Journalism and why I love role-playing

There are many different hats that journalists wear. One minute, we’re informers. The next, we’re entertainers. We’re facilitators — moderating the social conversations between officials and citizens. Then maybe we take a break for lunch. Nice pastrami on rye, some jalapeno chips, maybe even a beer if it has already been a long day. Back from lunch, we may have to put on our watchdog hat — corruption is all around us, after all. Maybe late in the day we’ll champion the voice of the unheard. I don’t know, maybe there won’t be time. The point is, depending on beat assignments, breaking news, location and myriad other elements, journalist’s roles can be a lot of different things — maybe even at the same time.

Above all, I would say journalists are informers. We’re “Johnny-on-the-spot” if you will. While this might not be the most important role journalism plays, the content that fills up most papers around the country is straight information. From the beginning, we’re told the easiest way to write up a story is by giving the who, what, when, where, why and how of a given event. Many people simply look to the paper to get this from the headlines and lead paragraphs of a story. When this happens, journalists are fulfilling their role as informers — whether the news is international, national or local is of little importance.

Moving into a role of greater importance, journalists provide a checks and balances to government, business and other institutions. Because of journalists, I think that city and public officials are held accountable for promises and practices. This also ties in with journalists’ roles as investigative watchdogs. Obviously, corrupt officials or business owners would not simply inform local news outlets of wrongdoing and, thus, journalists serve an important role as the people who dig for and unearth these stories. This is something the public clearly expects of the press, since a lot of criticism was meted out following the discovery that the Bush administration had misconstrued facts about findings in Iraq.

When it comes to issues like the War in Iraq, the Enron scandal, or high-profile court cases like the recent one of Scooter Libby, journalists must also play the role of analyst. Because of the complexities of many stories, and the fact the journalists have access to sources and documents the general public does not, it is an important for journalists to go beyond the five W’s and H to explain the multiple facets of stories. In is one thing to report the scandal surrounding Enron — it is another entirely to connect it to issues of energy privatization, its effect on the economy as a whole, the implications for the future of its employees, etc. People turn to journalists to tell them what these stories mean.

While on the topic of Enron, another important role of journalism is to provide a voice to the underprivileged and disenfranchised. Without the ability to call press conferences or access the media in the form of press releases, journalists must give the everyday person a platform for telling their story. Journalists must serve minority groups, public stockholders, laid-off employees and more.

As I was discussing the five most important roles of journalists with my group on Monday, we found it difficult to rank them, and I think this has a lot to do with what I just mentioned — journalists are often wearing multiple hats. Journalists are always acting as gatekeepers and moderators — simply by choosing to pick one story over another, importance is being communicated to an audience. Similarly, while we didn’t include entertainer in our list, journalists are nonetheless writing entertainment stories every day, and entertainment might be tied in with our role as informer. Journalism is a business constantly in flux — it changes according to societal, technological and professional developments. Because of this, journalists must be ready and willing to fulfill several roles.