Deep down, we know the press isn’t the enemy. But in times when the media is regarded with mistrust and disdain, we need to remind ourselves: What is the purpose of journalism? What do we need it for?
The short answer is summed up by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in their book, The Elements of Journalism:
The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.
Within that, journalism has five primary responsibilities to the public elaborated below.
- To inform us of changing events, issues and characters.
- To bear witness.
- To serve as a watchdog over those in power.
- To convey a sense of wisdom or context to current events.
- To set the tone for public discourse.
Also elaborated below are three responsibilities that we the public have towards journalism.
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1. To Inform Us
Apprising us of current events is the most obvious purpose of journalism. If you want to know what happened at the city council meeting, how a company you invested in is doing in the stock market, or if your team won last night’s game, you turn to the news.
It’s not just local. If you want to find out how a certain policy debate is playing out in the nation’s capital, or learn more about a natural disaster in a distant corner of the world, you turn to the news.
It’s called news because you’re learning what’s new in the world.
Journalism expands our horizons beyond our immediate community. It helps us understand our neighborhood and the rest of the world a little better, helps us identify friends and foes, provides an opportunity to learn from the experience of others, and gives us an awareness to take action.
Beyond the daily developments, journalism allows us to take stock of our society by reporting on trends. Journalism draws our attention to problems like rising crime rates, declining matriculation, business bubbles waiting to burst or the unintended consequences of an initiative to fight pollution. Thanks to journalism, we can draw conclusions from positive trends as well, whether we’re talking about an encouraging change in the poverty rate, how a particular neighborhood benefited from a zoning modification, or a recycling initiative exceeding expectations.
This article is part of a series on news literacy designed to educate readers to better judge the reliability of news reports and other sources of information.
2. Bearing Witness
In its simplest definition, bearing witness means “to show that something exists or is true.” It means a reporter was physically on the scene, taking in events, reporting firsthand knowledge as an eyewitness. This purpose of journalism is what fuels correspondents to risk their lives covering wars and disasters in the remotest places on Earth.
Following the failed 2009 Iranian presidential election protests better known as the Green Revolution, New York Times columnist Roger Cohen returned from Tehran to describe what he saw. In the process, he eloquently described what it means for journalists to bear witness:
To bear witness means being there — and that’s not free. No search engine gives you the smell of a crime, the tremor in the air, the eyes that smolder, or the cadence of a scream.
No news aggregator tells of the ravaged city exhaling in the dusk, nor summons the defiant cries that rise into the night. No miracle of technology renders the lip-drying taste of fear. No algorithm captures the hush of dignity, nor evokes the adrenalin rush of courage coalescing, nor traces the fresh raw line of a welt.
I confess that, out of Iran, I am bereft. I have been thinking about the responsibility of bearing witness. It can be singular, still. Interconnection is not presence.
Related reading: News Literacy: The 7 News Habits You Need to Develop
3. The Watchdog Role
Another key purpose of journalism is to bring transparency to the affairs of individuals and institutions in positions of power and hold them accountable.
Ida Tarbell was the first writer to be called a “muckraker” for describing the excesses of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company in a series of articles for McClure’s Magazine in 1902-03. As a result of Tarbell’s journalism, the US Supreme Court eventually ruled that Standard was an illegal monopoly and ordered it broken up, Congress passed a number of acts reforming interstate commerce and anti-trust laws, and created the Federal Trade Commission. Her series, “The History of the Standard Oil Company” was later republished in book form.
Washington Post coverage of the Watergate scandal is generally regarded as the classic example of investigative journalism. Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were assigned to cover a 1972 break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee, located in Washington D.C.’s Watergate building. Woodward and Bernstein traced the burglars’ ties to the White House and President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. Disclosures of wire tapped phones, politically-motivated FBI investigations, hush money and more eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.
Among the more recent examples of notable watchdogging are:
- The Indianapolis Star’s exposure of widespread sexual abuse at USA Gymnastics.
- A Miami Herald reporter’s dogged work leading to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest.
- The resignation of Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh over a children’s book scandal broken by the Baltimore Sun.
- Reporter Amelia Gentleman‘s coverage of Britain’s Windrush scandal in The Guardian for which British Home Secretary Amber Rudd resigned.
Unfortunately, investigative journalism often triggers a rush to judgement on social media that the earliest muckrakers would have never imagined. See journalist Dahlia Lithwick’s thoughtful take on the limits of investigative journalism in the face of online “trial by outrage.”
Without journalists to shine a light, there would be no accountability.
Related reading: 5 Tips For Sharing News Responsibly On Social Media
4. Conveying Context
Moving beyond reporting what happened, we want a sense of why, a sense of meaning. Context provides a frame of reference for understanding current events. Context is the bridge that leads us from raw facts to deeper understanding.
Context can come in many forms. It could be a timeline laying out the key moments in the Kashmir crisis, a who’s who look at the key players shaping Brexit, a video explaining how Amazon forest fires impact the world, or a background piece explaining why the Temple Mount is significant to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Indeed, lack of context is one of the eight categories of media bias.
When journalists help us piece together the puzzle, context is that “aha moment” of seeing the story as part of a bigger picture.
5. Setting The Tone of Public Debate
A lesser-considered purpose of journalism is to serve as forum for public debate. Such discourse may take the the form of op-eds, talk shows, panel discussions, videos, podcasts, political cartoons and more.
At its best, criticism and compromise are both grounded in facts and intellectual honesty while respectfully acknowledging various points of view in a balanced way.
Unfortunately, some journalists pander to the crowd for the sake of buzz and ratings. Others seek to validate views rather than discuss issues in an intellectually honest way. This was what fueled comedian Jon Stewart’s epic demolition of Paul Begala and Tucker Carlson, the co-hosts of CNN’s talk show, Crossfire. The thrust of Stewart’s argument was that the proliferation of partisan political shows such as Crossfire was “hurting America.”
CNN executives agreed with Stewart and cancelled Crossfire not long afterwards.
Lowering the rhetoric, sensationalism and argumentativeness would have a nice spillover effect on our polarized society.
The Public Has Responsibilities Too
The relationship between journalism and the public is a two way street. We, the public, have three reciprocal responsibilities to journalism that we fail to consider. As Kovach and Rosentiel explain:
- “Citizens must set aside their own prejudice and judge the work of journalists on the basis of whether it contributes to their ability to take an informed part in shaping their society.”
- “The citizen has an obligation to approach the news with an open mind and not just a desire that the news reinforce an existing opinion.”
- “We have a responsibility as citizens not to narrow our focus. We must not simply indulge ourselves in subjects that entertain us or affirm our views. We must also seek out the critical, challenging information that citizens require. The responsibility to focus on what matters, in other words, is ours as well as the journalist’s.”
Related reading: 7 Tips to Teach Your Kids News Literacy
With a better understanding of the purpose of journalism and our own responsibilities, we can become savvier news consumers. Eventually, we can raise the news industry’s standards by forcing the media to respond to our demand.
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Images: couple CC BY-NC-ND Stefano Corso; Tarbell via Wikimedia Commons; gymnasts CC BY-NC-SA Secretaria Especial do Esporte;
puzzle CC BY Jigsaw Explorer;
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