Why Journalism Matters
- bra00170
- Sep 7, 2022
- 4 min read
Journalism is finding the best stories for people to read so that they can live their life and know about the stuff that is going on around them. There are three main topics of journalism that I will be talking about bias, social media when it comes to journalism and cancel culture. With the research I have done it seems that people seem to agree that currently we need journalism possibly more than ever. The fact that when journalism is done correctly you can hear information about your life that you need to hear without having to feel one way or another and it is up to you to decide how you feel and how you react. Journalism can be such a powerful tool that can cause peace and hope or pain and fear when done in certain ways.
Bias is another word for an opinion. As a journalist your job is to inform people with what is going on in the world not what you think about what is happening in the world. Sometimes it is inevitable to have a little bit of bias, but you can’t be biased without saying something positive about the opposing point. There is a difference from showing a little bit of bias and being completely bias and not letting the other side get its reasoning. Bias is usually occurred with personal connections or experiences to an opinion for. For example, if you drew a sketch of a park and you compared it to others you would have some bias towards what you put time and effort in to. But you’re not always able to tell if you’re being biased or not. When you don’t know if your being biased or not it is called an unconscious bias. Sometimes this can lead to stereotypes. But bias when it comes to journalism can be shown in a few different ways. Sometimes it can be the stories that get picked or the perspective of a story. The journalism bias can be split up into 8 main categories.
1. Confirmation Bias
The tendency to listen to only the information we agree with.
2. Anchor Bias
We put all our faith in the first piece of information we here.
3. Hindsight Bias
Looking at the past to predict the future.
4. Misinformation Bias
Deliberately (subconsciously) misinterpreting events.
5. False Consensus Bias
The idea that something is more popular then it actually is.
6. Loss Aversion Bias
Some people will stick to a wrong idea, rather than admit they are wrong.
7. Self-serving Biases
People take credit for success but blame others for losses.
8. Actor/Observer Bias
For example a journalist could label someone as a terrorist or a freedom fighter which shows which side that they are on. Our bad actions are because of other people. Some experts have said that they think bias isn’t too bad when bias is truthful and not made up. And it has been said that bias isn’t bad, but it is bad when it is done to an extent. Most of the times bias can be shown through social media and voicing opinions.
Social media is the modern newspaper in a sense. Social media is where everyone nowadays sees the latest stories. But something about social media and journalism is that it has a bias to it. When you see news spread through social media someone has usually added their opinion under the repost. Social media allows more people to see content and news but as much as it provides an opportunity it equally opposes as a threat. News programs and platforms and journalism are intended for you to read it as it has been written and then you can form your opinion on how you feel. But when people voice their opinion when reposting or sharing this news you are led to the sense of having to agree with them or else you are weird and abnormal. It can be quite harmful but if the people like what the journalist must produce then they will keep coming back and chuck them a follow. A study from the U.S. showed that the surveyed 67% of journalists think that social media is bad for journalism. The study also showed that 87% of journalists that used social media to promote their content had seen benefits from this method. Another big part of social media and journalism is the recent coming of cancel culture in this day and age.
Cancel culture has been an issue for a while now. Cancel culture has led to people getting “cancelled”. Getting cancelled means losing your publicity or gaining publicity but instead of receiving praise you receive hate. To get cancelled it usually happens when someone says something controversial, so usually something that could be deemed as racist, misogynistic, ableist and the list goes on. But sometimes you could get cancelled for something that you said in the past. Sometimes it has been used for good by getting back at famous celebrities who have done illegal things throughout their career but sometimes it has cancelled people for the littlest things. But this culture has also had a big impact on all of journalism. It has led to writers getting the posts cancelled because of controversial topics or even just a controversial headline. Cancel culture has also made people lose their jobs for something that has been classified by the public as controversial. Journalists have said that cancel culture is a thing that can do good in this world but when it comes to journalism and news production you shouldn’t be able to get cancelled.
Journalism is a necessary thing in the world today. Journalism allows us to know about everything we need to know in our day to day lives. Even though there can be things that get n the way like bias, social media, and cancel culture. There are also things that those stuff can bring to the table. Without journalism there would be stuff in our lives that could be easily more avoidable with just one click of a remote or phone. Journalism is something that only individuals need but societies need to ensure the safety and information that the people will need.
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