Title: The Purpose of Journalism: What Do We Need It For? | Honest Reporting
Headings: The Purpose of Journalism: What Do We Need It For?
The Purpose of Journalism: What Do We Need It For?
1. To Inform Us
2. Bearing Witness
3. The Watchdog Role
4. Conveying Context
5. Setting The Tone of Public Debate
The Public Has Responsibilities Too
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Pesach Benson

Content: It’s called news because you’re learning what’s new in the world. Journalism expands our horizons beyond our immediate community. It helps us understand our neighborhood and the rest of the world a little better, helps us identify friends and foes, provides an opportunity to learn from the experience of others, and gives us an awareness to take action. Beyond the daily developments, journalism allows us to take stock of our society by reporting on trends. Journalism draws our attention to problems like rising crime rates, declining matriculation, business bubbles waiting to burst or the unintended consequences of an initiative to fight pollution. Thanks to journalism, we can draw conclusions from positive trends as well, whether we’re talking about an encouraging change in the poverty rate, how a particular neighborhood benefited from a zoning modification, or a recycling initiative exceeding expectations. This article is part of a series on news literacy designed to educate readers to better judge the reliability of news reports and other sources of information. 2. Bearing Witness
In its simplest definition, bearing witness means “to show that something exists or is true.” It means a reporter was physically on the scene, taking in events, reporting firsthand knowledge as an eyewitness.