How is journalism important?

Answer 1

The reason we have journalism is to provide objective information to the people so they may be self-governing. The 10 elements of journalism are...

1) Journalism's first obligation is to the truth

2) Its first loyalty is to citizens

3) Its essence is a discipline of verification

4) Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover

5) It must serve as an independent monitor of power

6) It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise

7) It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant

8) It must keep the news comprehensive and in proportion

9) Its practitioners have an obligation to exercise their personal conscience

10) Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news

*The above listed elements are from the book, "The Elements of Journalism" by Bill Kovach.

Also, the "need" for journalism is mainly to provide information to the people about what is going in in their local or national area. Without freedom of the press/speech, we would be cheated by our government because the people would be uninformed.

Answer 2

Journalism is and has been one of the most important tools in shaping ideas all over the world, whether it be for the good of the people or in some instances not. We are far better and educated by having a journalistic society and being able to weed out truth from Propaganda.

Answer 3

Again, journalists and mass media workers occupy strategic position in influencing the course of events in the society. This is due to the fact that they are custodians of, and accessories to information. Essentially, whatever the journalists decide to do with the information available to them would certainly determine the direction in which the society moves. This further establishes that the press at the best of times exists to represent the voiceless, to fight for the weak, to insist that the nation has to be served before self, and to refuse to be cowed by forces that are all willing to beat all to submission, even in light of their own glaring shortcomings.

Besides, journalists are custodians of public conscience, watchdog over the activities of government and incontrovertibly they are the moulders of public opinion as well as essential agents in facilitating the development of any society. Fundamentally, journalism has three functions which include news function, the interpretative function and the opinion function. The corollary functions of education and entertainment are performed by the press as part of their social responsibilities. Simply, these functions boil down to persuasion, information and enlightment.

In fact, the press or mass media have the responsibility to educate the citizens on national politics, geography, history, people and cultures. No doubts, journalists are relevant in the process of nation building. Although, there are legal issues that might constitute obstacles to the practice of journalism among which are law of slander and defamation. The fact that there is freedom of press does not allow the journalists to write defamatory articles about a person. Also, establishment of a newspaper or magazine requires legal permit. It should be noted that publishing a story that contains defamatory or libellious statements is as serious and dangerous as publishing a story that is not based on fact. This singular act could make a journalist or writer of such article to end up in jail.

Of equal importance is the fact that journalists are good language teachers. People acquire communicative skills by reading newspapers. By simple logic, a good journalist must have good command of language. A person without adequate mastery of grammatical rules and good vocabulary development cannot function well as a journalist. Surprisingly, we have journalists nowadays that could not write error-free articles, stories and news. In such situation, it would be difficult for him/her to perform in the field of journalism.

In conclusion, I wish to emphasize that mass media/press are to play socialization roles, motivational, entertaining, educational, advertising and informative functions. By socialization function, the press inculcate societal norms and values to make citizens behave in some particularly desirable ways to achieve the national objectives. The press educate people about the past, present and future. They also amuse the people through a host of ways to make them happy using Cartoons. With this in mind, one can conveniently state that journalism and journalists are relevant in the society because of their roles in educating, informing, entertaining and enlightening the public on social, economic, political, cultural and educational related issues

Answer 4

Journalism is important for informing the public about current events, holding those in power accountable, and shaping public opinion on important issues. It plays a vital role in promoting transparency, democracy, and providing a platform for diverse voices to be heard.

Answer 5

Journalism is important for it is the profession that shows current events in a usually unbiased way to the common people.