INTRODUCTION

Journalism is both a profession and a craft, since journalists draw on specialized skills and adhere to common standards. So what makes journalism different from other occupations like medicine or law, which could be described in similar terms? Perhaps the greatest difference is the special role the news media play in a free society.

A free press has often been called the oxygen of democracy, because one cannot survive without the other. The French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville noted as much when he visited the United States almost 200 years ago. "You can't have real newspapers without democracy, and you can't have democracy without newspapers," he wrote. Since then, that simple statement has been proven true in nations all over the world. Democracies, established or emerging, depend on the consent of an informed citizenry, and the news media are a primary source of the information people need in order to govern themselves.

To ensure that journalists are able to provide that information, many countries have established legal protections for a free press. In the United States, for example, journalism is the only profession mentioned in the Constitution, which states: "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech or of the press." As Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, wrote in 1787, "The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."

Journalists in a free society not only have certain legal protections, they also have responsibilities. In some countries, these responsibilities are spelled out and in others they are implicit. But in almost every case they amount to the same thing: to keep citizens informed, journalists have a responsibility to provide information that is accurate and reported fairly — and independently — from outside influences.

In democratic societies around the world, the news media have come to serve an additional function as watchdogs on the activities of the political and judicial branches of government. They have kept democracies viable by giving voice to the voiceless, ensuring that a ruling majority cannot trample the rights of a minority. A 19th century American writer and humorist, Finley Peter Dunne, once said that a journalist's job is "to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." But the primary role of journalism in a free society has remained the same for generations. When a U.S.-based group, the Committee of Concerned Journalists, surveyed journalists about the character of their profession at the very end of the 20th century, they came to this common understanding: "The central purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in a free society."

This handbook offers a brief introduction to the fundamentals of journalism as it is practiced in democratic systems — a journalism that attempts to base itself on fact and not opinion. Opinions have their place, but in the best-edited newspapers they are confined to the editorial pages and op-ed (guest writer) columns. It is the kind of journalism I practiced myself for over 20 years as a reporter and editor, and that I now teach in professional workshops in the United States and around the world. My goal is to provide a useful and practical guide that will help all journalists do better work for the communities they serve.
 

The author, Deborah Potter, is executive director of NewsLab (www.newslab.org), an online resource center for journalists in Washington, D.C., that she founded in 1998. She has taught journalism as a faculty member at The Poynter Institute and at American University, and is a past executive director of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. Potter leads workshops for journalists in newsrooms across the United States and around the world. She is a featured columnist writing about broadcast news for American Journalism Review and the author of Ready, Set, Lead: A Resource Guide for News Leaders. Potter spent more than 20 years in TV news, including 16 as a network correspondent for CBS News and CNN, covering the White House, State Department, Congress, national politics, and environmental issues. She also hosted the PBS TV series "In the Prime." She has a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master's degree from American University.