Journalist

A journalist is a person who gathers information in the

Journalist
form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a
newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public.
This is called journalism.

Roles
Journalists can be broadcast, print, advertising or
public relations personnel. Depending on the form of Occupation
journalism, "journalist" may also describe various Names Journalist
categories of people by the roles they play in the
Occupation Journalism, mass media
process. These include reporters, correspondents,
type
citizen journalists, editors, editorial writers, columnists
Activity sectors Mass media, public relations,
and photojournalists.
politics, sports, business
A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, Description
writes and reports on information in order to present Competencies Writing skills, interpersonal
using sources. This may entail conducting interviews, skills
information-gathering and/or writing articles.
Education Typically a bachelor's degree
Reporters may split their time between working in a required
newsroom, from home or outside to witness events or
Fields of Mass media
interview people. Reporters may be assigned a specific employment
beat (area of coverage).
Related jobs Correspondent, columnist,
Matthew C. Nisbet, who has written on science spokesperson, politician
communication,[1] has defined a "knowledge
journalist" as a public intellectual who, like Walter Lippmann, Fareed Zakaria, Naomi Klein, Michael
Pollan, and Andrew Revkin, sees their role as researching complicated issues of fact or science which
most laymen would not have the time or access to information to research themselves, then
communicating an accurate and understandable version to the public as a teacher and policy advisor.

In his best-known books, Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), Lippmann
argued that most people lacked the capacity, time and motivation to follow and analyze news
of the many complex policy questions that troubled society. Nor did they often experience
most social problems or directly access expert insights. These limitations were made worse
by a news media that tended to oversimplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan
viewpoints and prejudices. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed
journalists like himself who could serve as expert analysts, guiding "citizens to a deeper
understanding of what was really important".[2]
In 2018, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook
Handbook reported that employment for the category "reporters,
correspondents and broadcast news analysts" will decline 9 percent
between 2016 and 2026.[3]

Modern overview
A worldwide sample of 27,500 journalists in 67 countries in 2012–2016
produced the following profile:[4]

57 percent male;
mean age of 38
mean years of experience, 13 Canadian journalist
Nardwuar at
college degree, 56 percent
TEDxVancouver in 2010
graduate degree, 29 percent
61 percent specialized in journalism/communications at college
62 percent identified as generalists
23 percent specialized as hard-news beat journalists
47 percent were members of a professional association
80 percent worked full-time
50 percent worked in print, 23 percent on television, 17 percent on radio and 16 percent
online.
In 2019 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Digital News Report described the future for
journalists in South Africa as “grim” because of low online revenue and plummeting advertising.[5]

In 2020 Reporters Without Borders secretary general Christophe Deloire said journalists in developing
countries were suffering political interference because the COVID-19 pandemic had given governments
around the world the chance “to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned
and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal
times”.[6]

In 2023 the closure of local newspapers in the US accelerated to an average of 2.5 per week, leaving
more than 200 US counties as “news deserts” and meaning that more than half of all U.S. counties had
limited access to reliable local news and information, according to researchers at the Medill School of
Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University.

In January 2024, The Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and National Geographic all conducted layoffs,
and Condé Nast journalists went on strike over proposed job cuts.[7] The Los Angeles Times laid off more
than 20% of the newsroom.[8] CNN, Sports Illustrated and NBC News shed employees in early 2024.[9]
The New York Times reported that Americans were suffering from “news fatigue” due to coverage of
major news stories like the Hamas attack, Russian invasion of Ukraine and the presidential election.[9]
American consumers turned away from journalists at legacy organizations as social media became a
common news source. [9]

Freedom
Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger, particularly when reporting in areas of armed conflict
or in states that do not respect the freedom of the press. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect
Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom and advocate for journalistic
freedom. As of November 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 1625 journalists have
been killed worldwide since 1992 by murder (71%), crossfire or combat (17%), or on dangerous
assignment (11%). The "ten deadliest countries" for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq (230 deaths),
Philippines (109), Russia (77), Colombia (76), Mexico (69), Algeria (61), Pakistan (59), India (49),
Somalia (45), Brazil (31) and Sri Lanka (30).[10]

The Committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as of 1 December 2010, 145 journalists were jailed
worldwide for journalistic activities. Current numbers are even higher. The ten countries with the largest
number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey (95),[11] China (34), Iran (34), Eritrea (17), Burma
(13), Uzbekistan (6), Vietnam (5), Cuba (4), Ethiopia (4) and Sudan (3).[12]

Apart from physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war
reporters, but their editorial offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the
reporters they expose to danger. Hence, a systematic and sustainable way of psychological support for
traumatized journalists is strongly needed. Few and fragmented support programs exist so far.[13]

On 8 August 2023, Iran's Journalists' Day, Tehran Journalists' Association head Akbar Montajabi noted
over 100 journalists arrested amid protests, while HamMihan newspaper exposed repression against 76
media workers since September 2022 following Mahsa Amini's death-triggered mass protests, leading to
legal consequences for journalists including Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh.[14]

