I almost laughed as I looked back at my first blog entry. Yes it was all correct but I would say journalism is much more than that. Some of the main aspects that are important when it comes to being a good journalist are the titles of the group presentations. Starting with Truth, Loyalty, Professionalism, Independence from Faction, Journalists as an Ideologue, Ethics, Watchdog Journalism, Journalism as a Public Forum, Journalism and Faith, Comprehensive and Proportional, Significant Interesting and Relevance. All of these things make up the most important aspects of journalism. Without one of them, the writing is not journalism because each of these things is very important.
Truth for example, is absolutely necessary because without it, who would ever read an article if they knew it to be false like the Star magazine my group talked about. Then Watchdog Journalism and how it provides a way for news to remain news. If there was no watchdog in journalism, the news would turn into tabloids and reporters would cover stories that are not necessarily important. The last aspect I wanted to talk about is Significant Interesting and Relevant. If a news story is lacking any of those why would anyone read or listen to it. The story needs to be important to the reader and if stories are written because the journalist thinks it is kind of cool, he or she will not be able to succeed. The audience needs to feel like the news is catered to them so that is important for them to feel like that.
I found a link about the hourglass theory and I think this is a very successful way about writing in a way that the reader can get everything they want out of their story. It provides a way to deliver the content easily and efficiently so all of the most important and relevant information is available right at the start. Click HERE to look into that. Another cool site I found that really helps make the writing more interesting can be found HERE. It provides ways to spice up news writing so it does not sound dull and uneventful. The last link that I find really helpful can be found HERE and it is great because it has some great tools in order to better know your audience. Each audience is very different and you need to write to their liking so that they can enjoy it.
As I have learned from the presentations and material we have covered this semester, journalism is made up of many aspects that all go together. They are all needed to provide good journalism and without one, it makes the journalism really bad.