Journalism and Journalists: An Imperfect Partnership

Rather than talking about journalism, we should use the term journalisms. But that’s not what I want to focus on. What led me to write in this space is the need to deal daily with the mistrust from ordinary people towards the profession I represent.

Why so much discontent, and above all, why do so many people not consider a journalist credible? I don’t want to generalize with my statement, just as often happens to us, but hearing that journalists are liars and unreliable is the worst thing one can hear if they have chosen to carry out this profession with dedication. To be clear, no one has ever made these accusations directly to me, but I am saddened that it is done towards the category of journalists as a whole.

That the press is a powerful force is beyond doubt, and that the profession of journalism (despite its crisis, which is not only the result of the latest economic downturn) still holds great allure, is equally unquestionable. And yet, it often happens that I speak with friends, professionals, or ordinary people who, as soon as the topic comes up, stress how “we journalists” are barely reliable. Why?

To sum up my thoughts, let me use an anecdote. One day, while talking to a parliamentarian, I recounted a story of an acquaintance who, at the first approach by a politician during an election campaign, replied that “politics had become disgusting.” He, clearly very prepared on the subject as he had seen it all before, answered that it was a mistake to say “politics is disgusting”—my acquaintance thought that “politicians were disgusting.” The difference is huge, no doubt, also because if politics doesn’t work, it’s definitely the fault of its actors.

With the hope that “journalism” (a noble art) does not receive the same treatment, and that its “actors” remain vigilant so this does not happen, I nonetheless observe daily a certain “decline in style” even among journalists. Not that people would be right to discredit an entire category made up of many professionals with a strong ethical sense and dignity, but I often come across news reported without any source verification, sports newspapers reporting news that sometimes seem more like transfer rumors from major soccer clubs than useful information, tweets written hastily just to say “I was the first” only to backtrack later when the fake news has made its way around the web and no one bothers to read the correction.

And then, media trials with plenty of wiretaps useless even for the gossip magazines, showgirls on the main national newspaper websites day in and day out, incentives for amateur “journalists” with the slogan “all you need is a phone,” yet we forget that “good writers” are out there (perhaps too much, wandering around) and await nothing but to be called upon (and paid).

In the digital age, of citizen journalism or of participatory journalism, which isn’t a threat but a great story if well managed, knowing how to seize the positive aspects (many) and discard the negative ones (several), journalism and journalists represent an imperfect union. And if it’s true, as it is, that perfection does not belong to this world, let’s try to make imperfection a warning to improve journalism and journalists.