Journalism: Publishing Across Media 1 To The Student This text is not so much a textbook about journalism as it is a book about how to do journalism. It is true you will fi nd features that discuss our human hunger for news through thousands of years and our desire to be heard beyond the sound of our own voices. In the chapters on law and ethics, you will read about the close, and sometimes stormy, marriage between journalism and democracy. But primarily this book contains what you fi rst need to know in order to think, research, write, record and photograph, design and publish as a journalist, no matter what your current talents are, no matter what media you use to gather news and to publish it, or how you converse with your audience. No one is born a profi cient and ethical journalist. We grow as we practice the craft. This text provides basics, but basics you will revisit frequently even if you work as a journalist for decades: What is my job as a journalist? What should I cover? What legal protections do I enjoy as a citizen and as a journalist? Who do I trust as a source? How do I decide what to publish when it may help some and hurt others? When do I report all I know, and when do I remain respectfully silent? Journalism is communication for a real audience who cares about—or can be made to care about— real events and issues. Here you will fi nd chapters on reporting news, features stories, sports, reviews, and editorials and other opinion pieces. In each chapter the needs of your audience will infl uence your journalistic decisions. Because we use words to think, journalism is at its heart about writing, no matter how many other modes of communication we employ. Writers’ Workshops at the end of each chapter will help you hone your writing as a whetstone sharpens a knife. Journalism Style activities help you prepare your work for publication—and to be received with respect when it is published. One commentator called journalism “twenty-fi rst century English.” So welcome to what can be a high point in your high school career, your best preparation for college work and perhaps the passion of a lifetime. Welcome to Journalism: Publishing Across Media. Janet Ewell Michelle Balmeo Ellen Austin Randy Hamm