Throughout this course, I’ve been impressed and surprised with the massive amount of material covered on what a journalist is. Honestly, I had no idea that this occupation was as complex and complicated as it turned out to be. I thought a journalist was someone who wrote news and had a journalism degree in his/her hand. I’ve learned, however, that being a journalist is a lot more than this.
Something I’ve learned is that a truly good journalist is one who cares. One who cares about the people that he/she is writing for, the sole identity gained from being a journalist, and more than anything, one who cares about always doing the right thing. It seems that in journalism, there are a lot of ways to be dishonest. One not so obvious example of this is not telling the whole story by excluding crucial details that make a story complete. The possibilities to cheat integrity just a little bit are absolutely endless. I believe that journalism is caring enough to tell what you believe is accurate and fair truth.
Another thing I learned in this course was that being a journalist requires courage. You must make courageous decisions to publish something or not. (A strong example of this would be the printing of the Pentagon Papers.) In fact, sometimes you must have courage to even go up and talk to someone who you want to learn about. Joe Franklin, a long-time reporter, said the following: “Back when I first started, I thought intelligence was the most important attribute a reporter could have. I have since changed my mind. You do have to be intelligent, but the big thing is courage. Courage to open your mind and let the whole damned confusing world in. Courage to always be the ignorant one, on somebody else’s turf. Courage to stand corrected. Courage to take criticism. Courage to grow with your experiences. Courage to accept what you don’t understand. Most of all, courage to see what is there and not what you want to think is there.” (Read more at http://www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG-jeh/BeginningReporting/Introduction/succeed.htm.)
This goes along with the next piece of journalism that I learned this semester: being willing to ask the right questions for the right reasons, and being extremely curious about everything. I like the idea that journalists are people that just like to get involved in things that they deem important. To me, this is a crucial aspect of journalism, truly the essence of it, which I had never thought of before. The idea of just being a curious person, and wanting to know everything first. I didn’t realize that this was a big part of journalism, but learning this definitely rang true for me, as I really love to be the first to know a piece of exciting news.The website http://www.thewhocarestrust.org.uk/pages/journalist.html said the following statement about journalists: “Being a journalist gives you an excuse to get involved with things for no other reason than that they are interesting. And when you see that your articles have made a positive difference to someone’s life, it can be a special feeling.”
Another thing I learned from this class is that to be a journalist, you don’t need a degree. Especially after our discussion on how everyone can be involved in journalism, I took it to heart that being a truly good journalist is something that a degree doesn’t allow or withhold. Citizen journalism may even be the future. The following statement mirrors my beliefs on journalism exactly: “It is important for us to note that journalism is one of the worlds oldest professions and it is based on this knowledge that everyone can pick a pen and paper and write anything and some speak into a microphone without due recourse to the law however since society does not exist in isolation, there is the need for ethics and principles to guide what we
do but not to curb what the journalist does.” (http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=209065)
I love this. What pride is in the occupation of journalism.
A journalist is someone who cares enough to tell the absolute truth, who is curious enough to ask questions that matter, and to practice good journalism, degree or not.
kaylee1133 