According to The Elements of Journalism, a book by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, there are nine elements of journalism.In order for a journalist to fulfill their duty of providing the people with the information, they need to be free and self-governing. They must follow these guidelines:
Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
In the April 2007 edition of the book,they added the last element, the rights and responsibilities of citizens to make it a total of ten elements of journalism.
Each element of Journalism as mentioned has enormous potential for thoughts and discussion. So, does the current day journalism really follow all these aspects?
An example for some mistakes and why I think that these elements are not followed always:
This event took place in a Govt authorized Private Residential apartments where around 20additional parking lots were built which actually wouldn't be a problem for anyone but some political minds didn't like the issue and they had got bulldozers to smash it off. Yes, they did it eventually. I'm not quoting the whole story and the reason behind, but only the part that was portrayed wrongly by the papers. But it was quoted in the newspapers that nearly 200parking lots were built illegally and they were demolished by bulldozers with around 100policemen with heavy security. It was so irritating to see the whole issue being dealt in a totally different way just to make it interesting and striking like mentioned as the 7th element but totally irrelevant.
What is your say? Do we have any journalist point of few here? Or do you agree that they seek only readership values and not for real news?
Journalism's first obligation is to the truth.
- Its first loyalty is to the citizens.
- Its essence is 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 news significant, interesting, and relevant.
- It must keep the news comprehensive and proportional.
- Its practitioners must be allowed to exercise their personal conscience.
In the April 2007 edition of the book,they added the last element, the rights and responsibilities of citizens to make it a total of ten elements of journalism.
Each element of Journalism as mentioned has enormous potential for thoughts and discussion. So, does the current day journalism really follow all these aspects?
An example for some mistakes and why I think that these elements are not followed always:
This event took place in a Govt authorized Private Residential apartments where around 20additional parking lots were built which actually wouldn't be a problem for anyone but some political minds didn't like the issue and they had got bulldozers to smash it off. Yes, they did it eventually. I'm not quoting the whole story and the reason behind, but only the part that was portrayed wrongly by the papers. But it was quoted in the newspapers that nearly 200parking lots were built illegally and they were demolished by bulldozers with around 100policemen with heavy security. It was so irritating to see the whole issue being dealt in a totally different way just to make it interesting and striking like mentioned as the 7th element but totally irrelevant.
What is your say? Do we have any journalist point of few here? Or do you agree that they seek only readership values and not for real news?