Photo by Thomas Charters on Unsplash
Recently in English, we have started to look at journalism- what it is, it’s importance and power in our worlds today, and the different issues affecting free, accurate journalism, including bias, demand, lack of freedom of expression, political and corporate interests, and many more. I will be responding to the question below and summarising some of my thoughts about journalism so far:
In the modern media landscape, what issues do we face as a global society with regards to journalism, bias and freedom of expression, and what does future news reporting look like?
Firstly, I think it might be a good idea to define what journalism is. To me, it is the act and job of accurately reporting current events and the associated factual information. One of the most important aspects of journalism, and one of the things most journalists strive for, is accuracy and objectivity in their news reporting. However, it is impossible to be fully objective or accurate in news reporting, as we all have our own personal biases and perspectives, which means that journalists can never capture the full picture of an event or issue, although they can strive to capture as much as they can. In addition, with the growth of modern media, there are many other pressures that journalists face. Today, journalists and media publications are not only striving to be accurate and objective but also to appeal to customers. Unfortunately, these two things don’t always go hand in hand, since as consumers of media, we often prefer to read more emotional articles and stories, even if they aren’t necessarily accurate or objective. This means that journalists often have to compromise, changing the way they write and what they write about to for popular demand. Another possible source of pressure on journalists may be a lack of freedom of speech. In many countries, state media must be reviewed and approved by the government before it can be published, and this means it can be almost impossible for them to speak freely and criticise governments and people in power when needed.
I think an important thing to note, and one of the reasons why there are so many pressures on journalists is that the media created by journalists can be very powerful. This is because, just as the general public’s demands’ shape the media, the media shapes the general public’s views an opinions, based on what they report and how they report it. This is why the role of journalism is seen as so important, and why so many governments try to control it, in order to stay above it. Additionally, I think it’s becoming easier to see how media can affect the views of the public, and I think it has especially contributed to the political polarisation we see in so many countries across the globe.
In the future, I think our media will continue to hold a lot of power- over us as consumers, and over our governments. However, I think (and hope) that more people will realise the effect different media sources can have on us, and that we can push and demand for the accurate press, something that has been threatening to disappear with the polarisation, competing demands and pressure on, and commercialisation of media, as well as the expectation online that we can get accurate information for free. In addition, it may be the case that through pressure on governments, the pressure on media outlets to conform to government demands reduces, allowing for more free speech. Whatever the case, it seems the journalism and it’s power, for good or worse, is here to stay.