Journalist

A journalist is a person who collects, writes, photographs, processes, edits or comments on news or other topical information to the public. A journalist's work is called journalism.

"Reporter" redirects here. For other uses, see Reporter (disambiguation) and Journalist (disambiguation).

Journalist
A television reporter from CN8 speaking into a microphone in front of a camera, 2005
Occupation
NamesJournalist
Occupation type
Journalism, mass media
Activity sectors
Mass Media, public relations, politics, sports, business
Description
CompetenciesWriting skills, interpersonal skills
Education required
Typically a bachelor's degree
Fields of
employment
Mass media
Related jobs
Correspondent, Reporter, Columnist, Spokesperson, Politician

Roles

A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes and reports on information in order to present using sources. This may entail conducting interviews, information-gathering and/or writing articles. Reporters may split their time between working in a newsroom, or from home, and going out to witness events or interviewing people. Reporters may be assigned a specific beat or area of coverage.

Depending on context, the term journalist may include various types of editors, editorial-writers, columnists, and visual journalists, such as photojournalists (journalists who use the medium of photography).

Matthew C. Nisbet, who has written on science communication,[1] has defined a "knowledge journalist" as a public intellectual who, like Walter Lippmann, David Brooks, Fareed Zakaria, Naomi Klein, Michael Pollan, Thomas Friedman, and Andrew Revkin, sees their role as researching complicated issues of fact or science which most laymen would not have the time or access to information to research themselves, then communicating an accurate and understandable version to the public as a teacher and policy advisor.

In his best-known books, Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), Lippmann argued that most individuals lacked the capacity, time, and motivation to follow and analyze news of the many complex policy questions that troubled society. Nor did they often directly experience most social problems, or have direct access to expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a news media that tended to over-simplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints, and prejudices. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as expert analysts, guiding “citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important”. [2]

In 2018, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook reported that employment for the category, "reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts," will decline 9 percent between 2016 and 2026.[3]

Journalists today

A worldwide sample of 27,500 journalists in 67 countries in 2012-2016 produced the following profile:[4]

57 percent male;
mean age of 38
mean years of experience, 13
college degree, 56 percent; graduate degree, 29 percent
61 percent specialized in journalism/communications at college
62 percent identified as generalists and 23 percent as hard-news beat journalists
47 percent were members of a professional association
80 percent worked full-time
50 percent worked in print, 23 percent in television, 17 percent in radio, and 16 percent online.

Journalistic freedom

Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger, particularly when reporting in areas of armed conflict or in states that do not respect the freedom of the press. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom and advocate for journalistic freedom. As of November 2011, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 887 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder (71%), crossfire or combat (17%), or on dangerous assignment (11%). The "ten deadliest countries" for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq (230 deaths), Philippines (109), Russia (77), Colombia (76), Mexico (69), Algeria (61), Pakistan (59), India (49), Somalia (45), Brazil (31) and Sri Lanka (30).[5]

The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of December 1, 2010, 145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. Current numbers are even higher. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey (95),[6] China (34), Iran (34), Eritrea (17), Burma (13), Uzbekistan (6), Vietnam (5), Cuba (4), Ethiopia (4), and Sudan (3).[7]

Apart from physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their editorial offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger. Hence, a systematic and sustainable way of psychological support for traumatized journalists is strongly needed. However, only little and fragmented support programs exist so far.[8]

Journalist and source relationship

The relationship between a professional journalist and a source can be rather complex, and a source can sometimes have an effect on an article written by the journalist. The article 'A Compromised Fourth Estate' uses Herbert Gans' metaphor to capture their relationship. He uses a dance metaphor, "The Tango," to illustrate the co-operative nature of their interactions inasmuch as "It takes two to tango". Herbert suggests that the source often leads, but journalists commonly object to this notion for two reasons:

  1. It signals source supremacy in news making.
  2. It offends journalists’ professional culture, which emphasizes independence and editorial autonomy.

