Principles of Journalism
I got a call from a Bruce Wilson of ePluribusMedia, a budding community journalism movement. My answering machine didn't record his phone number well, so I checked out their website (which Bruce had said would be up in a couple of weeks). The bare-bones homepage redirected me to some fascinating statements of journalistic principles and expectations.
The journalists who created these statements don't quite see that journalists (including citizen journalists) could collectively produce organized full-spectrum reportage on events and framings of public issues (as hinted at in Open Source Journalism and Public Framing of Issues) that would be even more valuable than individual stories which try (impossibly) to be neutral.
But the principles that follow are rubbing elbows with that realization, which is very exciting to me. At the very least, they are an excellent description of the role of journalism in a democracy -- at this stage of its evolution.
The following is quoted from journalism.org -- the website of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists -- which seems to have a lot of juicy materials on improving journalism...
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A Statement of Shared Purpose
After extended examination by journalists themselves of the character of journalism at the end of the twentieth century, we offer this common understanding of what defines our work.
The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society.
This encompasses myriad roles--helping define community, creating common language and common knowledge, identifying a community's goals, heros and villains, and pushing people beyond complacency. This purpose also involves other requirements, such as being entertaining, serving as watchdog and offering voice to the voiceless.
Over time journalists have developed nine core principles to meet the task. They comprise what might be described as the theory of journalism (Note: each of these is described in fascinating detail on the website):
- Journalism's first obligation is to the truth
- Its first loyalty is to citizens.
- Its essence is a discipline of verification.
- Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover
- It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
- It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
- It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
- It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
- Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
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What to Expect from the Press
What do we as citizens have a right to expect from journalists? Based on five years of research--what we believe is the most comprehensive and systematic effort ever by journalists to define the common principles of the profession--the following constitute a consensus about what journalists must offer and what citizens should expect.
Citizens Bill of Journalism Rights (click on each for further info)
- Truthfulness
- Proof that the journalists' first loyalty is to citizens
- That journalists maintain independence from those they cover
- That journalists will monitor power and give voice to the voiceless
- A forum for public criticism and problem solving
- News that is proportional and relevant
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday April 28 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005URL of this article:
http://www.communicationagents.com/tom_atlee/2005/04/28/principles_of_journalism.htm
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