Symposium explores the new frontiers in journalism

Who exactly, is a journalist? In a world where people get their news from cable satire shows like The Daily Show and from anonymous bloggers, it’s a question quite a few scholars and regular citizens are asking. The question was also the focus of this year’s Whalen Symposium on Media Ethics presented by the University of St. Thomas Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The October 17 symposium at the University of St. Thomas’ O'Shaughnessy Educational Center, featured media scholars and journalists from across the country, including former New York Times journalist and blogger, Doug McGill. During the panel discussion, McGill explained that there is no simple answer to the question of the night.

"The answer is not a straightforward one,” McGill said, “We now live a in a world that is simply not straightforward."

Before the panel discussion, there was a reception during which St. Thomas journalism and mass communication students presented posters that offered their answer to the question. Titles of the presentations ranged from “Who Is a Journalist” to “Is Stephen Colbert a Journalist,?” and “How to Spot a Journalist.”

Both students and scholars more or less agreed that people like Jon Stewart are not journalists, but rather media critics whose satire exposes the media’s faults.

During the course of the symposium, theoretical questions were posed to tease out the night’s main question. One such question was, Do the people who took cellphone pictures of the London bombings count as journalists? One of the professionals to respond was McGill, who said journalism is a far more than just snapping a picture. He said that journalism is a complex processe that begins with story generation and ends after many steps with publishing.

Along with these theoretical questions, the concept of journalism was explored through a cultural lens. In other words, how do different cultures view journalism? Bala Musa, an associate professor at Azusa Pacific University, spoke about how some African cultures uphold the idea of objectivity and have very similar ideas of what journalists should do but are not able to serve as harsh critics of the government in their respective countries.

“Some of the governments are so fragile they [journalists] didn’t feel they could attack or be the watchdog,” Musa said. “They felt they had a social responsibility different from journalists from America.”

After all the panel members answered questions from the emcee, Wendy Wyatt, chair of St. Thomas’ journalism and mass communication department, it was the audience’s turn.

One audience member wondered whether defining who is a journalist was a way of dancing around the real issue of defining journalism. After some discussion, the panel agreed that not every form of “reporting” is journalism. But Jennifer Henderson, an assistant professor at Trinity University, pointed out that freedom of press really means freedom of influence.

“We should consider that freedom of press was not limited to the mainstream newspapers, but also means freedom to collect, publish, and disseminate information,” Henderson said. “Overwhelmingly, the courts have protected that right so far.”