Chances are, you have seen Kim Kardashian's butt by now. Over 6.6 million people viewed the article containing her famous Break the Internet pictures within the first day of it being published, not counting views over social media. That's more people than live in the state of Minnesota, and most of them wouldn't have seen it if not for journalism.
Even if you haven't seen the specific pictures, you have probably heard about the event, either through social media or from friends. The pictures and information had to travel a long way to get from the original article to you, and the reason it was possible, was through journalism.
Journalism is traditionally thought of as being a reliable source, closely related to news, and very factual, but I think that journalism is much bigger than that. Journalism is a way to spread information of any kind, through any medium. Journalism can be news, but it can also be stories, feelings, and opinions.
This makes almost everything journalism. That means that when you tweet an opinion or story, or retweet something like it, you are spreading news, and contributing to journalism. Every person who tweeted #breaktheinternet was contributing to journalism, it doesn't matter what the content is, it matters that information is being spread. Everyone is a journalist, intentionally or not. Every time you tell a friend a story about your life, you are contributing to journalism. Journalism is much bigger than news.
News is a part of journalism but not the whole thing. I think of news is the type of source that the public generally expects to be true. News should have an aspect of legitimacy to it, while the only requirement for journalism is that information is being passed along.
Although journalism is more objective and less reliable than pure news, we still rely heavily on it. Imagine only being able to learn about events from news sources, you would likely never have heard about those Kardashian pictures, or about many other events and ideas that you now know of. No one went out and searched to find 'reliable sources' about the Break the Internet pictures, we saw them on social media.
No matter the relevancy of your words, you are constantly spreading ideas and contributing to the general knowledge of the public. Even if that knowledge is just about Kim Kardashian's Butt.
I'm one of the proud folks not to have seen the photos, but you're totally right that I've been very aware of them because of journalism.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right when you say that journalism seems to be expanding into the realm of feelings and opinions now. What we accept as journalism is changing and we almost expect news reports to have someone close by telling us how to feel (or at least how they feel) about the event. That's just sort of the way things are.
I like what you say about the general public expectation of truth and accuracy. I do think that's an important, and often missed, component of the "everyone is a journalist" school of thought. It's so interesting how you came to that conclusion when starting with Kim K's butt, but you make that progression really well.
I like the way you explained journalism. I agree with your idea of journalism being almost anything.You had a good examples and sources to back it up!
ReplyDeleteI like the way you explained journalism. I agree with your idea of journalism being almost anything.You had a good examples and sources to back it up!
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