Foundation and Purpose of Journalism

(The Picture to the right will be addressed later in my post - bear with me!)

Journalism worldwide is built on many different values. Wherever you go, you can observe that in different parts of the world, various news organizations have differing priorities. In class we talked about the most significant values in American Journalism. We discussed several values that Herbert Gans identified as the elements that make up the foundation of American Journalism. In a Press-think interview with Gans, they asked him questions regarding his journalism study published in "Deciding What's News." In his study he found that American journalists "absorb and express in their work... the ruling ideas in American society."

The idea inherent in his book that really interested me was that journalism in America has one purpose: the preservation and advancement of democracy. I think that it's good to have values, as a journalist, and it's good to recognize how you express your own values in your stories, but I think using journalism to advance a personal idea or belief, is one step too far. So, if Gans is right in saying that the subconscious values in American journalism serve the purpose of advancing democracy, I think we shoud do a bit of re-evaluating of our system. Even subconscious advancement of an idea, under the guise of objective journalism, is wrong. Journalists have more to do than support and advance an idea, which brings me to my next point: the purpose of watchdog journalism.

One of the key reasons for journalism in a free society is its purpose as a Watchdog - a watchdog for the government, for corrupt business officials, and for corruption in general. Anything that is under-handed and that negatively affects the public, needs to be exposed - and who better to expose it than journalists. The picture above is the logo for a global Investigative journalism organization, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. What really impressed me about this organization was the intense focus the individual reporters put on watchdog journalism.

But not many organizations have the financial means to support this intensive work to act as watchdogs like the ICIJ. I agree with the journalist in the AP Watchdog movie shown in class, Jim Drinkard, that you have "to be listening closely to what public officials say, and watching what they do." If these two don't match, there's your story. I really do think that watchdog journalism is important, and it is our duty. Because we have been given the constitutional right to a free press, we have the responsibility to serve the people by watching out for the public interest and protecting the innocent from corruption.