Relevance in Public Journalism

This last post goes with my previous post, Journalism: Comprehensive and Proportional. What should be included in reporting and what should be left out? Sometimes it is a battle--engaging versus relevant. What the authors of Elements of Journalism found is people want both. People read the sports pages and the business pages. They will read a book review, but also the cartoons. I believe engaging and relevant need not be mutually exclusive. I feel that storytelling is a great example of how to bridge the gap between engaging and relevant. I believe storytelling allows the information to come to life for the reader. For instance, reporting information about how a well-known local teenager is coping with losing his arm may classify as important information. The news may tug at the heart strings by itself. However, the reader may not fully understand and be engaged until the journalist describes the teenager's difficulty getting dressed in the morning. A task that once took 5 minutes now takes 25 minutes or more. News shared in this way helps journalism take on a new meaning. Journalism can become storytelling with a purpose. "That purpose is to provide people with information they need to understand the world."

Journalism: Comprehensive and Proportional

The book Elements of Journalism states that comprehensiveness and proportion are keys to accuracy. There is a wealth of information from which journalists can report. They cannot cover everything. Journalists essentially decide what is important and what is not. They need to be careful not to be swayed by what will sell. A journalist that devotes too much time and space to topics of little importance will eventually lose credibility. News should include diversity in theory. Journalists should not simply write stories that appeal to the demographic of those purchasing their newspaper. The book says, to do so would be like drawing a map and not including the small countries. However, not focusing news reporting on affluent readers has a high cost. Newspapers are sold at a loss. In the past, these costs were made up through advertising. However, if advertisers are not willing to pay for space in newspapers that will not be read, the news organizations will lose money. In business we learn specialization, specialization, specialization. This is the key to effectiveness. Journalism is in a quandary. News organizations can focus on being diverse in reporting, but how long will they stay in business? Each news organization must decide for itself.

Journalism and Faith

Before group 10 presented on journalism and faith, I would have never put those two words together in the same sentence. Journalism is the collection and distribution of news and its effects. Faith is confidence or trust in a person/thing or a religious belief. Group 10 specifically addressed religion's role in journalism. I did not think it played much of a role until I began to think about objectivity. I believe almost everything we discuss about journalism can point back to objectivity. Generally, people are raised with certain beliefs or develop beliefs as they become adults. Often, we are taught by our parents what they believe and are encouraged to follow their beliefs, at least until we form our own. Having this background definitely affects our perceptions on how we view the world. The absence of beliefs or religion would also affect one's perceptions. It is unavoidable. That being said, in my opinion, transparency is key. If a journalist's readers know what his or her background and beliefs are, they can understand why the journalist reported on the story in the way he or she did. Some journalists may argue that this is a personal issue and none of anyone's business. However, I believe readers have a right to know if a journalist's reported stories might be skewed for whatever reason. Granted, news organizations need to be careful not to discriminate against religion when hiring journalists.