, etc. It is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying and presenting news regarding current events, trends, issues and people. Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. Journalism is defined by Denis McQuail as paid writing for public media with reference to actual and ongoing events of public relevance.

Principles and functions of journalism

The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society. This purpose also involves other requirements such as being entertaining, serving as watchdog and offering voice to the voiceless. Journalism has developed nine core ideals to meet the task.

1. Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth:

Journalism does not pursue truth in an absolute or philosophical sense, but it can and must pursue it in a practical sense. This journalistic truth is a process that begins with the professional discipline of assembling

and verifying facts.

2. Its first loyalty is to citizens:

Journalists must maintain loyalty to citizens and the larger public interest above any other if they are to provide the news without fear or favour. This commitment to citizens first is the basis of news organizations credibility; to tell audience that news coverage is not slanted for friends or advertisers. Commitment to citizens also means journalism should present a representative picture of all constituent groups in society.

3. Its essence is disciplines of verification:

Journalists rely on professional discipline for verifying information. It called for a consistent method of testing information- a transparent approach to evidence- precisely so that personal and cultural biases would not undermine the accuracy of their work.

4. Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover:

Independence is an underlying requirement of journalism, a cornerstone of its reliability. Independence of spirit and mind rather than neutrality is the principle journalists must keep in focus.

5. It must serve as an independent monitor of power:

Journalism has an unusual capacity to serve as watchdog over those whose power and position most affects

citizens. As journalists, one has an obligation to protect this watchdog freedom by not demeaning it in frivolous use or exploiting it for commercial gains.

6. It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise: 

The news media are the common carriers of public discussion. This discussion serves society best when it is informed by facts rather than prejudice and supposition. Accuracy and truthfulness requires that as framers of the public discussion journalists do not neglect the points of common ground where problem solving occurs.

7. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant:

Journalism is storytelling with a purpose. It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant. The effectiveness of a piece of journalism is measured both by how much a work engages its audience and enlightens it. This means journalists must continually ask what information has most value to citizens and in what form.

8. It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional:

Keeping news in proportion and nor leaving important things out are also cornerstones of truthfulness.

Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereo typing or being disproportionately negative all makes it less reliable. It should also include news of all communities, not just those with attractive demographics.

9. Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience:

Every journalist must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility- a moral compass. Each of them must be willing if fairness and accuracy requires, to voice differences with colleagues, whether in the newsroom or the executive suite.

Journalism as a profession

Print media journalism

Print media journalism presents various information through newspapers, magazines and books. Professionals of this stream are – staff correspondents, special correspondents, news editors, chief-editors, political commentators, cartoonists, columnists, feature writers, content writers for magazine etc.

Radio journalism

Radio journalism works for broadcasting news and various information through an important medium of mass communication among workers and householders. Radio journalists are well versed with the operations of sound recording equipments, microphones and public address systems. They must also be efficient in digital data recording, operations of the net, audio systems and computers

TV journalism

TV is an audiovisual communication tool. It requires the attention of two senses of the targeted individual- audio and visual. Hence the TV journalist has not only to give pleasing music, voice, or other audio signals to the targeted audience but also has to mesmerize them with the help of his personality, mannerism, video footage and appropriate colour combinations.

Cyber journalism

Internet is a source of all kind of information. Internet journalist is a person who creates messages to be displayed on the web sites that are to be read, viewed or listened to by a very large audience. Professionals of this new stream are web masters; multimedia specialists, HTML and XHTML programmers, Java specialists and other professionals who create and modify advertisements for the NET. They also create web sites which are mass communication tools.

Role and responsibilities of a journalist

The main duty of a journalist is to act as an interpreter of the world around. The journalist observes the events, transmits facts about the event and act as an interpreter of these events and happenings.

A journalist performs the following roles:

1. Make people aware of the contemporary world.

2. Inform and educate the audience.

3. Promote art and culture.

4. Entertain the mass.

5. Help people in decision making.

6. Make people sensitive to burning issues.

7. Instill good moral values.

8. Make people aware of their rights.

9. Help people in comparative study of past and present and in predicting future.

The MacBride report spells out journalistic responsibilities as:

1. Contractual responsibility in relation to their media and their internal organization.

2. A social responsibility entailing obligations towards public opinion and society as a whole

3. Responsibility or liability deriving from the obligation to comply with the law.

4. Responsibility towards the international community relating to respect for human values.