Trust the Professional

In Thursday's class we discussed how journalism has been likened to a professional priesthood.  At first I thought, 'first covenant now this?!  Here we go again with the church-like references" but I really liked the way this one was presented.

Professional Priesthood is to "surrender to the higher calling of serving others."  I agree with this definition in regards to journalism being a professional priesthood.  As a future journalist I would hope that the readers and the audience I was writing for would have faith in me and what I was saying.

What is journalism (and Priesthood for that matter) without faith?  We must put our trust in the words we read, but we must not do it blindly.  I'm not encouraging skeptics out of readers, but I am instead advocating smart readers.  Don't tie yourself down to one paper or viewpoint.  Do your research.  Look at a few different perspectives and create your own opinion out of them.

When I was in high school I was talking with my father about politics and I said, "Dad, people ask me if I'm a Democrat or a Republican, and I don't know what to say because I don't know what I am.  Which one is better?  Which one should I choose?"  I'll never forget what he told me, he looked me in the eyes and said, "Brissa, I can't tell you what to be.  You need to do your own research and find out what platforms you believe in and align yourself with the party that best fits your beliefs."  And that's what I'm telling you to do.  Find the truth yourself.  Trust in journalists because it's their job to find the truth and have the faith that they've done their work just like you've done yours.
(I hope all that redundant rambling made sense to you, because it made sense to me, but then again, i wrote it...)

Let's move on to world views shall we?  In The Mind of a Journalist we read that "[world views] provide us a means of protection from confusion, an ability to focus on what we think is important, and a way of defining what we see" (27).  I believe that everyone has a slightly different world view based on their geographic, economic and living situation.  But, yes, I believe that the world view of a journalist differs from that of an average person.  Journalist/philosopher Walter Lippmann  believed "that an individual citizen could not intuit truth because he or she is a create of a specific culture" (27).  I can't help but agree with Lippmann on this because, like we learned in one of our very first classes, journalists have a "nose for news" that is an acquired skill that grows and becomes stronger over time.