Loyalty: A Double Edged Sword

Throughout the history of journalism in America, loyalty has proven to be a complex aspect in journalists' daily affairs. Shareholders, citizens, corporations, the government, managers and editors all vie for journalists' loyalty. Journalists are left with a moral dilemma that goes way back.

1971: The federal government obtained a court order to stop The New York Times' from further publishing any articles of what would be known as The Pentagon Papers. Ultimately, The New York Times won a landmark case that gave them freedom from prior restraint. (See: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/p/pentagon_papers/index.html)


(Groundbreaking journalist of The Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsburg)

This is a perfect example of a contemporary dilemma for journalists. With a government at war, forcefully trying to stop their work, these journalists at The New York Times actively put citizens as their first loyalty. In doing so The New York Times displayed some of "the five characteristics that news companies that have not been defeated share" (The Elements of Journalism): The owner was committed to putting citizens first and letting journalists have the final say over the news.

I think it is very interesting that the news companies that have not gone under, are the ones that give journalists true power and in turn, put citizens first.

Much has changed in the world of journalism since the 70s. In class we learned that one-third of journalists' time is devoted to business matters. I was not surprised nor dismayed by this. I think journalists need to play apart in the much needed reworking of their business matters and model. However, one of the student presenters brought up an intriguing thought - "Who you're working for largely dictates how you skew your story", and really how you approach your job. So if journalists are spending a significant amount of time in the business matters, they could forget who they are working for - citizens - and that could largely skew how they approach their work, putting the public at a loss.

Truth & Journalism

"Journalism is the material that people use to learn and think about the world" (pg 37, Elements of Journalism). This quote illustrates the weight that journalism has on citizens because of their reliance on news. The in-class example of the "bag of ignorance" illustrated very well the disservice citizens commit to themeselves when they don't pay attention to the news. A reason "journalism's first obligation is to the truth" is because citizens exert a sense of trust to journalists as they read their product (pg 36, Elements of Journalism) . There may not be such a thing as truth that is undiluted, as a result of innate bias and other factors, but as Albert Einstein said, "it's not about truth but about making what we know less false".


"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" (Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men).

After the clip of The Insider, there was a discussion in class about whether it was ethical for CBS to air its findings on a tobacco company, news that would potentially tarnish the company. I think a good way to view a dilemma such as this, is to ask, "Will this information if released, do more harm or good?" I think in most cases in the world of journalism, such information will do more good. But in a case such as the gay magazine that outed a pastor who was at a same-sex attraction support group - probably did more harm than good.

Of course there will always be opposing views when it comes to releasing the truth or what is the actual truth, hence the name of the chapter in Elements of a Journalist, Truth: The First and Most Confusing Principle .

The Future is on the Computer

"If newspapers went dead for a week, radio, television newscasters and bloggers would have nothing to talk about" (loosely quoted from the film, Stop the Presses)
I love this quote because it really brings one to ponder and realize the magnitude of service that print journalists give to America and even the world. I do agree that the nation be drastically information deprived if we lost print journalists. However, I agree with John Carey and Nancy Hicks Maynard that the news businesses many are so familiar with, is "tuned to earlier lifestyles" (The Press).
So the industry has to change the way they deliver the news. I predict (and it is happening as I blog) that the reading news will be a much more social engagement. Through FacebookConnect and sites modeled after NewsMixer, we will be able to converse about news with loved ones, associates and friends, both near and far instantaneously. Word of mouth drives audiences, therefore this social integration of FacebookConnect-like tools will be crucial to newsrooms. I think throughout the next fifteen years newspapers across the board are going to be pouring the majority of their resources to building and experimenting with their online sites.



I don't know how journalists will be payed in the future. I think there will be less well-payed journalists but there will be a smaller group of extremely well paid online journalists. Maybe this online subscription based version of newspapers is the future of news (The New York Times Reader 2.0 featured above). Come what may, I hope journalists will be at forefront of new technology, being the first to weave it into their line of work.

A Journalist & Journalism Defined

What is journalism and who is journalism? That's been the topic of discussion in class the past two days.

Define Journalism

I love this definition, "journalism helps us "see with other eyes, hear with other ears and think other thoughts than those we formerly used"(pg 77, The Press). The public's access to this kind of journalism is harder to achieve in this day and age of online news, where readers are picking what they are interested in and most of the time, not reading other thoughts than they are used to. The newspaper offers this kind of journalism because as Professor Campbell said, the newspaper offers a variety of pieces on a single page and can draw the reader to new thoughts or interests.

I agree with the definition given in The Elements of Journalism that first and foremost, journalism's primary purpose is to "provide citizens with information to be free and self-governing"(pg 12).

Define Journalist

Anyone who provides information to the public is a journalist. However that doesn't necessarily make them a good journalist. A good journalist "tackles the complicated and unobvious" and that in turn empowers citizens (pg 70, The Press).