JOURNALISM
Journalism as a craft, a profession and even as a cultural
industry and a business is over three centuries old. It was made possible by
the coming together of a number of technologies as well as of several social,
political and economic developments. The main technologies that facilitated the
development of large- scale printing and distribution of print material were
the printing press, the telegraph and the railways.
The industrial revolution and the growth of capitalism,
democracy and the public sphere provided the impetus and the support for rapid
developments in the press. Technological determinists like Harold Innis and
Marshall McLuhan, two Canadian media sociologists, credited the printing press
with the evolution of democracy and the nation state overlooking the vital role
of capitalism and socio-political movements in Europe and its colonies
worldwide. Going beyond technological determinism, Benedict Anderson later
spelt out the role of print media, vernacular languages and capitalism in the
emergence of nationalism and nation-states (imagined communities) in Europe,
Latin America and Asia without however establishing a clear 'causal link'
between print capitalism and national consciousness.
As a craft Journalism involves specialisation in one area
(editorial, design, photojournalism, printing or marketing); for the reporters
and the sub-editors for instance, it entails writing to a deadline, following
routines in a conveyor-belt like workplace while respecting the division of
labour in the newsroom and the whole production process. In earlier times, a
knowledge of typewriting and shorthand were the main skills required of
journalists; today, computing and internet skills as well as DTP (Desk Top
Publishing) and multimedia and multi-tasking skills are in demand for all areas
of Journalism. Quark Express is perhaps the most widespread software programme
which print journalists are required to be proficient in. Also, the divisions
among the different specialisations have become blurred. That's true also of
electronic, Internet (or Online) and Mobile Journalism.
Radio and television journalists need to familiarize
themselves with the special demands of audio-visual media (Writing news for
radio and television, Stand-Up reporting, Anchoring, Camera work, editing etc.)
and Online journalists need to hone their skills in writing for the digital
media. Mobile Journalists are essentially headline writers who encapsulate the
news in fewer than 160 characters for SMS transmission to mobile phones.
So, as a profession Journalism is markedly different from
other established professions like law, medicine, engineering, management or
teaching. While the established professions require some specialised
educational qualifications and training to be recruited to them, Journalism
does not make any such requirement essential. There is no bar to anyone
entering the profession, no matter what one's educational background or
professional experience. From the very beginning, Journalism (like the other
media professions: Advertising, Public Relations, Event Management, Radio, Film
and Television Production, Animation and Gaming, Theatre, and Publishing) has
been, and still remains, an 'open' profession.
Further, journalism has no distinct body of knowledge that
defines the profession and marks its relationship with its clients (readers,
advertisers, advertising agencies, public relations officials and others) and
other professions. It may be argued that journalism is a way of knowing
different from that produced in social science' or that it has its own specific
approach to reality. However, there is no consensus in the journalistic
community on this. Nor is there a universally accepted Code of Conduct or Code
of Ethics, and where it does exist, it is loosely enforced Opinions vary
on whether journalism is a calling', a public service, an entertainment, a
cultural industry motivated by profit, or a tool for propaganda, public
relations and advertising. Journalism can be a combination of all these, or
each of these separately. Opinions are not so varied about the other
professions.
As a cultural industry and business, Journalism involves
publishing on a regular basis for profit, with news considered as the primary
product. Hence the need to attract advertisers and readers through marketing
strategies that focus on circulation and readership. But this need to attract
advertisers often leads to the de-politicisation and localization of news where
soft stories take precedence over 'hard stories' and where is transformed into
'infotainment' and editorials into 'advertorials' the primary goal therefore of
newspaper publishers begins to be the purchase, first of advertisers and then
of readers. This results in turning newspapers into 'products' and reading
citizens into consumers. When this takes place the 'public sphere' shrinks and
Journalism ceases to be the 'Fourth Estate’.
WHAT IS JOURNALISM?
Who then is a Journalist'? And what is Journalism The words
'journalist', 'journal' and 'journalism are derived from the French 'journal',
which in its turn comes from the Latin word 'diurnalis or daily The Acta
Diurna, (a handwritten bulletin put up daily in the Forum, the main public
square in ancient Rome, was perhaps the world's first newspaper. In later
periods of history, pamphlets, tracts, reviews, periodicals. gazettes,
news books, corantos, news sheets and letters came to be termed 'newspapers.
Those who wrote for them were first called 'news writers or 'essayısts (even
'mercurists') and later journalists The Mughal rulers in India employed 'vaquia
navis and 'confia-navis' as public and secret news-writers to record once a
week in a 'vaquia' (a sort of gazette or mercury) the events of importance in
the empire. These news letters were read to the king every evening by the women
of the court. The British colonial rulers used a system of 'informers' for
their intelligence networks.
Journalism has come
a long way since then. Today, a journalist is anyone who contributes in some
way to the gathering, selection, and processing of news and current affairs for
the press, radio, film, television, cable, the Internet, blogs, the mobile, the
PDA and the iPod; and Journalism is the profession to which they belong. Thus,
editors, correspondents, assistant editors, reporters, sub-editors,
proof-readers, cartoonists, photographers ('photo-journalists') and online
journalists and news-oriented bloggers are journalists; so are, camera crew,
audio and video editors, news readers, producers, directors and managing
editors. 'Stringers are part-time journalists, while 'free-lance' journalists are
those who are occasional contributors to newspapers.
Here is how the Working
Journalists' Act (1955) defines a 'working journalist:
"Working Journalist" means a person whose
principal avocation is that of a journalist and (who is employed as such either
whole-time or part -time in, or in relation to, one or more newspaper
establishment), and includes an editor, a leader writer, news-editor,
sub-editor, feature-writer, copy-tester, reporter. correspondent, cartoonist,
news-photographer and proof-reader, but does not include any such person who:
a) is
employed mainly in a managerial or administrative capacity or
b) being employed in a
supervisory capacity, performs, either by the nature of duties attached to his
office or by reasons of the power vested in him, and function mainly of a
managerial nature.
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