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Journalists have the power to control the world!
“What are you on about?”
I’ll explain!
When you are a journalist, your power is to inform the public on matters. As seen in recent events in the world, what you read online you generally believe. Most people don’t do any extra research.
So, if you are a journalist, you can inform everyone who reads what you write.
This can be a great task, but if you are not in the business to inform but just as a job, then you aren’t going to exactly care about this.
You’re probably wondering why I’m writing about this. So I’ll tell you.
Recently in my town we had a vote on letting individuals hunt our deer population. I know! It’s so crazy and so dangerous. Any sane individual could see that. I’m not going to bore you with the details but essentially it lets people hunt during a large period of time as long as you have a license. This could end so badly.
Our local newspaper, which is used in 3 local towns and is quite well read, especially by the older residents in town, printed an article on the day of the vote saying the vote had failed, and even quoted representatives on saying they wish it had passed.
If you weren’t active in the town and knew the up-to-date information, you’d believe this and not be worried.
You should be!
This vote, in fact, hadn’t even occurred when the newspapers were distributed, occurring that evening, and has misinformed so many individuals on a potentially dangerous situation.
Now, for a lot of things, you can easily fix this by posting on social media and such, informing the public of the mistake and the reprint. However, this paper has no website, and their social media has posted nothing of the sorts.
Sloppy journalism at its finest!
You never post an article about a vote before it happens! A true newspaper would know about the vote and make sure they had someone there to get information. Especially for a front page article.
The reason I am writing this small rant today is to make sure you know your sources.
You can trust places like the NY Times and Wall Street Journal for your information, but even then make sure you read up to know all angles.
But your local paper? A small website you read?
You cannot always trust these sites.
I used to think that if you were a newspaper you had to be decent to get published.
Apparently this is not the case.
Moral of the story: check your sources and double check information before you act on something.
Journalists do shape the world, more than they know most of the time. Even when all the facts are gathered you can still frame a story badly.
I do agree. They can have all the facts and be able to do some serious good, but with how they interpret it or format their writing, they can do more damage than good.
How a journalist presents a story is going to always reflect on how it is received. We can never get facts, they always have to be over the top and often scare-mongering. At the same time they cover for people.
I definitely agree.
as with every profession – some can be bought by the highest bidder.
Yeah….that’s honestly so sad. There’s like no integrity now.
I’m always really hesitant to share news articles before I’ve double or triple checked the information if I can.
Agreed! Unless I know the source, I always check it. And even I like to make sure I know the situation in case someone calls me out and I need to be knowledgeable.
You make a great point. Reliable sources are important and can be hard to find at times.
It’s always so difficult when you’re looking for something small and no reliable sources reported on it. You have to just hope for the best sometimes.
I love this! This is the reason I am a photo journalist. 🙂
Oh that sounds like a wonderful job!
This is so true. You would think in this day and age people would be more aware that anybody can say anything, it doesn’t make it true. Also, what kind of paper would do that risking the ridicule if it went viral online? Smh.
Oh that’s a good point. I always forget about it going viral. A lot of these places seem to do it and then just delete the article, or make edits before it can go anywhere. Sometimes forgetting about screenshots. But still….that’s just wrong.
I don’t believe it is just local newspapers, certainly not in the UK, the national papers are just as bad. I find they are a bit like politicians, not everything that is stated is true. I never take the word of anyone without checking sources.
That’s a good point. Some of the large tabloid newspapers reveal things that are just silly. I remember a year back or something someone leaked that the actor Sylvester Stallone had died. Someone just made it up and some newspaper ran with it. And he’s on Instagram like “No, I’m still here.” Like honestly, they didn’t even check it as they just wanted to be the first to print something. As it seems to often be.