Can Journalism call itself a profession?

It is generally accepted that Journalism does not enjoy the same high status as many other professions (Lynch, A. Blog).  Which raises two questions:  is Journalism actually a profession (as opposed, say, to a craft), and how can we account for its relatively low public reputation.

To answer the first question, we must first establish the criteria that characterize all professions.  The following would probably be regarded as essential:

1.  an accepted overall purpose which is generally related to service,
2. an associated body of knowledge,
3. a recognized skill base and
4. a prescribed system of ethics. 

These four aspects find expression in the practice expectations of all professions and in each one, ideally, there should be little dissonance between the four different elements.  In reality, of course, there are occasions in which there is a degree of conflict.  It is the manner in which such conflict is resolved that really determines the status of a profession in the eyes of the public it serves.

Moving now to the fundamental purpose of journalism, it has been proposed that the news media should provide a “true and useful picture of the world around us” and that the responsibility of the ethical reporter is to “tell the truth, to be accurate, to be fair, and to act without fear or favour…” (Hirst, M. and Patching, R. p.3)  Few people would disagree with this assessment although it must be said that, in the world of reality, we cannot always agree on what is “true”, “useful” and “fair”.

That journalism has a body of knowledge is demonstrated by the number of texts and references available - in print and on the web - and the proliferation of schools of journalism within recognized educational institutions today.  That journalism has a recognized suite of skills is likewise shown by the practices of journalists from the time-honoured strategies of those working in the print media to those used in the more modern web formats.

Ethics, however, invariably involve tricky moral issues and it is in this complex area that even very committed journalists can find themselves coming unstuck.  Two circumstances, which particularly confront journalists, will serve to illustrate this point.

·         At what point do the ends (of arguing a particular position) justify the means (of obtaining information to support it)?  The behaviour of Kevin Carter who took a carefully composed, but deeply distressing, photograph of a vulture stalking a starving Sudanese child is, at best, very disturbing and, at worst, completely unacceptable. (See photo in Boddy-Evans, “The Journalist, the Vulture and the Child”.)

·         And how does a journalist serve a multitude of masters without betraying one or more of them?  Unavoidably, the journalist will sometimes find himself caught between his  conflicting  loyalties to his audience, his editor and the commercial market in which he operates.  How this conflict is resolved is not always a constant – it often depends as much upon the journalist’s personal integrity (or lack of it) as it does upon any other factor.

Thus, to answer our first question, then, it would seem that journalism meets the first three criteria for professionalism reasonably well.  (i.e. It has a widely accepted overall purpose, an associated body of knowledge and a commonly recognized skill base.)  What it is still grappling with, however, is its comparative lack of a uniformly recognized ethical framework.  To the extent that journalists are frequently not called to account when their code of practice is violated, it must be concluded that journalism has not yet met all the criteria attached to being a true profession.

The answer to our second question really follows on from our answer to the first.  Once its ethical structure has been more effectively defined and regulated (both internally and externally), journalism will have earned its place as a profession and, with it, a much higher place in the esteem and respect of its public audience. 
 

Lynch, Art  “Is Journalism a Profession?” Communication Professor.  7 April, 2013.  Web.  6^th May, 2013

Hirst M. and Patching R.  Journalism Ethics.  Melbourne: Oxford University Press. 2005. Print.

Boddy-Evans, A. “The Journalist, the Vulture and the Child” in http://africanhistory.about.com/b/2006/04/12/the-journalist-the-vulture-and-the-child.htm. 12th April, 2006.  Web.  6^th May, 2013