A Canadian J-School student asks about the purpose of journalism in the context of trying to nail down which elements of print carry over to the online medium.
He chooses “to hold the powerful to account” as his top priority, but I’m not so sure.
For me, it’s something like “to tell truths that wouldn’t otherwise be told.”
Either way, he’s wondering about this as he’s observing a group of (undergraduate?) j-school bloggers and their disdain for the theoretical elements of their education. Damn I made that sound boring.
Folks, we do this for a reason. As I often explain to people, I’m here on purpose. I’m no longer naive enough to believe that everyone else showed up with the same purpose as I did, but what the hell, as long as you’ve got something in mind, that’s good enough for me. But having a reason for wanting to be a journalist will certainly win points with me.
[tags]j-school, journalism[/tags]