What is journalism?

What is journalism?

So I’m back. After four months of what seems like an accelerated summer, I am back to blogging.

And I’m happy to be here.

Over the past year, I’d become attached to my blog. I began to feel at home with the art of writing from my heart, without worrying about being graded for my work. So I admit, I am glad to be back.

We were asked in our journalism class what exactly journalism is. And it got me thinking. I know I want to be a journalist, I know I’ve committed myself to this career and cannot wait to being working in the field. But then, when I was faced with this question, I realized, I’m not really sure exactly what journalism is.

According to the University of Western Ontario, “journalism is the timely reporting of events at the local, provincial, national and international levels. Reporting involves the gathering of information through interviewing and research, the results of which are turned into a fair and balanced story for publication or for television or radio broadcast.”

Hmm...that definition seems to make sense. Journalism does include research, information, interviews, facts, and storytelling, all things I love about it....but I’ve realized, those things, while I love them all, are not what makes me so passionate about journalism.

What is it for me? Where does my passion come from?

Simple. People.

To me, journalism is people. We have no facts, interviews, stories, research, or life to our words or broadcasts without people. I am passionate about journalism because it is a form of storytelling which enables those around us to learn about others and their experiences which may not be possible if there were no journalists to tell their stories.

What is journalism? To me, it is people. It is the mechanism which connects what is happening in the world to a person (or people) and other people around the world becoming aware of it.