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May 24, 2004
Argue, insist, work...
William Kennedy has this to say about the press:
I think it's impossible to overrate the importance of the press to a free society, and then I consider a recent statistic--that 25 percent of the age group to which students graduating here today belong, do not pay much attention to the press, which is deeply depressing, and dangerous. The press can be trivial, yes, and it's not always trustworthy, as we know from recent scandals over reporters faking stories and getting away with it for years. But despite fakery, plagiarism, distortion, lies, government secrecy and media stupidity, there is an ongoing communal drive in the American media--print-press and broadcast--to ferret out the truth. This is the single most valuable thing we can do to preserve a free society--protect the right to know what's going on in our world--argue for it, insist upon it, work for it.
Can the importance of the press be overrated? I would agree with Kennedy, but my agreement is based far more on my own commitment to the study and teaching of the profession than in a solid body of evidence explicating the relationship between a free society and a free press (one might argue there are not enough data). Academics, like journalists, find comfort and mission in the assertion that our endeavors are of primary importance to our republic.
Michael Schudson, a sociologist of journalism and American civic life, points out an interesting fact in his book The Power of News: Many of the important studies of democracy, and what it takes to build and maintain a free society, conducted by some leading academics, do not mention a free press. They don't dismiss it or ridicule it. They just simply don't mention it. Hmmmmmm...
Obviously, what some scholars may or may not think about the role of the press in regard to the essentials of democracy has little to do with its actual importance to our free society. If we the people believe that the press is important, if we the people act as if it is important, then it is important. And there's plenty of evidence that, top to bottom, this society thinks the press is still important (that 25 percent figure quoted above sounds like the glass is half full to me).
In my previous academic life as an English professor, part of my pedagogical goal was to encourage critical democratic participation--something that requires a high level of news consumption at its foundation. I won small victories at best. In my new academic life as a journalism professor, I assume a high level of news consumption by students who plan to work in the media. But I'll still be encouraging critical democratic participation. Journalists are players and observers. Some of the problems we're seeing these days spring from the death throes of (philosophic as opposed to procedural) objectivity, i.e. the blurring of the imposed boundary between these two.
I hope the changes I see coming in the profession will create the kind of product that will excite young adults to "protect the right to know what's going on in our world--argue for it, insist upon it, work for it." Then it will be obvious that one cannot overrate the importance of the press to a free society.
UPDATE (1:05 p.m.): Here's a new Pew Research Center survey of journalists' views of the profession. I'll have more to say about this later.
Posted by acline at May 24, 2004 8:35 AM | | Spotlight