Journalism

This is my first semester as a Pre-Communications major at Brigham Young University, and I'm excited! It's great to be taking major-specific classes instead of GE's. Generals add a sense of finality to college life; major classes, on the other hand, lend themselves to the future. You can't help but fantasize, "I'm going to use this concept, or this chapter, in my such-and-such career."

Well, my first assignment in one of my first Communications classes is to keep a blog. I created a blog about a year ago for a technology class I was taking, but it ceased as soon as the class did. So this time, instead of gearing specifically and exclusively on the class, I plan to theme this blog on travel tips and tricks and articles.

So, first question: What is journalism?

In my opinion, journalism addresses and reports current events accurately. Its purpose is to educate society on both local and global events, whether political or entertainment-based. Journalism must be reported in a timely manner: if an article is on the ten best foods to serve at a family reunion, it needs to be printed during the beginning of summer. Journalism also needs to be reliable. This, I believe, limits journalism to newspapers and magazine sources, and reliable news internet sites. Blogging, on the other hand, is understandably more questionable. I believe that it can occasionally be a source of journalism, but the reliability is far more questionable. Information gathered on a blog should be questioned, whereas the facts stated in newspaper reports are more reliable. Of course, facts can be misrepresented in order to tell a certain story, but that is not the role of a journalist. 

In that case, who are journalists? What is their role?

I believe journalists are reporters of events. They are committed to presenting the truth about the world. They are curious about their society and the world they live in. They strive to better society through the media they provide. While many magazine and newspaper journalists do care about reliability and their own affect on the world, bloggers can be anyone, and they can follow any agenda. They aren't guided by any codes of ethics. They can be biased or spread rumors. They can be opinionated or uneducated. While a blogger can be a journalist, being a blogger doesn't automatically make one a journalist.