Journalism as a profession is a constantly changing, multi-faceted part of the constitutional republic. For many years freedom of the press has been seen as being as sacrosanct as the freedom of speech. The tide now flows away from journalism as their place in the workings of politics and American life are now rapidly changing. Old school journalists may view themselves as the gatekeepers of information for the American public. As Laura Davis points out this simply is no longer the case. “As Tom Rosenstiel recently put it, journalists are now “annotators” of what the public knows, rather than the agenda setters.”
The proliferation of alternative media and the new digital environment that has allowed small time creators to garner big time audiences has fundamentally changed the role of the journalist. Journalists now have a responsibility and duty to contextualize the massive amounts of information at the public’s fingertips all day, every day. Creating a frame of reference in the sea of raw information has led to many policy changes like purposely deemphasizing mass shooters and focusing on victims and heroes rather than the criminals. This is one way in which journalism is still important and relevant to society today.
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