“The press” has been under mass scrutiny with the results of the election and many are considering this to be the next fight for freedom. Hopeful young journalists and writers are being told print media is dead and everything else is fake. Doubt of journalists writing the raw and unrestrained facts is quickly developing in Americans’ minds. Will we ever able to recover from this attack on the truth and reliability of news?
The answer is within the public and our need to please them, instead of ourselves.
Every writer goes through a phase where they only put pencil to paper because they have to. They are forced to create work that they secretly view as substandard and unsatisfactory simply because it is the easiest and sometimes the only way to get praise and create the appearance of productivity. This need to people please and do the bare minimum often prolongs until it is not a phase, but a state of being.
Journalism has quickly molded into a scripted work because imagination is scarce and feared nowadays.
It is easier for some to express it through ‘news,’ embellishing the cold and hard truth to orchestrate an interesting and easy story for the public to digest. In a world full of horror, people naturally prefer to be ignorant and writers have become complacent enough to allow it. However, this is what allows problems to sit until they cannot be ignored. If creators stopped listening to their drive for validation and accolades, Americans would be more educated on the facts to form a fully detailed opinion on issues they feel strongly on.
The revival of print media and trust in reporters will occur when they leave the intricate thinking to the audience and only express what they know in our hearts to be true. Writers have the chance to redeem themselves when they create something not relatable, but real. They need to consider themselves as individuals and write what only they need to hear, disregarding the demands of quantity and the lack of peace in the subject matter.
Yet if they cannot do this, future reporters will.
Our country has reached its breaking point and can no longer be shielded from unpleasantries. My generation will learn to defend our beliefs before they are ripped to shreds. We will soak up information and use it to question a new set of morals we have been given through this election and revelation of America’s underlying racism, xenophobia, sexism, and discrimination. It is their duty to give us the correct information. Journalism can thrive, if we write for ourselves, not because we must.
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