Chapter objectives

The aims of this chapter are to:

• Provide an understanding of some basic issues of professionalism that all reporters and those in the news industry – or even savvy consumers of news – should be talking about

• Open up a more intellectual discussion of what journalism is and who journalists are

• Show that professionalism also includes behaving within the norms of the law and assessing what is and what is not ethical behaviour for a journalist (as discussed in previous chapters)

What does it mean to be professional?

This statement, in the Foreword to Modern Journalism, is perhaps the first articulation of how the profession of journalism was born (or, if you like, made). But the sub-title used by the authors in this 1931 edition was ‘A Complete Guide to the Newspaper Craft’. Throughout the twentieth century, journalism slowly made the transition from craft to trade to profession, and the education of young reporters – both inside and outside the newsroom – was a major factor in that change. Even in 1931, the English reporter was being exhorted to ‘respect his [sic.] profession’ and to ‘regard himself as a trustee for English language’. H.A. Gwynne wrote that these two principles were ‘the foundations of journalism’.