Journalism Interview

After several awkward phone calls and emails, my journalist finally sent back my interview questions! I interviewed columnist Robert Price, from The Bakersfield Californian. I enjoyed most of his answers, but one of the things he said that interested me the most was,

"Good journalism is all about fairness, balance, completeness, inquisitiveness. It is the public square, the water cooler, the neighborhood saloon at 6 p.m., the church fellowship hall. It's where we get together and talk and reflect and praise and work up righteous indignation."

I notice that, when talking about "good journalism," Price said nothing about truth. And while I'm certainly not trying to criticize Price, I thought it was interesting that, while our class spends so much time getting hung up on what truth is, and how we can incorporate it into our journalism, to others journalism is just about covering everything equally. At least to Price, journalism is more about community than it is about truth.

That's not to say, of course, that he, or any other journalists who support this view, aren't concerned about telling the truth. But by his own admission, when Price is writing an opinion piece or even an editorial, he "can and does include or omit evidence in order to make a point."

Again, these are editorial pieces, but it was still quite interesting to me to hear that.

The other point of interest I found in Price's interview was in the questions about the state of journalism today, and its future. When asked whether or not he had been affected by the changing state of journalism, Price admitted that he and his fellow journalists had to learn to write tighter in order to fit their articles into the shrinking paper, as well as to be able to still attract the public's attention.

However, on the next question, when asked what advice he'd give to students who wanted to go into journalism, Price said, "Be confident that journalism is not going away. We are going through a reordering . . . this transition may be a lengthy one but it will have a positive conclusion because it HAS to. Journalism is a foundation of democracy. Some might say THE foundation. We need new, passionate journalists determined to keep the country honest and keep journalism honest."

I appreciated Price's comments, maybe because I feel the same way. When I read articles that suggest that journalism might disappear, I just can't believe it. And I hope that I'm not just turning a blind eye. But, like Price, I believe that journalism will not disappear, because it cannot disappear. As a democracy, we need journalism, because how can we have agency without choice, and how can we have choice without information?

That's what I'm asking everyone here. I know that none of us truly believe that journalism will completely disappear, because otherwise we'd have a different major. But what do you think journalism is all about--truth, or community? Or can you have both? And is journalism as important as Price suggests? Is is a foundation--or THE foundation--of democracy?