Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment. The field includes editing, photojournalism, and documentary. Johann Carolus's Relation Aller Fürnemmen and Gedenckwürdigen Historien, published in 1605 in Strasburg, is often recognized as the first newspaper. The first successful English daily, the Daily Courant, was published from 1702 to 1735.
In modern society, news media has become the chief purveyor of information and opinion about public affairs; but the role and status of journalism, along with other forms of mass media, are undergoing changes resulting from the Internet.
The first newspapers were distributed in 17th century England, twice-weekly. Another successful English newspaper which came in later was The Daily Courant.
The first newspaper in the American colonies – Benjamin Harris's Public Occurrences both Foreign and Domestic – was published in 1690 but was immediately shut down for not having a required license. Most American newspapers of the time period were against the British government, resulting in Britain cracking down on the press. There were several hundred newspapers in the U.S. by 1800. In 1833, Benjamin Day opened The Sun (New York) and created the "Penny Press." Day's papers, filled with sensational content and aimed at a working class audience, sold large amounts. During the Civil War, photography, allowing more accurate illustrations, and telegraphy, greatly increasing speed, were developed. In 1846, The Associated Press wire service was formed as a cooperative venture between several large newspapers to share news that arrived by telegraph from Europe. AP is now one of the world's oldest news agencies. In 1851, George Jones (publisher) and Henry Raymond opened The New York Daily Times, later renamed The New York Times. In the 1890s, Joseph Pulitzer, owning newspapers in New York and elsewhere, coined the term "yellow journalism"; coming from the name of comic strip – "The Yellow Kid" – published by Pulitzer.
There is a constant debate going on about the credibility of journalists and news in today’s world. Once you start thinking, apart from being controversial it is a little more than interesting facts. In this era of new media taking over every other form of communication, making a statement is the easiest thing to do.
But in this process of accusing and defending, people have probably forgotten one thing that defines the job of a journalist. His first requirement of news is truth. And a journalist’s obligation to truth is what a doctor’s is to the life of a patient. The first thing that a news person makes sure of before submitting his story, or even before it is called a story, is ‘getting the facts right’. So when a piece of news appears on TV or newspapers it is assured that they are reporting a true incident with real people’s opinions and (if necessary) politically analyzed stance of the incident.
Journalism was born out of discussions of people at a public forum where travelers logged their experiences. These log books or rather log papers were collected and published to give common man the benefit of knowledge without the need to travel. So as understood, truth is the essence of journalism. However, it came into existence in a more organized fashion because someone out there felt the need to educate people with whatever information is available.
The profession that brought all that knowledge and shed light on exotic lifestyles is being accused of poking its nose into other people’s life. Its purpose is to serve the public and feedback is the most essential part in any kind of communication, but may be in the process of judging the entire media industry, the critics might be missing a very important point.
Media has undergone many changes and its definition has been tried and tested and amended over the centuries. While it started with reporting of facts, it grew to analyzing and explaining facts to the public. Today, its role is being made confusing to the journalist himself than anyone else. If the channel or newspaper makes a statement, it is trying to rub its view on the people. And if it merely reports, it has no spice and hence no viewers or readers.
The problem might be lying in the fundamental layers of what to expect from any medium of information. People today are more than just distracted by jazzed up presentation. They like it and might have grown to a stage of wanting it.
There is something called the Theory of Interlocking Public. It is assumed that people have their priorities set and do not watch anything beyond that. To be honest, it is so in the industry too. But according to this theory, there are three kinds of people:
1. Involved public: Those directly impacted by a situation.
2. Interested public: They are not impacted but are interested in knowing.
3. Uninterested public: Those who don’t bother and might join a conversation, if at all, where judgments have already been passed.
And every segment of news has the attention of all these people because a homemaker with kids knows education (kids), economy (husband‘s career is her career) and politics (her natural instincts about people). Every viewer or reader falls into all the three categories. True, they are crudely generalized but the point is at a basic level all the information is required to every person.
The medium of information chosen by the people works on making it relevant, Understandable and knowledgeable to all of those people. Hence, in an ideal situation, before accusing an entire industry of adulteration and falseness, it might be right for critics to re-check if people want poker faced truth or analyzed presentations with a mix of facts. But in the real world, no one expects to see ideal reactions, at least not a journalist. Not after a whole day of chasing harsh realities only to be accused to falsehood.
So he moves on. Life continues. Some survive, some break down, all in the process of making the life of a common man better. The day when this is understood by critics, people and news makers remains to be seen.
In logical order, the theory of journalism's democracy consists of four parts: 1) the journalist’s role is to inform citizens; 2) citizens are assumed to be informed if they regularly attend to the local, national, and international news journalists supply them: 3) the more informed citizens are, the more likely they are to participate politically, especially in the democratic debate that journalists consider central to participation and democracy; 4) the more that informed citizens participate, the more democratic America is likely to be.
The main and important role of journalism is to provide information from national and international level to citizens.
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