The Role of the Journalist

In this lesson we focused on the role of the journalist in the media. We looked at a website, called http://www.skillset.org/, which encourages people to take up jobs in the media. In particular we looked at a document called http://www.skillset.org/uploads/pdf/asset_15030.pdf?1, getting the following research.

The role of the journalist is to communicate the latest information that the publication feels the public should know about, based on the target audiences social background and beliefs.


To do this successfully, a journalist needs to do be able to do the following:

• Be flexible to changes in the media: Journalists need to be able to adapt to changes in technology as ways of communicating change. Journalist need to be able to easily switch between ways of researching, creating and distributing the information to the audience.
  
  Furthermore, a journalist has to be able to adapt their writing style to suit the publication that the journalist is writing for. For example, a film magazine would have a different style of writing its articles, and aim them at a different audience to a 'Red-Top' tabloid newspaper.
• Be able to work safely within the bounds of the law: A journalist has to be knowledgeable of the aspects of the law regarding contempt, defamation, privacy and data protection, and copyright to avoid being subjected to numerous law suits. They have to be able to pick out any breeches of these laws in their own work.
• Keep up to date with the market's interests: Depending on the publication, journalists must to up to date with the speciality subjects; for example, journalists that write for motoring magazines must be able to keep up to date with the latest motoring information. The audience only wants to know new information, not articles that are behind everyone else. Journalists writing for general publications, such as newspapers, need to keep up to date with the most recent current affairs, especially as these publications are produced daily. Fortunately for journalists, technology now makes it easier to keep up to date with the latest information.
  
  Linking to being flexible and keeping up to date, journalists have to be able to cover breaking stories. Most news events are not scheduled, so journalists have to be able to get to these events, so they cant stay ahead of the competition.