Abstract

In an open and virtually boundless media environment, old responses to the question of who is a journalist, based primarily on roles associated with the process of gathering and disseminating information, no longer apply. This article suggests a reconceptualization of the journalist based instead on normative constructs. Specifically, it advocates a blend of two competing philosophical approaches, existentialism and social responsibility theory, as well as two roughly corresponding professional norms, independence and accountability. The combination produces a “socially responsible existentialist,” a journalist who chooses to act as a trustworthy source of information that serves the public interest. That framework is applied at both a concrete level, through consideration of Weblogs and the proliferation of partisan information sources, and a conceptual level, through consideration of gatekeeping and agenda-setting functions.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Author's Original Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Journalism Studies in 2006, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14616700500450277
Publisher Keywords:	Accountability, Existentialism, Independence, Internet, Norms, Social Responsibility Theory
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General)
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Journalism

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