The dance metaphor goes on to state:

A relationship with sources that is too cozy is potentially compromising of journalists’ integrity and risks becoming collusive. Journalists have typically favored a more robust, conflict model, based on a crucial assumption that if the media are to function as watchdogs of powerful economic and political interests, journalists must establish their independence of sources or risk the fourth estate being driven by the fifth estate of public relations.[9]

The worst year on record for journalists
Jamal Khashoggi, killed inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2, 2018

According to Reporters Without Borders' annual report, 2018 was the worst year on record for deadly violence and abuse toward journalists; there was a 15 per cent increase in such killings since 2017, with 80 killed, 348 imprisoned and 60 held hostage.[10][11]

Yaser Murtaja was shot by an Israeli army sniper. Rubén Pat was gunned down outside a beach bar in Mexico. Mexico was described by Reporters Without Borders as "one of world's deadliest countries for the media"; 90% of attacks on journalists the country reportedly go unsolved.[12] Bulgarian Viktoria Marinova was beaten, raped and strangled. Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.[13]

  • A program director sets the task for TV journalists, 1998.
  • A reporter interviews a man in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, 2009.
  • Journalist interviews a cosplayer, 2012.
  • A reporter interviewing Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London, 2014
  • Official tastes the water of a new well in front of journalists in Mogadishu, Somalia, 2014.

See also

References
  1. Nisbet, Matthew C. (March–April 2009). "Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement". Environment Magazine. Heldref Publications. Taylor & Francis Group. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  2. Nisbet, Matthew C. (March 2013). "Nature's Prophet: Bill McKibben as Journalist, Public Intellectual and Activist" (PDF). Discussion Paper Series #D-78. Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, School of Communication and the Center for Social Media American University. p. 7. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  3. Talton, Jon (31 January 2018). "Occupational outlook: Where the big bucks are — and aren't". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
  4. Thomas Hanitzsch, et al. eds. Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures around the Globe (2019) pp. 73–74. see excerpt
  5. "1337 Journalists Killed". Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  6. "Number of Jailed Journalists Nearly Doubles in Turkey". Los Angeles Times. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
  7. "Iran, China drive prison tally to 14-year high". Committee to Protect Journalists. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  8. Tabeling, Petra (24 December 2014). "Petra Tabeling: In crisis areas, journalists are at risk in physical and psychological terms". D + C. p. 15. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  9. Lewis, Justin; Williams, Andrew; Franklin, Bob (6 February 2008). "A Compromised Fourth Estate". Journalism Studies. 9: 1–20. doi:10.1080/14616700701767974. S2CID 142529875.
  10. Langford, Eleanor (17 December 2018). "2018 was worst year for violence and abuse against journalists, report says". telegraph.co.uk. Telegraph Media Group Limited. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  11. "WORLDWIDE ROUND-UP of journalists killed, detained, held hostage, or missing in 2018" (PDF). Reporters Without Borders. 1 December 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  12. "Miroslava Breach murder: Mexico jails man who ordered journalist's death". BBC News. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  13. Hjelmgaard, Kim (18 December 2018). "'Unscrupulous politicians' blamed for worst year on record for journalist killings". USA Today. Gannett. Retrieved 7 January 2019.

Bibliography
  • Deuze, Mark. "What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered." Journalism 6.4 (2005): 442-464 online.
  • Hanitzsch, Thomas, et al. eds. Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures around the Globe (1979) excerpt of the book also online review
  • Hicks, Wynford, et al. Writing for journalists (Routledge, 2016) short textbook; excerpt.
  • Keeble, Richard. Ethics for journalists (Routledge, 2008).
  • Mellado, Claudia, et al. "Investigating the gap between newspaper journalists’ role conceptions and role performance in nine European, Asian, and Latin American countries." International Journal of Press/Politics (2020): 1940161220910106 online.
  • Patterson, Thomas E., and Wolfgang Donsbagh. "News decisions: Journalists as partisan actors." Political communication 13.4 (1996): 455-468. online
  • Randall, David. The Universal Journalist. (Pluto Press, 2000). ISBN 978-0-7453-1641-3; OCLC 43481682
  • Shoemaker, Pamela J., Tim P. Vos, and Stephen D. Reese. "Journalists as gatekeepers." in The handbook of journalism studies 73 (2009) online.
  • Stone, Melville Elijah. Fifty Years a Journalist. New York: Doubleday, Page and Company (1921). OCLC 1520155
  • Wettstein, Martin, et al. "News media as gatekeepers, critics, and initiators of populist communication: How journalists in ten countries deal with the populist challenge." International Journal of Press/Politics 23.4 (2018): 476-495 online.
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