In a city where coverage of the news is under such a constant and critical assault it is worth asking just what a journalist is. The editor of Buzz Machine, Jeff Jarvis, has published a useful and interesting discussion on just that point.
There are no journalists
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By Jeff Jarvis. Thanks to the Snowden-Greenwald NSA story, we are headed into another spate of debate about who is and isn’t a journalist. I’ve long said it’s the wrong question now that anyone can perform an act of journalism: a witness sharing news directly with the world; an expert explaining news without need of gatekeepers; a whistleblower opening up documents to sunlight; anyone informing everyone. It’s the wrong question when we reconsider journalism not as the manufacture of content but instead as a service whose goal is an informed public.
“A real journalist is one who understands, at a cellular level, and doesn’t shy away from, the adversarial relationship between government and press – the very tension that America’s founders had in mind with the First Amendment.” – The New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan
“Journalism helps communities organize their knowledge so they can better organize themselves. “ – Buzzmachine.com Editor Jeff Jarvis
Buzz Machine has become one of our favourite sites ever since sobedaya introduced us to it.
