Handbook of Independent Journalism

by Deborah Potter

Journalism is both a profession and a craft, since journalists draw on specialized skills and adhere to common standards. So what makes journalism different from other occupations like medicine or law, which could be described in similar terms? Perhaps the greatest difference is the special role the news media play in a free society. A free press has often been called the oxygen of democracy, because one cannot survive without the other. The French political writer Alexis de Tocqueville noted as much when he visited the United States almost 200 years ago. “You can’t have real newspapers without democracy, and you can’t have democracy without newspapers,” he wrote. Since then, that simple statement has been proven true in nations all over the world. Democracies, established or emerging, depend on the consent of an informed citizenry, and the news media are a primary source of the information people need in order to govern themselves.

65 pages, Paperback

Published September 29, 2020