Why democracies need a Functional Definition of Journalism now more than ever

What is it about?

People think they know what journalism is, but asked to define it, they get clueless in a hurry. This is even true of journalism professors and their students. This essay sets out to define journalism in a simple, practical and comprehensive way.

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Why is it important?

Today, everyone can be a journalist, and everyone can do journalism. But does that mean everything that anyone published on the Internet is a work of journalism? How about fake news, satire, ideology-driven blogs, and thinly veiled publicity stunts? These are probably easy to recognize as not journalism, but things get grey pretty quickly. So, how exactly can we draw the line without going crazy with circular logic? This question can matter in practical ways, too: who gets a press pass to a cup final game? when you get a subpoena to identify someone who may have committed a crime, can you claim a right to protect your confidential "source"?

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