Running Head: A FAMILY WITH FACTS

A Family With Facts

Sonoma Gioscia

Arizona State University

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Abstract

Journalism is not dead, nor will it ever be. Journalism can be misunderstood and

misinterpreted into something that is not true or biased, especially now in this political climate

where some News stations only report on things pertaining to their political agenda, instead of

being objective, which is the one thing that is emphasized at the Walter Cronkite School of

Journalism at Arizona State University. I wanted to research what Journalism can do for the

future? What is inspiring about Journalism? Will Journalism be dead in the near future due to

technological advances? Why is Journalism important?

Keywords​: Journalism, Objective, Inspiring

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A Family With Facts

It was a Monday morning and I was tired from traveling to Arkansas from California for

my Spring Break. I had just woken up and I could smell the freshly brewed coffee that my

grandparents made, an indicator that everyone was awake and most likely breakfast had been

made. Once the whiff of cinnamon rolls hit my nose, I shimmied out of bed as fast as I could to

get to the dining room just in time to taste those glisteny rolls of heaven while they were still

warm. I see both of my grandparents reading the newspaper while sipping on their cups of black

coffee. We all sat in silence watching birds chirp, squirrels run, and cows “moo.” Our

conversations in the morning would mostly consist of talk about things on the newspaper

whether someone down the street was selling their house or if someone across the road had

recently passed away. They were always concerned with what was happening around them. They

would say to me often, “We can’t have any surprises Sonoma, so prepare yourself by watching

the news and reading the newspaper.” Now, have I followed what they said? Absolutely not.

Personally, I haven’t been watching the news or reading the newspaper because I feel that it can

be a waste of time, since most of the information given is biased.

My grandparents interest in news and newspapers inspired me to look further into the

community of Journalism. I was curious about Journalism majors simply because of the

controversies surrounding this career in today’s climate. To be completely honest the “trust in…

press is declining” and in recent years “from 1990 to 2016 the number of newspaper employees

have dropped from 456,300 to 183,000,” meaning that a lot of people are misinformed about

local news due to the decrease in local newspapers (Sennott & Waldman, 2018). Journalism has

been taken for granted, unappreciated, and unnoticed, especially today with new technology and
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social media platforms. I believe the people of Journalism are the root of all information given to

the public and sometimes that information can be manipulated into something completely

different just by the change of a few words. It has become increasingly difficult for the public,

including me, to trust the news because most of the information given is biased and omits some

facts that are essential to the story being told. I think it’s important to address the question of

whether “fake news” will continue to appear in the future because it’s unfair to label every single

Journalist as a liar.

To learn more about the community of Journalism majors at ASU, I decided to observe

the average student at Walter Cronkite by sitting in their regular hang out area called The Forum

and watching a weekly seminar held that is called Must See Mondays. I wanted to see what

Journalism majors experience on a daily basis. To gain a first-hand perspective on Journalism, I

interviewed two freshmen, Amanda and Rae’Lee, whom are both Journalism majors at ASU. I

wanted to find a broad opinion of Journalism across the world through finding several articles

that spoke about how society and politics have affected the Journalism field.

Given my research, I found that the Journalism community at ASU is taught

fundamental values of objectivity, truthfulness, freedom of speech, and the First Amendment.

The Journalism community holds the power of writing in high regards, it might not be an object

or artifact, but it’s something very important to their education and future careers. Something so

easy as putting a pencil to paper can have the power to change a person’s perspective on a

current event. To choose an actual object for the Journalism community, I would say any writing

utensils such as pencils, papers, pens, or computers because these items help Journalism majors

become great writers and even better Journalists.

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Journalism majors are incredibly active within their community because the Walter

Cronkite School of Journalism ensures that every single student has an opportunity to learn more

about their major and what it can do for them in the future. I found that Journalism majors from

freshman to senior year have put themselves out there and tried new things because of the

continuous encouragement they receive from their superiors. The Walter Cronkite School of

Journalism is invested in their students success and their desire to see them prosper, meaning that

the faculty and staff at Walter Cronkite truly care for their students.

Thinking about the future is frightening because that’s when you’re on your own and you

can only rely on yourself to get things done. This, however, is not true for most Journalism

majors at ASU because the activities held at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism have

helped comfort students into knowing that they would be prepared for their future. Some

activities held at the School of Journalism are Cronkite News and Blaze Radio, helps students

learn about the ins and outs of News and Radio stations. A learning place that can apply what is

taught to real life situations is amazing. Both Rae’Lee and Amanda were extremely happy to be

apart of Blaze Radio and Cronkite News because it’s something of substance, it’s real and allows

them to try new things in Journalism and learn skills that could be applied to their future careers.

The people within the community are incredibly diverse, but they share commonalities of

extreme curiosity and dedication. These shared interests bring people from different backgrounds

together as if they were a family made from a large melting pot. From the faculty and staff to the

Journalism students at Walter Cronkite, it’s a great atmosphere for a student just starting college

because they have “welcomed [them] with open arms” (Personal Interview, 10 Oct. 2018).
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Everything that I have found are essential to the Journalism community at ASU and

shaped this community into what it is today. The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, Must

See Mondays, Cronkite News, Blaze Radio, writing, etc. are tiny parts to a big identity of a

Journalism major. An identity that cannot be tainted by the temptations of subjectivity because

the most important thing is the basic skill of objectivity. Being objective throughout their work is

touched on repeatedly throughout their curriculum at ASU. Having an effective and “carefully

designed media ethics [at ASU] can affect [the] students’ value systems and ideological

outlooks” on how to inform the public of current events, which will inevitably improve the

quality of information received in the future (Plaisance, 2006). These students face criticism that

their major is useless, the “enemy of the people,” or “fake news” (Harris, 2018). Trust is an

issue for the public when it comes to Journalists and the articles they write because it’s difficult

to decipher if it’s a lie, a half-truth, or the whole truth. It’s important for the public to be

informed about every current event that happens because it’s our right to know. Without

information every single person would be in the dark and the democracy of the United States

would begin to vanish.

So, why is the Journalism community at ASU important? It’s important because these

students are the gateway to knowledge we will receive in the future, which could change our

perspective of the world and what happens in it. It cannot and should not be skewed by

someone’s biases and their beliefs, information should be completely objective. Based on the

values of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism there is hope that the integrity of the

Journalism community will be restored by it’s current students.

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References

Klein, R. (2018, October 26). Personal Interview.

​ etrieved from
Harris, A. (2018). Student journalism in the age of media distrust. ​The Atlantic. R

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/student-journalism-in-the-age-of-

media-distrust/567089/

Sennott, C., Waldman, S. (2018). The crisis in journalism has become a crisis of democracy. ​The

Washington Post. ​Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/

the-crisis-in-journalism-has-become-a-crisis-of-democracy/2018/04/11/a908d5fc-2d64-

11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f4fc30f6edf2

Plaisance, P. L. (2006). An assessment of media ethics education: course content and the values

and ethical ideologies of media students. ​Journalism & Mass Communication Educator,

61​(4). ​https://doi.org/10.1177/107769580606100404