Journalism Is A Craft

In today's world it may be easy to forget that journalism is a craft. It's a craft that needs to be nurtured and worked at and like most everything else, it usually gets better over time. Struggles, errors, experiments are all part of the development of this important craft. At the same time we're experiencing a massive change in communication as well as  journalistic outlets. Newspapers are disappearing. Bloggers are multiplying. News is being reported instantaneously by anyone with a smart phone and a twitter account. That doesn't mean these instant reporters are journalists or craftspeople. It doesn't mean they have a passion for truth, accuracy or even information sharing.

I have a lot of respect for journalists. I've seen my share. Some have been great, others terrible and still others mediocre. But the folks I'm talking about have all been people honing their craft, trying and many times succeeding to get better.

I mention all of this because I think it has become too easy to consider all of the news we read today as the result of journalists and sadly, it just isn't true. Getting through all of the information and discerning what is and what isn't journalism is really a daunting task and it's easy to just accept what we see and what we read as the real thing. So I think it's important to slow down, step back and really take some time to recognize the professional craftspeople who are out there. If you try, you can identify these folks through style, content and above all their attempt always for accuracy.

Where does that leave bloggers like me? At the beginning, I guess. Trying to watch and learn from other people who have studied, practiced and evolved over time. I do fear that all of us want information so badly that we may not question the craftsmanship. This will all work itself through over time but there will be some rough spots along the way. In the meantime, here's to the people who understand and work at their craft of writing and reporting. Those folks who keep a journal of a story and follow it from beginning to end to help the rest of us understand what's happening and why it's happening - an honorable thing to do.