Essay On Dangers Of Journalism
explanatory Essay
1245 words
Tom Stoppard, the Czech playwright, once said: “I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.” According to The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Journalism is a field where journalists work hard to report and transmit news to an audience. The transmission process is done through print (newspapers, magazines and books), broadcast (radio and television) and online (blogs, social networks...) media. This seems a very simple and easy job however journalism is not a safe and secure domain to work in; journalists may face different dangers throughout their working life.
The first reason why journalism is dangerous is because journalists might be killed because of their work or identity. Statistical analysis shows, that the highest percentages of killed journalists, were working on corruption (20%), war (36%) or political (44%) topics. However the same statistics show, that the medium with higher percentage of victims is printed media (51%), and males (93%) are mainly the ones who suffer from this tragedy. When asking about the way and the people behind the death of those journalists, numbers showed that 67% of the victims were murdered, which means this act was intended and there is someone behind it. The most suspected sources in these cases are government officials (23%) and political groups (30%). One of the victims is Chauncey Bailey. According to cleveland.com he was a reporter, working on that time on a short article about the bankruptcy that was said to be caused by a Black Muslim cult; Yusuf Bey IV. Bailey was shot by a masked man in august 2007in Oakland because of the subject of his article and the murder was done by the men of Yusuf Bey IV ...
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...n she used in her article.
Journalists around the world face a big number of dangers while working on a particular topic or in a defined place or country. Through history, a lot of journalists were killed, kidnapped or went missing and threatened or jailed. All these terroristic acts have a main purpose: to kill the truth and dominate the people. However the voice of the truth is so strong that it can’t be shut down. ‘Freedom of the press’ is one of the most crucial global issues nowadays and people should decode critically the messages they are receiving and the news they are getting about harmed journalists in order to understand where it is suppressed. In the mind of every journalist and citizen one question is being formed: is the press in the 21st century as free as we think it is or there is people modelling the content we get for their own benefit?
In this essay, the author
- Explains that journalism is a field where journalists work hard to report and transmit news to an audience.
- Explains that the highest percentage of journalists killed were working on corruption, war, or political topics. the most suspected sources in these cases are government officials and political groups.
- Explains that journalists are sometimes kidnapped because of their work, and that the number has grown since the war in syria started.
- Explains that a lot of journalists are threatened, questioned and jailed around the world.
- Explains that the press freedom index is a ranking of countries based on the organization's evaluation of the countries freedom of press records in the earlier year.
- Opines that journalists are vulnerable to bribes from high-ranking people in countries where their salary is low, which makes them more vulnerable.
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- Analyzes how kallen's at issue: media bias explains that audiences crave more "infotainment".
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- Analyzes how mcginniss followed the trial with macdonald and his group of lawyers, going to all the hearings, listening to his side of the story, and staying in his condominium.
- Describes how mcginniss kept their friendship relevant after macdonald was sent to prison. he shared his feelings on macdonald's first of many letters written to him.
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802 wordsRead More - Is Journalism a Profession?opinion essayMcLoed and Hawley (as cited in Wilson, 1995) elucidated appropriately, "a recurrent journalistic controversy has involved the question whether journalism is a true profession or merely a craft." Sparked primarily by Lippmann and Dewey, extending into the age of the penny press (mid 1980s) and later, the attempt to commercialise the news (late 1980s) to our present era, there has existed a contentious debate on journalism being distinguished as a profession (Wilson, 1995).
In this essay, the author
- Opines that society demands professional training and professional conduct of the men who minister to its needs in legal matters.
- States mcloed and hawley's elucidation that a recurrent journalistic controversy has involved the question whether journalism is true profession or craft.
- Explains that media systems are regarded as the "fourth power" of a democratic society, but their status in the realm of professions is not definite.
- Explains that journalism is non-fictional writing about current events, for pay and publication. kovach and rosensteil list several commitments that must be undertaken by journalism.
- Explains that journalism educators in 2006 described journalists as "skilled communicators who gather and distribute information," who adhere to ethical codes. ethics refers to the moral values one upholds while conducting work.
- Describes the professional commitments to truthfulness, accuracy, thoroughness, proportionality, authenticity, fairness; skepticism, objectivity, verifiable reporting, a watchdog function, diversity within the ranks of journalists, subject matter, sources, and audiences.
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- Compares the definition of journalism to that of sociology, which does not require one to be licensed in order to become a journalist.
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- Explains mcquail's view that the media can best perform their functions if they are completely independent of the government.
- Explains that the first amendment to the american constitution states that congress shall make no law abridging freedom of speech, or press. the legitimisation of a profession comes in many forms.
