The Truth About Journalism Media Essay

Journalism, a profession of unveiling truth, bringing facts in front of people has been under discussion for quite a while. The main reason why media and journalism has attracted so many spotlights in recent years is the freedom of speech and independence of media from any governmental influence. It was a profession of honor, now has become a taboo in some of the societies. Should journalism be verdicts or just another literature in a hurry?

Journalism has been a respectful profession not just a game of mud splashing and money making in no time, it was a source of information for the people belonging to that nation. It should be so today as well as tomorrow.

What is journalism in real? Is it just the challenge of satisfying the space or it is a discipline of assembling, authenticating, covering and analyzing information drawn together regarding current events, including development, problems and people?

Journalism informs society about itself and makes public that which would otherwise be private (Tony Harcup, 2004). Those who practice journalism are known as journalists. Journalism plays a vital role in society. Different journalists have different viewpoints, some say that it is important to go in depth of the issue and trace back its history, while others say that it is not important to know the history of power and authority however only to put the fact as it is in real is foremost important (Tony Harcup, 2004).

Supportive arguments with documented evidence

Journalists who think that it is vital to find out about the history of politics and power related to any issue in a certain place hold this perception because of many reasons. Firstly knowing the societies through their own perceptions is very necessary. Until a person understands the historical context of that area or society, it will be very difficult to judge their behavior and give a verdict about what is being done wrong here.

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Different societies have different norms and values. They think differently and act differently, for them there might be something wrong which is right in our society. So to decide whether this should make the newspaper as someone’s gossip, it is necessary to find out about the right and wrong from the eye of the commoner (Bird, E. 1990).

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If journalists are to live up to the principles of their occupation, they need to glance further than the expected confines of politics and journalism as they now survive-limits which, in large gauge, they themselves have set since they take pleasure in a relatively elevated extent of autonomy in democratic societies. Too often, the master narratives are about disagreement, and winners and losers, which in turn produce the shallow story that not passes to effect necessary social change and development (Ron Smith, 2008).

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News, issues facts and information about a society does not hang outside in just some ethereal way that journalists pass it on. News is not a commodity to be sold or that can be apportioned for readers and viewers. This is the point where a journalist comes in and extracts the important matter and makes it into news. For that understanding the cultural, historical context of the society is most important.

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There are journalists who do not think that it is important to understand the context and background of the news before making it public. They believe that truth and honest facts should reach the nation as they are in real. No manipulation should be done to the facts to show the concerned people in a positive spotlight. Facts should be made public no matter how gross they might be.

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These types of journalists think that in journalism, assertions should be reported as if they were true, whether or not they have been stranded in a thorough process of confirmation. In fact, the assumption is such a fundamental constituent of all journalism that it extends to both so-called excellence and tabloid reporting.

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A tabloid story is ‘accurate’ if it realistically reports what was said or printed by sources. By this standard much of what is written in tabloids can be claimed to be ‘extremely accurate’ including, one might add, the declaration of experts on alien abductions (Bird, 1990: 378). Wilkins’s argument, then, is a call for a much more sophisticated understanding of what comprises truth and fact than journalists are typically armed with.

I as a person interested in journalism would rather prefer the truth based journalism. No doubt that the historical contexts are very important but now the political conditions all around the world has worsened so much that giving the right facts and timely information to the public is more important.

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Honesty is integral part of journalism which is for what the public and nation keep their eyes in search for. Whether the news is related to local and common people or any breaking news about the well known figures of the state, the news should be authenticated and should be without any manipulation.

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Recently in Jamaica there was uproar about the government that it sold the Sandals Whitehouse hotel to Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart. One week after this announcement that Cabinet has approved the proposed sale of the five-star Sandals Whitehouse hotel to Gordon Butch Stewart’s company, Gorstew Limited, the office of Contractor General has asked to halt the sale.

It must be made unmistakably obvious here, that the contractor general is entirely correct when he says his office, the Office of the Contractor General, is an autonomous anti-corruption commission of Parliament which is authorized by law to perform enquiry into the award of government awards and to make sure that everything is above board (John Maxwell, 2010).

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He is right again when he says that it is against the law for a contractor general in the effect of his authority, to be subject to the dictates, direction or control of any person or authority. He must be totally satisfied that the Gorstew deal is in the best interest of the country and complies with all the necessary protocols and rules.

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The transaction of the embattled Whitehouse hotel in Westmoreland to Gorstew has obtained many remarks with some quarters laboring under the misinterpretation that it is a sweetheart deal that is injurious to taxpayers.

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The news channels and news papers are making this issue their front page headlines, no matter that the government is involved in the deal of this sale of the hotel, the facts and figures related to this matter has been made public with entire openness, may be with not so much honesty, only to get the high rating on news channels and papers, yet these facts reach the public knowledge.

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Journalism is a tool to effect the needed change in society.  But unluckily, with the course of time, its real meaning has gone astray. Today, for the so-called journalists, robust salaries and of course, quick promotions alone, matter. And the insincerity is that while publishing any news what concerns them most is that they should beat their counterpart.

The purpose should be to take on the troubling rudiments and explain to people who bank on the media to keep themselves knowledgeable and updated. It’s not at all a felony to provide amusement but if it starts corrupting the roots/base obviously it will raise many eyebrows.  

Journalism is sometimes said as the mirror of any society, but this was the ideology long time back, now it has changed. According to Thomas Jefferson “I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it” People think that newspapers and media has gained too much freedom that it has forgotten the ethical values.

Supportive arguments with documented evidence

Journalism in the 20th century was explicitly an instrument of state control; this gave way to its becoming comparatively independent however it still remained liable to manipulation by those in power. This means that the conventional ‘role’ of the journalist may actually become evanescent within a decade (E Quinn 1980)

If the role of the journalism is to help us make decisions in national affairs, then we could ask for fewer retrospective stories and more challenging questions about governmental activities’ plans for the future and instead of only raising our eyebrows to communicate our anguish, we should get up against it so the line of work regains its lost grandeur. Though it sounds studious, I don’t see any other solution. If we have an unflinching desire, I think we can do it (DB Bobrow 1973)

Conclusion

Journalism is a revolutionary aspect where individuals can decide to spread the truth, or make their own. Governments don’t need liberated press, but liberated journalism needs egalitarianism or democracy. Free journalism is simply unattainable without one. A democratic system would be unachievable without trying to incorporate the community into governmental dealings. A French novelist once said, “Free press can, of course, be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.” Journalism, for healthier or for poorer, is the best paradigm of the freedom of individuals and the significance of free deliberation in a dictatorship. If we can come to a conclusion why society needs to be well educated about the issues, matters and troubles going on in the world, then we can ask what kind of journalism they need and how they should use the existing media. It is our by and large conclusion that raising questions would be the superlative way to encourage debate among journalists and political theorists.