Since its publication in 2001, “The Elements of Journalism” has been the industry-standard text on the ethics and practice of journalism. In this edited excerpt from the third edition, published this past April, co-authors Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel … Read more
“Journalism is our modern cartography. It creates a map for citizens to navigate society. This is its utility and its economic reason for being…. As with any map, journalism’s value depends on its completeness and proportionality. Journalists who devote far … Read more
“Every journalist—from the newsroom to the boardroom—must have a personal sense of ethics and responsibility—a moral compass. What’s more, they have a responsibility to voice their personal conscience out loud and allow others around them to do so as well…. Read more
“…Being impartial or neutral is not a core principle of journalism. …impartiality was never what was meant by objectivity. …the critical step in pursing truthfulness and informing citizens is not neutrality but independence…. This applies even to those who work … Read more
“A commitment to citizens is more than professional egoism. It is the implied covenant with the public…. The notion that those who report the news are not obstructed from digging up and telling the truth—even at the expense of the … Read more
“In the end, the discipline of verification is what separates journalism from entertainment, propaganda, fiction, or art…. Journalism alone is focused first on getting what happened down right…. Perhaps because the discipline of verification is so personal and so haphazardly … Read more
“…This forum function of the press would make it possible to create a democracy even in a large, diverse country by encouraging what James Madison and others considered the basis upon which democracy would stand—compromise, compromise, compromise…. In the new … Read more
“… This classic way of posing the question of engagement—as information versus storytelling, or what people need versus what people want—is a distortion. This is not how journalism is practiced, journalists told us. Nor is it, we believe, how people … Read more
“On this there is absolute unanimity and also utter confusion: Everyone agrees journalists must tell the truth. Yet people are fuddled about what “the truth” means…. This desire that information be truthful is elemental. Since news is the material that … Read more