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- Explains that journalists have exclusive access to sources compared to a regular blogger on the internet and additional alternative publications. the internet is creating changes for journalism, making them an intermediary force in democracy.
- Opines that journalism as a profession is ongoing and perhaps never-ending, but it plays an important role in society.
- Explains ainsley, b. (1996). journalism recruitment and training in the united kingdom, unit 40b of the ma in mass communications (by distance learning).
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that there are two distinct sides to the debate of journalism, their journalists, and the consumers: traditional journalism and public journalism.
- Explains that traditional journalism fulfills the four dimensions of journalism, as mentioned by don heider, maxwell mccombs, and paula m. poindexter.
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- Explains that official sources demonstrates credibility in a news report, but it all comes down to whether it can be supported by someone who knows what they’re talking about.
- Asks the question, "am i sure of my reporting? could i have misinterpreted what that guy said?
- Opines that although there is a larger platform for freedom of speech in public journalism practices, their sources are unsubstantiated and do not value the rule of "getting it right".
- Explains that good neighbor journalism appeals to women, african americans, and hispanics. watchdog journalism is closely associated with investigative journalism.
- Explains that being a "good neighbor" is one of the four dimensions of journalism and appeals to women, african americans, and hispanics, which, in our society, are the minorities.
- Explains that journalists are supposed to act as watchdogs, which is parallel to investigative journalism. public journalism is limited to the protection of our government.
- Analyzes how brian l. massey and tanni haas in does making journalism more public make a difference? a critical review of evaluative research on public journalism find that news work practices have limited effects on journalists' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
- Explains that public journalism is a behavior-change movement whose intermediate goal is to persuade journalists to change their traditional ways by adopting civic-life-friendly news work practices.
- Opines that while traditional journalism is gradually overshadowed by public journalism, there is one distinct element that journalists and their audience still respect, that is objectivity.
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- Argues that traditional journalism must be preserved, but in accommodations with public journalism and their new media.
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In this essay, the author
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- Explains that the fairness doctrine was established in 1934 and was abolished in 1987 by the fcc.
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- Cites "alien and sedition acts." columbia electronic encyclopedia, 6th edition (2010): 1. academicsearch premier. ebsco. web. 21 sept.
- Introduces media bias: at issue and gale opposing viewpoints in context by stuart kallen.
- Explains that university of virginia press. 2001. "the broadcasting fairness doctrine." congressional digest.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that journalism is facing a twofold crisis. the first is the crisis of viability, and the second is an election-related crisis, which has shifted the relevance of journalism to democratic processes.
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In this essay, the author
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- Opines that we should have an optimistic view of the future of responsible journalism. with the rise of social media, traditional media has been rapidly transforming into entertainment instead of an objective news reporting source.
- Cites jones, jeffrey p., nobles, dr. wade, and prior, markus. fox news and the performance of ideology.
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In this essay, the author
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- Analyzes how the current u.s presidential race has been flooded with issues that have caused concern.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains that a bachelor's degree is required to be able to work as an editor, and that the graduate degree will give them an advantage over those who don't have degrees.
- Explains that students who want to transfer would go to grand valley state university, which has good programing in communication, and other colleges and universities that offer journalism.
- Analyzes how women and men are different in balancing their job and families in journalism. the feminist movement of the 1970s helped open women's role in society.
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- Analyzes everbach's study of work-life balance in journalism. media report to women 37.2 (2009): 12-8.
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In this essay, the author
- Explains how the media has transformed its main mission of reporting news into covering stirring and controversial issues as news stories due to capitalistic motives.
- Explains that media sensationalism involves fear, anger, excitement and crude thrill to increase viewership, ratings, and profits.
- Explains that fear is one of the most dominating emotions that a human can experience and it influences the person's reaction.
- Explains that the cultivation theory states that television has become the main source of storytelling in today's society. heavy viewers are exposed to more violence and are effected by the mean world syndrome.
- Explains that the problem lies in the way of presenting or framing the news.
- Explains that the cultivation theory states that we consider the portrayal of the world on t.v. as reality.
- Concludes that media is using sensationalism to play on the cultivation theory, which is to feed the people's fear by taking advantage of their overuse of t.v.
- Cites galt, j., "cultivation theory and fear in the media" from yahoo voices.
- Cites meguerditchian, v., "media?s questionable professionalism - feature." the daily star, p. 3.
- Cites mehrotra, r, jamieson, k, aday, s, and romer, d. television news and the cultivation of fear of crime. journal of communication. 53, 88-104
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