Keep your eye on the prize
Winning awards vs. journalistic integrity
Carrie Potter
Issue date: 4/23/09 Section: Perspectives
Last Thursday, journalism and mass communication and other students looked on with awe as the best of the best in the School of Communication walked to the stage to receive yet another award.
The GRW Theater was packed, and I sat in bewilderment near a group of students that commented that the JMC Awards Night was strikingly similar to the Oscars.
Except Kris Radder wore flannel pajamas.
With commencement looming ever closer and the horrifying notion of being pitched from our ivory tower, I have to admit: after four years of journalism courses, have we forgotten the point of being a journalist? Although it is universal in the business world, does hubris have a place in journalism?
Awards like those presented last Thursday are a reminder of our self-rewarding society; never mind being comfortable that you've done the job right, but throw in a public display of feigned humility to reassure your grandeur as a human being.
For journalists, the purpose of reporting is lost if the journalist's intention is to win awards and public recognition. However, the intentions of the winners of the 2008-2009 journalism awards might have been sound.
After all, they certainly did the work.
I've thought for some time now that senior broadcasting major Annie Perri lives in the Green Room at the Wood Street studios, and senior photography major Kris Radder was born with a Nikon strapped around his neck.
Annie won three awards last week. Kris did as well.
The service those individuals have provided to the development of the School of Communications is enviable. My concern lies in further generations of award-winners: will they understand who they work for as a journalist?
It is a frightening reality that journalism has become a business of "gotcha" stories and less of an ideological profession. Journalists who are nothing but a suit and hair gel walk the line daily between being able to do their jobs and becoming too self-important.
The GRW Theater was packed, and I sat in bewilderment near a group of students that commented that the JMC Awards Night was strikingly similar to the Oscars.
Except Kris Radder wore flannel pajamas.
With commencement looming ever closer and the horrifying notion of being pitched from our ivory tower, I have to admit: after four years of journalism courses, have we forgotten the point of being a journalist? Although it is universal in the business world, does hubris have a place in journalism?
Awards like those presented last Thursday are a reminder of our self-rewarding society; never mind being comfortable that you've done the job right, but throw in a public display of feigned humility to reassure your grandeur as a human being.
For journalists, the purpose of reporting is lost if the journalist's intention is to win awards and public recognition. However, the intentions of the winners of the 2008-2009 journalism awards might have been sound.
After all, they certainly did the work.
I've thought for some time now that senior broadcasting major Annie Perri lives in the Green Room at the Wood Street studios, and senior photography major Kris Radder was born with a Nikon strapped around his neck.
Annie won three awards last week. Kris did as well.
The service those individuals have provided to the development of the School of Communications is enviable. My concern lies in further generations of award-winners: will they understand who they work for as a journalist?
It is a frightening reality that journalism has become a business of "gotcha" stories and less of an ideological profession. Journalists who are nothing but a suit and hair gel walk the line daily between being able to do their jobs and becoming too self-important.
Be the first to comment on this story