Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The social and professional standing of journalists has been ambiguous throughout journalism history and still varies widely for at least three reasons: because journalism covers many different jobs, from manual to intellectual (→ Journalists' Role Perception ); because journalists' control of what gets published varies greatly; and because the characteristics of journalism also vary, from making artistic compositions to straight reporting. These ambivalences, made acute by censorship in many countries, help explain the slow development of professional journalist associations. Joining a professional journalism association usually requires gaining one's main income by working fulltime in the editorial department of a media organization. News gathering may involve documentation, detective work, outright research, or combining findings from existing databases. Other specialists such as photographers, technicians, designers, and the like are central to producing content but are not responsible for the full journalistic text. Media work involves observing events and images or fetching information from outside sources, transcribing or transforming the information, and finally editing and framing the information into a preset template (→ Magazine, Visual Design of ; Newspaper ; Photojournalism ). It is difficult to pursue journalism outside editorial departments. Getting hired by a ... log in or subscribe to read full text