Beware of solitary journalism
The American Pulitzer Prize for this year has just been awarded to deserving journalists. That is the gold standard of journalism. But like any awarding body, it also has its share of controversies.
Think, for example, of President Obama’s Nobel Prize, or that of Al Gore for his film, “The Inconvenient Truth,” on global warming. These provoked a howl of protests in many places, leaving the name of the award badly battered.
I won’t go into these disputes. Instead, I prefer to discuss some aspects of journalism that I feel need to be addressed as the world enters into more exciting, complicated, if not confusing times.
The crucial issue confronting journalism now, as in all other fields, is the challenge of direction it should be taking given present developments. Will it just be contented with covering news events, dishing out some interesting facts and data, and offering opinions, comments and views on our multiplying affairs?
For sure, these efforts are already a great service to society. They are already quite defined as proper to journalism, and should not be abandoned. But there’s also a crying need for it to grow more somehow, to be more mature, more engaging in the increasing nuances of people’s interests.
Journalism has to flow with the times. While it has to continue to cater to the traditional needs of the people for basic information, it should also quickly capture and identify the daily changes taking place in people’s minds and taste, and seize the chance to satisfy their need for more processed information.
This challenge is made more rousing because of the progressive surge of high-technology-driven information now available. The media market is soaked with data and opinions and it’s now asking what next can be done out of them.
I think that just as in other fields, journalism should not get stuck in the raw and tender stage of its work. It needs to bud and flower. Of course, given the infinite possibilities of the materials it handles, journalism has to continually metamorphose. It has to keep on reengineering itself.
Given this situation, journalism has no other alternative but to go into greater interdisciplinary approaches. It has to put more range and depth into its work. At the same time, it has to know how to calibrate its reporting according to the different levels of needs and interests of its audience.
As we can see, the challenge indeed is awful. This is not to mention that, in the end, what journalism has to work on is to ground itself on the ultimate basis and purpose of truth. God has to come in. One’s bedrock of faith and morals has to be clearly defined and solidly established.
Otherwise, it can’t help but become a free-floating, open-ended enterprise where we can feel lost at sea. Its claims for veracity, justice and freedom would just be inflated words and empty slogans.
Without the guidance of core beliefs, and ultimately of God, any effort to transmit news and information, and any aspect of truth, will tend to spiral out of its proper orbit. Exaggerations, abuses and distortions can abound.
When belief in the absolute truth or in a living God is missing, and instead there’s just a fascination for relativism, or for an anything-goes, free-for-all outlook, then we can only expect endless quarrelling and bickering.
Yes, in journalism there will always be grey areas where tentative ideas can be made and dialogue should be fostered. This is typical of our human and earthly condition. Everyone just has to learn how to dance with this beat, and try to be as respectful as possible of everybody else.
Journalism now needs to go deeper in its grounding, to aim at higher, more nuanced aims and objectives, and to be more consistent in its behavior in spite of the ups and downs of news developments.
It has to avoid being solitary in any step of its work. It has to keep a vital link with God and with everybody else. Otherwise, one is bound to create a pseudo-reality, prone to miss the increasingly finer points involved in handling data and information.
We should never forget that whatever we do with any aspect of truth necessarily brings us in direct contact with God. We need to find a way to feel at home with this basic truth.
I think this is the direction journalism should take today. I know many still consider this attitude abstract, impracticable, if not preposterous. But we cannot remain there. We have to move forward.
(Fr. Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE), Talamban, Cebu City. Email: roycimagala@gmail.com)
