6 ms·
Interesting. What is the point of journalism then?
by marcus_holmes 7y ago
Interesting. What is the point of journalism then?
- zdragnar 7y agoObviously, that depends on where in the world you are. Assuming a press that is relatively free from government and adversarial editorial oversight, journalism can likely be summed up as "obtaining newsworthy information and publishing it to the public". According to Wikipedia, at least, there are at least 242 ethics standards for journalism worldwide, with something of a general consensus on truthfulness, accuracy, impartiality and fairness. "truth to power" may be a very narrow aspect (if, perhaps, an important one), but the simple fact is that there is plenty of newsworthy information that is fundamentally unrelated to struggles against powerful people, bureaucracies, political entities and companies. The "point" of journalism, then, is much simpler: gather information, attempt to filter it through a lens of accuracy and impartiality, and disseminate it. Not quite tautological, but there you have it.
- marcus_holmes 7y agoYeah. I guess most of that "information" aspect is now being done by t'intertubes. Maybe I should rephrase my original to be "the important point of journalism is speaking truth to power". Seeing what a farce the UK media is making of Assange's trial (sorry, extradition hearing), it seems we're nowhere near that at the moment.