What is Journalism for? / Journalism and Society:
Journalism aims at creating awareness to the public. Actions by journalists should result in accurate and truthful facts in every story. The virtues of truthfulness and accuracy in reporting were fundamental values in The Washington Post newspaper. They are reflected in the many stories they published over time especially during the time of Ben Bradlee, Katherine Graham, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. This team of three saw The Washington Post publish the greatest stories. Graham, Bradlee, Woodward and Bernstein achieve their success as a result of constantly reflecting on the fundamental values of journalism in their numerous publications. Among the stories was an expose` of the Pentagon papers. The publishing of this story was an implication of the team's diversity in publishing stories. The team believed in exposing the truth no matter the kind of force behind the story. This action implies good journalism practices by the team. The acts of the journalists to publish the big story that exposes the Department of Defense's history that saw America and Vietnam get into war had various legal implications on the three journalists. However, teamwork and the fact that all the evidence was truthful and accurate earned them a favor in the ruling made by the high court. Additionally, giving the society the truth by publishing these stories earned the team recognition in the journalism field. Ben, Katherine, and Bob fully implemented the value of journalism by freely and effectively expressing what they saw right. The result of this freedom of expression is social and economic development. The good performance is associated with the excellent work of the key players in the company. The team exhibits high personalities as individuals, a fact that makes them achieve so much when they work together. Their accountability after publishing sensitive information is a sure sign of professionalism and responsible journalism. It is evident when they stand tall and defend journalism in the high court. The implication is the provision of leadership that saw migration in the journalism field. In terms of teamwork, every member of the team of four plays an important role in The Washington Post. Graham admits that they had an understanding between them and facing challenges together, especially after publishing the articles on the Pentagon, increased their trust in each other and lead to good performance.
Journalism history.
Journalism has always been about carrying out investigations to gather information, analyzing the information and then distributing the information to the public by publishing it in newspapers or on the media platforms as either printed or non-printed stories. The implication of actions carried out by journalists shows that journalism has always aimed at keeping the public informed. However, journalism has evolved over time due to some great work was done by ancient journalists. A good example is the expose` on the Westgate break-in a gateway to the Westgate scandal in the All the President's Men article. All the President’s Men holds a great position in the history of journalism that saw the application of new tools of journalism to gather information. The investigations conducted Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward on behalf of The Washington Post. The investigations uncovered the complex pattern of corruption that was connected to the small-time break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices. The break-in at these offices did not seem right to both Woodward and Bernstein and this made them conduct tedious painstaking research. Eventually, they found an inside source whom the code name deep throat. With the help of deep throat, Woodward and Bernstein uncovered the greatest scandal that eventually led to the resignation of the then president Nixon. The duo exposed the misdeeds of the president and his entire administration and also influenced a change in the operations of traditional journalism giving rise to the New Journalism. Historically, journalists have been known to follow the best stories to the roots and expose them to the public. Similarly, the actions of Woodland and Bernstein to follow the story behind a small-time break-in is the exhibition of the dedication that journalists have. Additionally, the fundamental value of journalism that calls for proving behind every story is clearly shown. The story was highly controversial but prove of accuracy made its publication possible since it proved that the scandal was real. However, the actions by these two journalists influenced the perception of ATPM events and resulted in a revolution in the journalism field. The expose` brought about affixation of the ATPM and the implication was the firmament of the New Journalism. Traditional journalism involved publication of stories as chronological narratives. With the new journalism, stories were made more realistic by using scenes and dialogues that gave journalism a nonfiction perspective. Additionally, it gave birth to an era where journalists could use devices to record their finding and did away with the old ways of depending on remembering and taking notes. The application of new techniques proved to be more accurate than traditional journalism and the result was a new phase of journalism.
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Reporting and Epistemology
Journalism calls for objectivity when it comes to publishing stories since the works of the journalists are presumed to be very fundamental in the society. Reporting the findings for editing and publication demands for a high level of truthfulness. However, discovering sensitive information that may even end up jeopardizing the safety of journalists may have overwhelming effects on the journalists and result in manipulation of the information. The case of Woodward and Bernstein in collaboration editors and the publisher of the Washington Post was different. The maintained professionalism during the entire investigation that resulted in the exposure of the Watergate scandal. Woodward and Bernstein ensured effective reporting techniques to maintain professionalism. The most trying fact was that they had an inside source who gave them information regarding the investigation. This would have brought about issues of professionalism and called for effective techniques. The fact that Woodward and Bernstein were partners made it easier for them. Having two people talk to an informant made it better since it prevented the biases that would result from a single person's inclination to one side of the story. The result was a truthful story for the public. By getting the real reason that influenced the deep throat to work against his workplace clarified his/her point of view. Usually, taking the word of the informants and evaluating their point of view helps determine which side they are on. Before publishing an article or making any allegations, the journalists have to make sure they have knowledge of what they are publishing. This lead to the epistemological factor of journalism that calls for knowledge of the article being published that results in objectivity. The main focus of journalism as an epistemic practice is objectivity that is used to measure the truthfulness of the published content. This was highly used by Woodward and Bernstein when they spent months in the investigation and acquiring facts on the corruption scandal. Epistemic practices call for a measure of the criteria used to verify the truthfulness of the information provided. They are referred to as the standards of truth. For instance, Woodward and Bernstein verified the information given by the inside source by verifying it from other sources. The information was always accurate since it corresponded to other records in their trace for corruption. Additionally, the duo demanded coherence from their inside source who was required to provide an overarching and consistent explanation of how the information had been obtained. Consistency in explanation was a measure of the information's truthfulness. Bradlee, who was the editor at the Washington Post made sure that the information provided by Woodward and Bernstein was true. Bradlee demanded corresponds to the allegations in the stories and provided evidence from the source. Additionally, Woodward and Bernstein were required to provide facts and clear judgments based on the evidence and not emotionally clouded judgments that suggested different from what the evidence pointed out. The editors, among them Bradlee, made it clear their need for intuitional judgments that were independent on rational examination of facts.
Storytelling
In journalism, journalists have to make sure they capture the attention of their readers. To make sure that they do, they have to implement good storytelling styles to make their audience yearn to read more of their stories. Woodward and Bernstein implement various stylistic choices to capture the attention of the readers to influence the Watergate scandal story. Every story follows a certain plot. Similarly, Woodward and Bernstein used a consistent storyline to create and maintain a connection with the readers. Additionally, narration is of how the story unfolded is not effective without parallelism. Woodward and Bernstein narrate the events that lead to the discovery of the story. This way, they ensure that the reader is able to follow the story in an easy way and remember the content in the story and what it is about.
Question 5
A good story captures the attention of even the best journalists. Such stories include the Westgate story, All the President’s Men and the Washington ghost story. This three stories are among the top stories that were published by the Washington Post. The reason why I would recommend this stories to the high ranking professional journalists is due quality of the stories and the delivery of the stories. The level of diversity that has been reflected by this stories make them stand out in the lists of stories published in America. Additionally, the reflection of professionalism is very appealing. It shows the good work that has been done by very dedicated and creative journalism to bring the truth to the public and also present them with good stories. Also the stories are well suited for the news-consuming public. The stories contain clean content for the public. They all present the public with accurate information about events that have happened around them. for this reason, among others, the stories are good for both educating and entertaining the news-consuming public.
