“News” is any amount of information
that when presented to a group of people is informative and impacting. News is
a way for everyday citizens to learn about and grasp the world that they live
in. Its a way to keep various sizes of groups of people (a school, a city, a
nation, the world) all informed on what is hidden behind closed doors, its
knowledge begging to be read and appreciated.
This leads us to thinking about
what a journalist does in our society today. A journalist opens those closed
doors and revels the hidden information. A journalist needs to dig deeper than
just the minimal scratch at the surface. In a democracy where freedom is emphasized, journalism plays a crucial part in relaying
information to everyone not in the decision making process of the government.
As Americans, we have a right to know what decisions are being made that impact
our lives, and the way that those decisions are made. Without the news, we
would have no way to know about decisions being made. A journalist in a
democracy has the responsibility of bridging the gap between government and
society by reporting factual claims regarding the policies and how they affect
our system of law. There would not be a democracy without journalism, and there
would not be journalism without a democracy.
Journalism and democracy create
their own self-fulfilling cycle that keeps the voices of everyone governed
heard and taken into account, with the hopes that this process can keep our
democracy intact and in the best interest of the people. In a sense, journalists hold the keys to
success for a democracy: without journalism citizens will not become aware of
issues, policies, and personalities of the individuals that make the decisions
for all, and an absence of journalism will create unawareness of governmental
necessities, inability to make informed decisions by the people responsible for
putting politicians in their seats, and subsequently a lack of voters, starting
the slow process of the abolition of our democracy. The freedom of press is a necessity,
and shouldn't be viewed as a luxury.
The problem many journalists face
is the rapid evolution of technology. Media convergence plays an important role
in journalism today because the power to decide what is reported and to what
platform is in the hand of the consumer. We are seeing an increasing trend in
the amount of people who have mobile phones and don’t see the need for print
news, its slowly becoming a thing of the past. This increases the pressure on
journalists to not only report information that is factual, but also
information that is happening NOW. With society evolving into the crazy
technological age that we are in, all aspects of society need to transform with
it, including the written word.
For me personally, I thought that defining the role of journalists in a democracy was rather hard to do but I think that did a pretty good job especially with the idea that the journalism and democracy create their own self-fulfilling cycle. I hadn't thought of it like that before, a democratic government needs the journalists to keep the people working in the government and the citizens of the country voices heard and the journalists need the stories and the protection of freedom of the press to continue to have their jobs. It really got me thinking and further understanding the question!
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