A couple of days ago a fellow alum who worked at my college paper about 20 years before me shared an article with me in which the author encouraged young journalists to wake up and realize that finding a career in journalism is basically impossible, and that if, by some streak of luck we do find jobs, we will follow a depressing, unfulfilling career and make very little money doing it.

The blogger, a former journalist, asserts that because of digital journalism and the ability for anyone to publish and market their own writing, readers no longer need to pay for news. This is a tired argument I’ve heard time and time again, to which I always quickly refute the claim by explaining while bloggers can be every bit as talented as professional journalists, they often lack the core characteristic that makes or breaks a journalist’s career: credibility.

I will concede that over time, anyone can establish credibility by building a rapport with his or her audience and adequately attributing sources. When a professional journalist produces inaccurate content, it is not only his or her credibility on the line, but his or her income, as well as the status of the company he or she works for.

This is why situations like the one with Brian Williams that seem to pepper the news all too frequently these days completely infuriate me. If a reporter with the caliber of an NBC Nightly News anchor values celebrity over integrity, how can we expect the younger generation of journalists to not follow suit? We’ve seen similar situations with Jayson Blair and Judith Miller in the last decade or so, both of whom made headlines for fabricating sources — and sometimes full stories — for The New York Times. While some acquaint these embarrassing situations with the downfall of journalism, I can’t help but wonder if journalists are putting more pressure on themselves to create extraordinary stories than their audiences are. After all, if readers did not still hold professional journalists to such a high standard, the scandals with journalists like Williams, Blair and Miller wouldn’t be headline news on the very stations and newspapers these journalists work for.

As a journalist in the generation that is schooled heavily in Google “buzz words” — phrases that bump click rates and in turn boost advertising, the importance of multimedia and the ever-growing desire to be first rather than best, I can almost see how journalists at the level of the aforementioned offenders may be under enough stress to feel the need to embellish. But this is not an excuse. True journalists should hold their credibility as the highest priority in the field, because without the trust of the audience, reporting is completely pointless.

This is why I’m proud to work for a company that values the core principles of journalism over the desire to be the first to publish. While it is important to note that we are looking for ways to grow our web presence and continue to look for new and unique ways to present content to our readers, our desire has always been to tell the best story, not the first.

Of course errors are made — we are only human, but I have the utmost confidence in our editorial team and can assuredly tell you that our reporters hold their integrity to the same standards that I do.

I can’t speak for my coworkers, but my career couldn’t be less depressing or more fulfilling than it is today.

 

Ambrosia Neldon is the managing editor at Leader Publications. She can be reached by phone at (269) 687-7713, or by email at ambrosia.neldon@leaderpub.com.