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Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? Journalism may not be politics, but reporting o

Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? Journalism may not be politics, but reporting on how politics affects people (and even other nations) is journalism's highest purpose. But it's impossible to completely "cover" all aspects of all politics and be 100% unbiased. Therefore, the most important part of journalism is inherently political. Facing that reality, we can view journalism with a cautious eye. This is critically important for all journalism, actually, as stories are constantly published that mis-state problems, inaccurately describe complex issues, or just blatantly disregard an important detail of a story. These micro-occlusions of information add up to a twisted view of reality for the reader. I think politics is just one of the many ways we should seek to accept and understand the bias in the news.

mikekchar 8y ago
> Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? I certainly don't agree. Their most important role is to inform the public on things that affect the public's well being. This might include politics and the powerful, but that's not everything. If a hurricane is coming, you need to know about it and you need to know where to go to get safety. Sometimes politics is important to cover. Sometimes powerful people are important to cover. Sometime they are not. It depends on the impact to society. I feel usually news outlets do a poor job of evaluating the importance of the news they report and rather rely on reporting things that will bring the highest notoriety.
- deleted 8y ago
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- chiefalchemist 8y ago
  Agreed. Or if the climate is changing you need to know about that far more than the antics of some former pornstar. And this is where importance and relevance comes in. Getting the facts right is meaningless if the story is low / no priority.

mikekchar 8y ago

> Can we agree that the Fourth Estate's most important role in society is to report on politics and the powerful? I certainly don't agree. Their most important role is to inform the public on things that affect the public's well being. This might include politics and the powerful, but that's not everything. If a hurricane is coming, you need to know about it and you need to know where to go to get safety. Sometimes politics is important to cover. Sometimes powerful people are important to cover. Sometime they are not. It depends on the impact to society. I feel usually news outlets do a poor job of evaluating the importance of the news they report and rather rely on reporting things that will bring the highest notoriety.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
chiefalchemist 8y ago
Agreed. Or if the climate is changing you need to know about that far more than the antics of some former pornstar. And this is where importance and relevance comes in. Getting the facts right is meaningless if the story is low / no priority.