Relationship with sources

The relationship between a professional journalist and a source can be rather complex, and a source can
sometimes have an effect on an article written by the journalist. The article 'A Compromised Fourth
Estate' uses Herbert Gans' metaphor to capture their relationship. He uses a dance metaphor, "The Tango",
to illustrate the co-operative nature of their interactions inasmuch as "It takes two to tango". Herbert
suggests that the source often leads, but journalists commonly object to this notion for two reasons:

1. It signals source supremacy in news making.

2. It offends journalists' professional culture, which emphasizes independence and editorial
autonomy.
The dance metaphor goes on to state:
 A relationship with sources that is too cozy is potentially compromising of journalists'
integrity and risks becoming collusive. Journalists have typically favored a more robust,
conflict model, based on a crucial assumption that if the media are to function as watchdogs
of powerful economic and political interests, journalists must establish their independence of
sources or risk the fourth estate being driven by the fifth estate of public relations.[15]

Safety
Journalists can face violence and intimidation for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of
expression. The range of threats they are confronted with include murder, kidnapping, hostage-taking,
offline and online harassment, intimidation, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention and torture.
Women in journalism also face specific dangers and are especially vulnerable to sexual assault, whether
in the form of a targeted sexual violation, often in reprisal for their work. Mob-related sexual violence
aimed against journalists covering public events; or the sexual abuse of journalists in detention or
captivity. Many of these crimes are not reported as a result of powerful cultural and professional
stigmas.[16][17]

Increasingly, journalists (particularly women) are abused and harassed online, via hate speech, cyber-
bullying, cyber-stalking, doxing, trolling, public shaming, intimidation and threats.[17]

Most dangerous year

According to Reporters Without Borders' 2018 annual report, it was the
worst year on record for deadly violence and abuse toward journalists;
there was a 15 percent increase in such killings since 2017, with 80 killed,
348 imprisoned and 60 held hostage.[18][19]

Yaser Murtaja was shot by an Israeli army sniper. Rubén Pat was gunned
down outside a beach bar in Mexico. Mexico was described by Reporters
Without Borders as "one of world's deadliest countries for the media";
90% of attacks on journalists in the country reportedly go unsolved.[20]
Bulgarian Victoria Marinova was beaten, raped and strangled. Saudi
Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside Saudi Arabia's
consulate in Istanbul.[21]
Jamal Khashoggi, killed
inside Saudi Arabia's
Commemoration consulate in Istanbul on 2
October 2018
From 2008 to 2019, Freedom Forum's now-defunct Newseum in
Washington, D.C. featured a Journalists Memorial which honored several
thousand journalists around the world who had died or were killed while reporting the news.[22] After the
Newseum closed in December 2019, supporters of freedom of the press persuaded the United States
Congress in December 2020 to authorize the construction of a memorial to fallen journalists on public
land with private funds.[22] By May 2023, the Fallen Journalists Memorial Foundation had begun the
design of the memorial.[23]

Education
In the US, nearly all journalists have attended university, but only about half majored in
journalism.[24][25] Journalists who work in television or for newspapers are more likely to have studied
journalism in college than journalists working for the wire services, in radio, or for news magazines.[25]

Gallery

A program director sets the task for

TV journalists, 1998.
A reporter interviews a man in
Helmand Province, Afghanistan,
2009.

Journalist interviews a cosplayer, A reporter interviewing Boris

2012. Johnson when he was Mayor of
London, 2014
 Official tastes the water of a new Cameraman and journalist who
well in front of journalists in interviews a person in Austria
Mogadishu, Somalia, 2014.

See also

Journalism portal

24-hour news cycle

Broadcast journalism
Electronic field production (EFP)
Electronic news-gathering (ENG)
Glossary of journalism
List of ITV journalists and newsreaders
List of journalists
Local news
News broadcasting
News presenter
Newsroom
Outside broadcasting
Student newspaper
War correspondent

