A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This process is called journalism.
Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertising, or public relations. Depending on the form of journalism, "journalist" may also describe various categories of people by the roles they play in the process. These include reporters, correspondents, citizen journalists, editors, editorial writers, columnists, and photojournalists. A reporter is a type of journalist who researches, writes and reports on information in order to present using sources. This may entail conducting interviews, information-gathering and/or writing articles. Reporters may split their time between working in a newsroom, from home or outside to witness events or interview people. Reporters may be assigned a specific beat (area of coverage). Young trainee reporters are sometimes called a "cub reporter".
Matthew C. Nisbet, who has written on science communication, has defined a "knowledge journalist" as a public intellectual who, like Walter Lippmann, Fareed Zakaria, Naomi Klein, Michael Pollan, and Andrew Revkin, sees their role as researching complicated issues of fact or science which most laymen would not have the time or access to information to research themselves, then communicating an accurate and understandable version to the public as a teacher and policy advisor.In his best-known books, Public Opinion (1922) and The Phantom Public (1925), Lippmann argued that most people lacked the capacity, time and motivation to follow and analyze news of the many complex policy questions that troubled society. Nor did they often experience most social problems or directly access expert insights. These limitations were made worse by a news media that tended to oversimplify issues and to reinforce stereotypes, partisan viewpoints and prejudices. As a consequence, Lippmann believed that the public needed journalists like himself who could serve as expert analysts, guiding "citizens to a deeper understanding of what was really important". In 2018, the United States Department of Labor's Occupational Outlook Handbook reported that employment for the category "reporters, correspondents and broadcast news analysts" will decline 9 percent between 2016 and 2026.
Modern overview A worldwide sample of 27,500 journalists in 67 countries in 2012–2016 produced the following profile:
57 percent male; mean age of 38 mean years of experience, 13 college degree, 56 percent graduate degree, 29 percent 61 percent specialized in journalism/communications at college 62 percent identified as generalists 23 percent specialized as hard-news beat journalists 47 percent were members of a professional association 80 percent worked full-time 50 percent worked in print, 23 percent on television, 17 percent on radio and 16 percent online. In 2019 the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism Digital News Report described the future for journalists in South Africa as "grim" because of low online revenue and plummeting advertising. In 2020 Reporters Without Borders secretary general Christophe Deloire said journalists in developing countries were suffering political interference because the COVID-19 pandemic had given governments around the world the chance "to take advantage of the fact that politics are on hold, the public is stunned and protests are out of the question, in order to impose measures that would be impossible in normal times". In 2023 the closure of local newspapers in the US accelerated to an average of 2.5 per week, leaving more than 200 US counties as "news deserts" and meaning that more than half of all U.S. counties had limited access to reliable local news and information, according to researchers at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. In January 2024, The Los Angeles Times, Time magazine and National Geographic all conducted layoffs, and Condé Nast journalists went on strike over proposed job cuts. The Los Angeles Times laid off more than 20% of the newsroom. CNN, Sports Illustrated and NBC News shed employees in early 2024. The New York Times reported that Americans were suffering from "news fatigue" due to coverage of major news stories like the Hamas attack, Russian invasion of Ukraine and the presidential election. American consumers turned away from journalists at legacy organizations as social media became a common news source.
Freedom Journalists sometimes expose themselves to danger, particularly when reporting in areas of armed conflict or in states that do not respect the freedom of the press. Organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders publish reports on press freedom and advocate for journalistic freedom. As of December 2024, the committee to Protect Journalists reports that 2253 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992, either by murder (71%), crossfire or combat (17%), or on dangerous assignments (11%). The "Ten deadliest countries" for journalists since 1992 have been Iraq (227 deaths), Philippines (157), Mexico (153), Israel (143), Pakistan (96), Colombia (95), India (89), Russia (84), Somalia (81), Brazil (60), and Algeria (60). The committee to Protect Journalists also reports that as on 1 December 2010, 145 journalists were jailed worldwide for journalistic activities. Current numbers are even higher. The ten countries with the largest number of currently-imprisoned journalists are Turkey (95), China (34), Iran (34), Eritrea (17), Burma (13), Uzbekistan (6), Vietnam (5), Cuba (4), Ethiopia (4) and Sudan (3). Apart from physical harm, journalists are harmed psychologically. This applies especially to war reporters, but their editorial offices at home often do not know how to deal appropriately with the reporters they expose to danger. Hence, a systematic and sustainable way of psychological support for traumatized journalists is strongly needed. Few and fragmented support programs exist so far. On 8 August 2023, Iran's Journalists' Day, Tehran Journalists' Association head Akbar Montajabi noted over 100 journalists arrested amid protests, while HamMihan newspaper exposed repression against 76 media workers since September 2022 following Mahsa Amini's death-triggered mass protests, leading to legal consequences for journalists including Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh.
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