Journalism as a public forum

“Journalists must provide a forum for public criticism and compromise” (Kovach & Rosenstiel 166).

Debate and argument is everywhere. Media outlets present issues and conflict everyday. However, more often than not, the issues are presented as polarized extremes that exclude the majority of citizens who reside in the middle of the spectrum. These outlets also tend to focus on their opinions rather than the news.
Journalists should provide a public forum with an emphasis on facts and verification. When journalists inform the public on issues, it encourages judgement. The public hears the issues and reacts throughout the community. Their voices are heard on the radio, talk shows, opinion editorials, and blogs.

“I’m very much inspired by this culture of people who believe that journalism should be about raising hell in an intelligent way. But I don’t mean throwing a brick at someone’s head and saying ‘Yeah, yeah, you’re a jerk.’ You should really be provoking people to think – challenging them to justify and defend their ideas, just as I have to justify and defend mine” (Jon Katz).

An example of this is when Jon Stewart appeared on an episode of Crossfire. He criticized them for not allowing actual debate and being partisan hacks.

"Unless the forum is based on a foundation of fact and context, the questions citizens ask will become simply rhetorical. The debate will cease to educate; it will only reinforce the prejudgments people arrive with. The public will be less able to participate in solutions. Public discourse will dissolve into noise, which the majority of the public will tune out. The worry is not the wondrous addition of citizen media, but the decline of full-time, professional monitoring of powerful institutions. The forum must adhere to all other journalistic principles" (Kovach & Rosenstiel 184).


I believe that journalists should provide a forum for public criticism and compromise because they are the only people who can effectively find out if assertions of arguments are actually true.  They are the only ones who can investigate the backgrounds and motives of various factions.  A forum without a regard to facts cannot inform.  Talk is cheap, and opinion has taken over the media.  Truth and verification in a public forum is more important now than ever.