CJR - Publisher's Note, Nov/Dec '96, by Joan Konner

November/December 1996 | Contents

Publisher's Note

by Joan Koner

At the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, students are challenged to think about the role of the journalist in society. To that end, in their required "Critical Issues in Journalism" class, professors James W. Carey and Stephen D. Isaacs posed the question: What is a journalist? How do you define the profession you are planning to enter?

Here are excerpts from some of the answers:

A journalist is a trained writer and observer, one who perceives an event and reports it accurately, concisely, completely, and, hopefully, elegantly. "Journalism" is that portion of writing which meets these requirements. All else is hackery, opinion, novelization, rubbish, and nonsense.

A caring, feeling person like a police officer, a judge, a politician, a grocery store clerk. We have relationships, children, ailing parents, crazy uncles, relatives in public office. All of these things affect how we think, how we perceive the world, how we react to the world, with one big difference. Journalists, if they go about it right, continually question their actions, their reactions, their biases.

I'm reminded of Robert Frost's epitaph: I had a lover's quarrel with the world. That's the kind of journalist I want to be.

If you write something factual, you're a journalist -- though not necessarily a good one. If you write something factual and relevant to a given readership, you are an employable journalist. If you write something factual, relevant, concise, and insightful, you might be a good journalist.

I don't know yet. That's why I'm here. So all I can share is my vision of what I hope I will be when I'm through here: the eyes, the ears, the voice, the heart, the soul, and the conscience of those who trust me to tell their stories, and those whose lives may be changed by them.

A (good) journalist imposes order, or a sense of order, on the chaotic world we all inhabit. He does this by telling his reader what happened, why it happened, who someone is, why they are the way they are. Most importantly, the journalist explains why these seemingly random facts are important enough to warrant precious moments of the reader's attention.

It used to be said that journalism is the first draft of history. Today, CNN is the first draft, newswires are the second draft, newspapers are the revision, and magazines are the synthesis. Cyberpostings are just noise.

Journalists have a heavy burden. We are supposed to challenge the status quo, raise questions. What I hope to learn is how to do these things in a way that I can live with.

Good journalists pursue truth; great journalists communicate it with grace. Legends do it every week.

Journalists would be insufferable in any other profession. They are people temperamentally inclined to the job: they are curious, or restless, they hate desk jobs, hate doing the same thing every day, and have no compelling interest in something more specific.

A journalist is entrusted with the power to keep an eye on government, private industry, social trends, and the like. He or she is an essential part of a democracy, offering a check against the abuses of power.

Recording history is not the goal of the journalist, but this is ultimately what he or she accomplishes in the attempt to present information that is believed to be of importance to the public.

To me, journalism is a call to search for the truth, regardless of where the effort may lead, and fairly and accurately report the results. I came here to become a journalist, not a writer. There is a difference.

I am a journalist because I want to make the world a better place, through honest reporting and writing.