What is journalism?

Journalism is comprised of two main parts -- the gathering of information, and the presentation and publication of that information to a mass audience. Many people gather information. A professor conducting research, a student writing a thesis, or a consultant collecting data for a client all gather information. But what they do is not journalism. An instructor teaching a class, a local elementary school student selling items for a fundraiser, or a blogger commenting on current events and issues all present information. But what they do is not journalism.

Journalists gather information through research, interviews, and first-hand knowledge and present and publish it to mass audiences through the medium of written word (newspapers, magazines) or the medium of spoken word (radio, television).

I do not agree with the notion of a "citizen journalist". The internet has made it possible for virtually anyone to comment on virtually anything and reveal it to the world through written word (blogging) or spoken word (video blogging). These individuals are no different, however, than their ancestors who did the same thing in taverns and other public meeting places well before the days of the internet. The medium has allowed for their comments to reach more people, but the nature of the individual has not changed.

Journalism entails both the medium and the individual. The individual must be a journalist who not only gathers, not only presents, not only publishes information, but does all of this.