Principles of Journalism

The Principles of Journalism and Statement of Purpose http://www.journalism.org/node/72# result from four years of research, twenty public forums, and more. This group, eventually called the Committee of Concerned Journalists, "organized the most sustained, systematic, and comprehensive examination ever conducted by journalists of news gathering and its responsibilities." The website for this article is connected with the Pew Research Center's Project of Excellence in Journalism. These journalists were concerned with the low opinion that the general American public had of journalists.

Moreover, they felt that journalism fulfills an awareness instinct; people want to know what's going on. Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, admitted that he missed the news more than anything else when he was imprisoned in a Hanoi POW camp. An uncensored journalism helps the cause of democracy. Yet the rise of the Internet has led to a bombardment of information-- often by amateurs or even companies. How accurate is it? I'd like to focus on the purpose and two of the nine principles. Meanwhile, I'll observe how journalism fits the three purposes of writing-inform, entertain, and persuade--according to composition instructors/writers.

Central Purpose: "The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information," so they can be "free and self-governing." Journalists "define community," create common language and knowledge, and identify a "community's goals, heroes, and villains." Other requirements include being entertaining and a "watchdog" that gives a "voice to the voiceless." To inform and entertain are obvious purposes of journalism, but we can see that to persuade is implicit.

#3. Its Essence is a Discipline of Verification. Journalists aren't free of bias or neutral; they seek out multiple witnesses. This reminds me of writers since we're ready for multiple revisions. Such an attitude shows the journalist's desire to inform. Journalists approach evidence with transparency.

#7. It Must Strive to Make the Significant Interesting and Relevant. The very title illustrates one of the three purposes of writing in general: to entertain. Journalists often have a very broad audience, and they need to figure out what their public wants to know and needs to know. Determining a need to know sounds like persuasion again, doesn't it? Effective journalism "engages and enlightens its audience." Journalists ask themselves what information has the most value to citizens and in what form. Journalism has to go beyond "government and public safety" at one end and "trivia and false significance at the other end. Journalists have the charge of preventing a trivial society. Thus like all other writers, the journalist--especially the editorial writer-is a persuader at times.

The Principles of Journalism serve to summarize what journalists already knew and decided. Furthermore, these principles serve to advise the new era of amateur and semi-pro journalists who have a mushrooming number of websites from which to seek. Check out the whole list of principles; don't be satisfied with my highlights. We're all here to inform, entertain, and even persuade.