Why is Journalism Important?

Imagine you dont know anything. You don’t know anything about history, culture, politics, media, entertainment, the sciences, other countries, the weather, anything at all. That reality could very well be ours if not for the people who write, the people who inform.

Besides serving as important informants, writers grow as people along with their audiences. From Mark Twain to Betty Friedan, Sophocles to Carl Bernstein, they’ve served their societies tremendously. Forms of journalism outside of writing have kept the public informed with insurmountable knowledge, with stars such as Walter Cronkite keeping America lively with his skill as a TV Anchor, George Carlin with his social commentary that wore a mask of humor, John Oliver with his full-blown investigations into topics overlooked by the majority. People like these keep society thinking.

Without journalists, anchormen, and investigators, who would keep authority in check? Johnson backed out of the Vietnam war because of Cronkite’s expose, Mark Twain mocked politicians in such a way that kept his audience critical, and in the modern day, The Atlantic pries into the cracks of the Trump Administration to keep facts centerfold. People will always remain writing, and across the serious, humorous, and furious, the country can unify itself within agreement of their journalists- the uncorrupted, in-touch spokespeople.

Journalism is a timeless practice, dating so far back that people would mail each other rocks with writing on them to communicate in mesopotamia. That need to communicate is forever bound within human nature, and at seemingly all times there are things to talk about. Anyone can write, anyone can introduce new ideas, and everyone needs to be heard.

Those writers are a platform who must put the microphone in the hands of others, speak into the microphone for the sake of the greater good, and deny the microphone from those who mean harm.