note to regular visitors: you guys will be seeing this more often. will be blogging my assignments. it's all good. am more than happy to share my views.
what is journalism? according to Wikipedia, "journalism is a discipline of collecting, analyzing, verifying, and presenting information regarding current events, trends, issues and people." and that is basically it. a straight-forward definition of what journalists do. but on a deeper level, journalism is something much more.
in my opinion, it could mean a heck of a lot of things to different people. it could mean influence, mere reporting, writing long long stories involving either fairy god mothers or a talking wolf, or even mean some sort of outlet to get your angry point(s) across. or happy point; i dunno.. it depends on how you look at it. and maybe on whether or not you have high blood pressure.
but to me, journalism is a little cocktail of the aforementioned. it does mean influence in the sense that by publishing what you've written then having it read by say, 230k people, you're definitely moulding minds! take a look at hitler.. not only did the dude have great PR skills but journalistic skills and broadcast media helped spread his propaganda too. of course, no news publication or govt will allow any journalist to abuse his/her power. then again, that's why there are laws.
as for 'mere reporting', i don't believe that the assignment of reporting events around the nation/world is anything close to 'mere'. if it weren't for ethical journalists, when or how else will any of us be given an unbiased view of what's happening around the world? so although a new journalists' first assignments are covering hard news and telling it as it is (straight news - see.. i pay attention in class), they have roles more important than they probably realise.
moving on, Pimentel says that journalism is priceless ("in coin") and an important responsibility in a democracy. which is true. how can one place a price tag on such a practice? ok so maybe, it would be a noble idea fr journalism to be free and accessible to all (Pimentel). but reality check! journalists have to eat too; and RM1.20 wouldn't put a dent in a majority of malaysian pockets. even the Sun, which is a free paper still has to survive on ad revenue. what i'm trying to say is that although one cannot put a price on the practice, i bet it'll be far easier to put a price on the practitioner.
democracy is like freedom with limitations that make sense. we choose our government, we have freedom of speech, and thus there is a need for non-conforming, unbiased journalists. a quality money can't buy. so real journalism is priceless. no arguing that (or so i think). only when we are confined to our little opinion-column bubble can we be as cynical or worshipping as we want. till then, malaysia is a democracy and all journalists have a big part to play in ensuring that we don't mislead anyone in any way. no matter how hard one tries, it's not going to be easy to retract something said. think about it, eratums are almost microscopic. there's a higher chance that you'll discover DiGi's latest postpaid plan than actually realise that some info in yesterdays paper had a typo.
finally, a blogger on a forum of some sort had this to say about journalism. Rosen: "Many of the things that used to define journalism don’t anymore. What is coming to define is much more complex: a desire to participate. An individual voice. Journalism is being stripped down to what is essential...I don’t think journalism is going to be the same." i totally disagree. i think it's safe to say that all my classmates and i are idealists. if not, we wouldn't be majoring in journalism in the first place. yes there definitely is a desire to participate. if we don't then who will?! bloggers? i blog and still choose to participate through my blog. but as for an individual voice, it is one that most of the time speaks for a multitude and also in that multitude's best interest. i gotta admit that most though not all are afraid of blatantly saying what they want (hats off to you, marina mahathir!), many are just afraid. so my ideal is that one day i too join that rare breed of journalists not afraid to stand for what they believe in. i also believe that journalism can make a big difference in the world around us. i could go on and on but i think i'll just end here.