Journalists have been trying to define their place in the publishing industry since long before Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard’s Almanac in 1732. Just after Watergate, journalists reached perhaps the highest level of respect and admiration in American society. Legions of young students enrolled in journalism schools around the country with dreams of a career like investigative reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as portrayed in the 1976 movie All The President’s Men by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.
The Elements of Journalism, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel is well known to working journalists and students alike. It is a standard text in the curriculum at many Journalism schools across the country. The book addresses the core issues of what journalism is and what it should be. The book resulted from a series of meeting that began in June 1997 when twenty -five prestigious journalists gathered for a meeting at the Harvard Faculty Club in Boston.
In the book, the authors lay out nine principles of good journalism, to wit,
- Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.
- It’s first loyalty is to citizens.
- Its essence is a discipline of verification.
- Its practitioners must maintain an independence from those they cover.
- It must serve as an independent monitor of power.
- It must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise.
- It must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant.
- It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
- Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
It is significant that number one is “the truth.” If journalism could be reduced to just one essence, it would be truth. Here at LBB we always seek to uncover the truth. We believe it is the essence of journalism.
This book is a must-read for every journalist, photo-journalist, either current or aspiring. From today hence, it shall be required reading for new authors and contributors at LBB.
Title: The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect
Author: Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel
Publisher: Crown Publishers, New York
Date of Publication: 2001
