Article: http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/journalism-essentials/bias-objectivity/lost-meaning-objectivity/

Journalism isn’t taught, but is learned. What I got from this article is that journalism cannot be taught in class, but rather an experience that is gained from life.

• “Overwhelmingly the answer was: by trial and error and on my own or from a friend. Rarely did journalists report learning them in journalism school or from their editors.”

This part really stuck out to me because that’s kinda with everything. Accidentally added baking soda instead of baking power, its okay. Turned all your white socks pink? Its okay, try again. Its okay to make mistakes. Live and learn and keep on going. Journalism is just like that, your first article isn’t going to be awesome and people will criticize it. Keep on writing. Keep on researching. Keep on going. They will all get better and if you stop writing, you will never know if the writing do get better. Use the criticisms from the old articles to only improve. No one is perfect and things will always get better.

Basically, live and learn. No one will ever receive the experience to be a journalist in a class. The only way to get that experience is to get out there and find things out for themselves. Keep on writing.

Article: http://journalism.about.com/od/ethicsprofessionalism/a/objectivity.htm

Basically, with these steps, I’m learning how to live a drama free life.

Objectivity means that when covering hard news, reporters don’t convey their own feelings, biases or prejudices in their stories.

Fairness means that reporters covering a story must remember there are usually two sides – and often more – to most issues, and that those differing viewpoints should be given roughly equal space in any news story.

Honestly, when I read this I laughed a bit. Not because the article is funny, but of how I am able to relate to it. The rules to being a good journalist are basically the rules, you should follow for a drama free life.

Being a journalist you have to remain neutral and not let people know how you really feel about a subject. While in life, if your friends are in a fight, you have to remain a neutral party not wanting to pick sides. Otherwise the entire thing may blow up and you’ll end up losing a friend in the process. There’s always two sides to a story. One is right in its own way, just as the other. Just as objectivity plays a huge part in journalism and life, so does fairness. As there are two sides to the story, journalist have to share both of the stories without their opinion. So, then it isn’t biast and both stories have time in the spotlight. Relating that to life, friends who want to stay neutral and help out, listen to both sides of the argument. Even though they say they don’t pick a side, they pick a side, people always do. Yet that neutral person, just needs to keep a poker face and not butt in with their opinion so that opposing fires don’t grow. That isn’t always the case where opinions are kept to themselves, but is ideal.

Basically the general rules to being a good journalist are the same rules anyone should follow with life.

Article: http://gigaom.com/2011/09/02/is-journalism-as-we-know-it-becoming-obsolete/

Since non-journalist can do it just as easily as a journalist can, what makes a journalist a journalist? Why are they different? Is there even a difference?

Journalism – Fundamentally about a spirit of inquiry, of curiosity, of wanting to make sense of things.

Everyone gets their news in their own way. The way to get news has changed and it will keep changing. Soon enough, we will stop paying people to get news for us. Then I reread the article and thought, how would people get the source? If we don’t pay people, how are we going to learn something about other things. I mainly thought about celebrities. Weird, paying people to do more research/creep on other people. Just so that fans and other people will know what’s going on in their life. Isn’t sad that we are more interest in the lives of others then our own? Nonetheless, if we didn’t pay people to do what they do, it would one be very VERY illegal. So, if there weren’t journalists who did their research, then the general public would just have to hope that celebrities would like to share their personal life with everyone.

I don’t think journalism is becoming obsolete, but merely adjusting and changing with the times. Nothing is the same as it was ‘back in the day’ everything is different. We aren’t the same as we were years ago, so why should the way we receive our news stay the same. Everything is moving forward and journalism is too. Everyone is a journalist without even realizing it. Saying that I don’t think the people who retweet, repost, or share something they’ve learned is a journalist, but someone who is the first to hear it or see something happen and directly report it. I feel is a journalist, we all have a bit of a journalist inside of us, but then again it could just be natural human nature of wanting others to know. If this were the case all journalists are created by chance. Other then that, I just don’t think journalism is becoming obsolete, but rather adjusting and keeping up with the world.