References
1. Nisbet, Matthew C. (March–April 2009). "Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames
Matter for Public Engagement" (https://web.archive.org/web/20180703075520/http://www.en
vironmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back+Issues/March-April+2009/Nisbet-full.html).
Environment Magazine. Heldref Publications. Taylor & Francis Group. Archived from the
original (http://www.environmentmagazine.org/Archives/Back+Issues/March-April+2009/Nis
bet-full.html) on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
2. Nisbet, Matthew C. (March 2013). "Nature's Prophet: Bill McKibben as Journalist, Public
Intellectual and Activist" (http://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/D-78-Nisb
et1.pdf) (PDF). Discussion Paper Series #D-78. Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press,
Politics and Public Policy, School of Communication and the Center for Social Media
American University. p. 7. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
 3. Talton, Jon (31 January 2018). "Occupational outlook: Where the big bucks are – and aren't"
(https://www.seattletimes.com/business/economy/occupational-outlook-where-the-big-bucks
-are-and-arent/). The Seattle Times. Retrieved 1 February 2018.
4. Thomas Hanitzsch, et al. eds. Worlds of Journalism: Journalistic Cultures around the Globe
(2019) pp. 73–74. see excerpt (https://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Journalism-Journalistic-Cul
tures-Institute/dp/0231186436/)
5. "Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2019" (https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/d
efault/files/inline-files/DNR_2019_FINAL.pdf) (PDF). Reuters Institute for the Study of
Journalism. Thomson Reuters.
6. Ahmed, Kaamil (6 May 2020). "Covid-19 could trigger 'media extinction event' in developing
countries". The Guardian.
7. Fu, Angela (24 January 2024). "Tuesday was a bleak day for the media industry" (https://ww
w.poynter.org/commentary/2024/los-angeles-times-time-magazine-national-geographic-new
s-layoffs/). Poynter.
8. James, Meg (23 January 2024). "L.A. Times to lay off at least 115 people in the newsroom"
(https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-23/latimes-layoffs-115-
newsroom-soon-shiong). L.A. Times.
9. Robertson, Katie (24 January 2024). "The News About the News Business Is Getting
Grimmer" (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/24/business/media/media-industry-layoffs-decli
ne.html). New York Times.
10. "1337 Journalists Killed" (http://cpj.org/killed/). Committee to Protect Journalists. Retrieved
28 August 2012.
11. "Number of Jailed Journalists Nearly Doubles in Turkey" (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/wo
rld_now/2012/04/jailed-journalists-nearly-double-in-turkey.html). Los Angeles Times. 5 April
2012. Retrieved 6 April 2012.
12. "Iran, China drive prison tally to 14-year high" (http://cpj.org/reports/2010/12/cpj-journalist-pri
son-census-iran-china-highest-14-years.php). Committee to Protect Journalists. 8
December 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
13. Tabeling, Petra (24 December 2014). "Petra Tabeling: In crisis areas, journalists are at risk
in physical and psychological terms" (http://www.dandc.eu/en/article/petra-tabeling-crisis-are
as-journalists-are-risk-physical-and-psychological-terms). D + C. p. 15. Retrieved 9 March
2019.
14. "Scores Of Media Workers Detained In Iran In Latest Protests Honored On Journalists' Day"
(https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-detained-journalists-honored/32539425.html). RFERL ORG. 8
August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
15. Lewis, Justin; Williams, Andrew; Franklin, Bob (6 February 2008). "A Compromised Fourth
Estate". Journalism Studies. 9: 1–20. doi:10.1080/14616700701767974 (https://doi.org/10.1
080%2F14616700701767974). S2CID 142529875 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusI
D:142529875).
16. "UN PLAN OF ACTION ON THE SAFETY OF JOURNALISTS AND THE ISSUE OF
IMPUNITY" (https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/un-plan-on-safety-journalists_en.pdf)
(PDF). UNESCO. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
17. World Trends Report in Freedom of Expression and Media Development Global Report
2017/2018 (http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0026/002610/261065e.pdf) (PDF). UNESCO.
2018.
18. Langford, Eleanor (17 December 2018). "2018 was worst year for violence and abuse
against journalists, report says" (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/17/2018-worst-y
ear-violence-abuse-against-journalists-report-says/). The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived
(https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/17/20
18-worst-year-violence-abuse-against-journalists-report-says/) from the original on 11
January 2022. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
19. "WORLDWIDE ROUND-UP of journalists killed, detained, held hostage, or missing in 2018"
(https://rsf.org/sites/default/files/worldwilde_round-up.pdf) (PDF). Reporters Without
Borders. 1 December 2018. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
20. "Miroslava Breach murder: Mexico jails man who ordered journalist's death" (https://www.bb
c.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-53880211). BBC News. 23 August 2020. Retrieved
1 December 2020.
21. Hjelmgaard, Kim (18 December 2018). " 'Unscrupulous politicians' blamed for worst year on
record for journalist killings" (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/12/18/more-j
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02/). USA Today. Gannett. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
22. Roberts, Jessica; Maksl, Adam (2021). Attacks on the American Press: A Documentary and
Reference Guide (https://books.google.com/books?id=qZU2EAAAQBAJ&pg=PA167). Santa
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23. Mullins, Luke (4 May 2023). "A Memorial to Fallen Journalists Is One Step Closer to
Happening on the National Mall" (https://www.washingtonian.com/2023/05/04/a-memorial-to
-fallen-journalists-is-one-step-closer-to-happening-on-the-national-mall/). Washingtonian.
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School of Journalism, Indiana University. p. 9. Archived from the original (http://news.indian
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External links
Media related to Journalists at Wikimedia Commons
Society of Professional Journalists (http://spj.org)

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