What is Journalism?

The profession of journalism is in the midst of a transformation due to the growth of digital media in the last few years...Newspapers border on the brink of extinction, everyday more and more voices call for the audiences attention through blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and the public trust of the media continues to decline, but do all these challenges facing the profession of journalism mean the definition of journalism itself has changed? or even needs to be adapted?

The answer to those questions is no. Journalism as a principle was created to correctly inform and protect society from misinformation that may be distributed, but corrupt organizations (whether government or private) that has the power to control the flow of information. Over the course of history some have tried to corrupt the principle of journalism by calling themselves journalists and embellishing stories (e.g. Yellow Journalism) or serving biased interests, but that has not and will never be journalism.

Journalism today has seen drastic changes in the way it is delivered to its audience, but the principle remains the same. Those individuals who seek out true information and credible report it to an audience are journalists and practice journalism. Those who don't follow this pattern no matter their skill as a writer...they are still just story tellers.