A future in journalism?

Wow! Just as I’m reading the intro of Kovach and Rosenstiel’s The Elements of Journalism, here’s an article in the New York Times entitled Fewer journalists seeking fellowships.

The group formed at Harvard and the foundation of this book, the Committee of Concerned Journalists, researched the state of journalism. They interviewed journalists, held public forums, surveyed journalists and looked at the history of journalism.

Their conclusions mirror the concerns mentioned in the NYT: journalism has become less about information and more about the bottom dollar as the bottom line. Per the text, “Journalists’ bonuses were increasingly tied to the company’s profit margins, not to the quality of their work.” This has led to fewer journalists seeking fellowships – those who are journalists are afraid if they’re out of the office, they may not have a job to return to. Those who aren’t journalists may be wondering about a career in journalism.

When the textbook was originally published in 2001, journalism was at the front end of an onslaught of what columnist Angel Jennings calls, “the fallout of the media industry’s turmoil.”

Is what we are seeing today the eye of a media hurricane with journalism as a profession struggling to hang on? Or (scary thought!) is journalism still at the beginning of the storm?

We are all in this Mass Communication Ethics class and some of us are majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications. Does the information in the NYT article and the text make us cautious about a career in journalism?

Does it also make you, as it does me, fearful about the continuation of the freedom of the press?

Are the 10 items listed in the text as necessary to fill the task of the first element of journalism, “to provide people with the information they need to be free and self-governing,” just words or does it cause in us fledgling journalists “a crisis of conviction”?

And, if we don’t become real journalists but remain simply citizens, what do you think about #10: “Citizens, too, have rights and responsibilities when it comes to the news?”

Brian, perhaps that’s a good topic for a case study?