Unfortunately, the survey doesn’t seem to have asked “What is journalism?” That baseline understanding is essential.
It did ask and get: “Most Americans (79%) agree that someone who writes for a newspaper or news website is a journalist”
Which is sad because true journalism is effectively a verb. It not who you are, or your title, or who you do it for. It’s what you do in order to reveal the truth. Furthermore, reporting and journalism are not synonymous. Along the same lines, op-ed is not journalism.
Just because it comes from The NY Times doesn’t by default make it journalism - tho the NYT is happy for you to believe otherwise.
This is my go to. It’s not prefect, but it does (indirectly) - as it should - call bullshit on most of today’s “journalists.”
People should watch some his NewsHour with Robert MacNeil to see what quality journalism used to be like. I think of the 1976-1995 period as the peak of quality TV news in America.
chiefalchemist•5mo ago
It did ask and get: “Most Americans (79%) agree that someone who writes for a newspaper or news website is a journalist”
Which is sad because true journalism is effectively a verb. It not who you are, or your title, or who you do it for. It’s what you do in order to reveal the truth. Furthermore, reporting and journalism are not synonymous. Along the same lines, op-ed is not journalism.
Just because it comes from The NY Times doesn’t by default make it journalism - tho the NYT is happy for you to believe otherwise.
This is my go to. It’s not prefect, but it does (indirectly) - as it should - call bullshit on most of today’s “journalists.”
https://kottke.org/20/01/jim-lehrers-rules-of-journalism-1
wrp•5mo ago
https://americanarchive.org/special_collections/newshour