Journalism = Community = Democracy

Thanks to Jonathan Dube, cyberjournalist.net for this text (with the help of Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel): "News" is previously unknown information. But journalism is much more than that. In "The Elements of Journalism," Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel write, "The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing"... "This definition has held so consistent through history, and proven so deeply ingrained in the thinking of those who produce news through the ages, that it is in little doubt," Kovach and Rosenstiel say. "It is difficult, in looking back, even to separate the concept of journalism from the concept of creating community and later democracy. Journalism is so fundamental to that purpose that … societies that want to suppress freedom must first suppress the press. They do not, interestingly, have to suppress capitalism"... If you try to separate journalism from community and democracy… Well, then, it may be news, but it's not journalism."

Source: cyberjournalist.net