5 Journalism as public service

People who work on community newspaper, radio and television news staffs have long seen their jobs as a public service. Why?

Because local news organizations offer information vital to the health of their communities and democracy, according to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism.

Even without that Nieman Foundation definition, journalists instinctively know this. Plus, this is what’s taught in journalism and creative media programs throughout the United States.

People who work in what some derisively call “mainstream media” have traditionally been keenly interested in strengthening their communities. Journalists want to make the towns and cities in which they work more exhilarating places to live. And why not? The journalists live there, too.

That’s why local papers and stations cover the development of parks, recreational facilities and libraries as well as the production of plays, art installations and literacy projects. They also report on local government and criminal activity. They write and produce stories on businesses, large and small, that offer services and employ citizens. Schools and universities get attention in the local press including, but not limited to, the sports teams they field.

In doing this, journalists are motivated by two overarching goals of mainstream news outlets:

• To give voice to the voiceless.
• To hold the powerful accountable.

By being so integrated into the local culture, the press has been called as necessary to a community as a community is necessary to it. Newspaper readership studies have shown newspaper use helps people feel connected to the places they live. Those connections, in turn, contribute to newspaper use, according to Keith R. Stamm in the book “Newspaper Use and Community Ties: Toward a Dynamic Theory.”

So, you can see why traditional journalists dislike disinformation and biases that divide rather than strengthen communities. That’s not to say the work of journalists makes everyone happy. You are aware, no doubt, that the powerful often don’t like being held accountable. Yet, doing so is important to strengthening communities and, in fact, might be the most important tool for doing that.

When journalists attempt to hold powerful people accountable by documenting their conduct, the subjects sometimes attempt to discredit the reporting. You might have heard it put another way: If you don’t like the message, shoot the messenger.

One famous example was President Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” that included, among others, the journalists Edwin Guthman, Mary McGrory and Daniel Schorr. The list became public knowledge during the Senate Watergate hearings, which eventually led to Nixon’s resignation.

In some cases, journalists have been called “enemies of the people” by the powerful who don’t want to be held accountable. In those cases, the powerful people are trying to discredit factual reporting that they don’t like.

Here are the tools journalists use to connect citizens to each other and their communities.

Coverage. When journalists cover a story, it refers to the reporting of issues, trends, ideas and events that are produced in and for a given community.

Documentation. When journalists document something, they establish a written or digital record of issues, trends, ideas, events and history that occur in a community.

Information sharing. When an event occurs, an issue arises or a trend develops, journalists make sure news is circulated throughout a community via the reporting of it. Not only do reporters share what they’ve learned, citizens can reply with their own thoughts and perspectives through social media posts, letters and op-ed columns.

The newspaper, then, integrates an individual into his or her community by extending the individual’s personal and social contacts, according to John C. Sim in “The Grass Roots Press: America’s Community Newspapers.” Here are several specific ways this happens, according to sociologist Morris Janowitz:

• By building and maintaining local consensus on issues. In other words, readers and viewers might rally around the local university football team. Or they might come together to support funding for a new art museum.
• Through creating and strengthening local traditions. This might happen, for example, when people who move to North Carolina learn of the state’s famously competitive barbeque rivalry and pick a side.
• By adjustment to institutions and facilities. This guides how much citizens invest in and value shared physical and virtual spaces.
• By democratizing prestige, which is a fancy term for extending a reader’s personal or professional connections. Need to know the movers and shakers in a community? The local news reports on them regularly.
• By defining rights and privileges of the local community, Rights are norms that exist no matter what, such as dignity, liberty and equality. Privileges are entitlements allowed–or not–by law. Unlike rights, privileges can be revoked. Citizenship is one example of a privilege.
• And finally, stories about volunteer organizations, social and personal news extend social contacts. making a reader feel more connected to his or her neighbors.

If any one of these things is facilitated by local news media, it strengthens the community as a whole, Stamm’s research showed.

Theory, Meet Practice

If you take all of these ideas from researchers and ask journalists to do their magic with it, it might come out like this Seattle Times vision statement:

To be the model of innovative, audience-supported regional journalism, to strengthen democracy, build community and enrich people’s lives.

When The Seattle Times staff decided to better define what its publication does and why, the editor wrote a column about the paper’s new vision statement and steps it took to create it. He also said the turbulent newspaper economy and journalism’s changing business model also prompted the thinking.

Despite the many changes the journalism industry has experienced in its recent history, the editor incorporated two of journalism’s most important priorities. These have been the priorities of journalists in the United State since the country’s founding and encoded into modern journalists’ codes of ethics.

• Hold the powerful accountable through watchdog and investigative journalism.
• Give voice to the voiceless through story choice, sourcing and execution.

Citizens can make connections to their communities in other ways, including through social media. But, as you read in this chapter, there are some media observers and sociologists—not to mention social media users—who think Facebook, X and Instagram sometimes do the opposite.