Assignment #6: The Profession

In our reading, journalism is compared to a professional priesthood. While this comparison does seem a little bizarre to me (considering the Mormon definition of priesthood is pretty different than the the rest of the world's definition), I can see why the comparison was made. I do agree that many journalists see their profession as a sort of "higher calling" in which they "surrender to the higher calling of serving others." I think it is important that future journalists share this same perspective as well because as soon as journalists forget that they are "called" to serve the public, journalism will spiral downward. If journalists do not see the need to or feel like it is their duty to inform the citizen, journalism will no longer be trusted by the public.

I found an interesting article entitled "Journalism as a Calling" by Kenneth Harwood from Media Ethics Magazine. It further discusses this idea that journalism is more than just a profession. The article continues to draw parallels between journalism and religion (more specifically the Bible). Harwood also talks about how journalists should be willing to pursue the truth and educate the public because they feel it is their moral duty and not just because they are getting paid to do it.

The second chapter of our reading discussed the world view of journalists and how it is different from the average person's world view. The author discussed how many journalists often reject the notion that they have a world view especially when they are supposed to write "objectively." However, the truth is everyone has a world view whether you like it or not. Journalists' world views are different from those of an average person. For example, many journalists see themselves as outsiders or at least try to view situations which they are reporting on as outsiders. Instead of experiencing an event and relating it to themselves as most people would do, journalists try to get an outsider's perspective so that they can try to be as objective as possible. Journalists often try to look at the big picture and the effects of an event. However, I also think that the world views of journalists are often more similar to our own than we think. Everyone's world view is shaped by their experiences and journalists experience many of the same things that an average person does everyday. Thus, a journalist will have similar world views to us simply because he or she grew up in a similar environment to us.

While world views do seem to vary among journalists, they also vary among those of different cultures. Our reading mentioned how Americans are generally quite optimistic. This optimism comes as a result of our history. For example, the United States has been victorious in the majority of the wars they have fought in. In addition, large-scale tragedies are not a regular occurrence here. An article from Forbes highlights this American optimism. It reports that polls from last year show that a large percentage of Americans are surprisingly optimistic even during the recent hard economic times. However, in other countries such as Germany, there is less optimism. In fact, according to an article from a German news source, a study shows that Germans are generally more pessimistic than other Europeans. Unlike America's history, Germany's history is not so bright. Germany's past includes much government unrest and unsuccessful wars which leads to the general pessimism in the country still today.

Finally, Don Meyers, a professional journalist, spoke to our class last week. One point he made was especially interesting to me. He talked about how one of a journalist's responsibilities is to minimize harm. However, he emphasized the point that this does not mean that journalists should lie if it means less harm. He says minimize harm means that journalists' stories should not do any more damage than is necessary to report the truth. I had never really thought about this concept. Obviously, I had never planned on lying to minimize harm, but I had never considered the concept that by reporting the truth, sometimes there is potential "harm" that could be inflicted by our writing.