Journalism at its best “momentum”

Practicing journalism today is more challenging and fascinating than before.

Now the information that comes from all sides is more nourished, as well as the mass of false, adulterated or manipulated content.

And this incessant barrage puts at stake the journalist’s ability and skill to separate the chaff from the wheat.

And to find not only the exact point of truth, but also the causes, background and context of an episode, which demands, more than before, thoroughness, neatness and depth, which a demanding audience expects.

The audience of yesteryear, restricted to an elite group, received the information but did not confront it or share it with the medium that disseminated it, unless it was done through letters.

At the time when printing, design or writing formats remained unchanged in printed newspapers, the journalistic exercise ran through routines that left little room to go beyond the news.

By sending regular reporters to one or more regular news sources, which used to be government institutions, courts, Congress or city councils, and political parties, newspapers seemed to satisfy their ordinary search for news.

That stage has already been passed. The media depend on themselves when it comes to selecting the objectives of their investigations and reporters do not have to stick to the official voice, interested or sweetened, to expose a news reality.

Now, with the impact of technology and the formidable connection of thousands of people in an audience that consumes news and content all day, the challenge forces journalists to understand and relate to this new ecosystem.

More than anything, to discover the news, in all its angles and to disseminate it through previously unknown platforms, such as digital ones, in which styles, languages and forms predominate that provide added value to reporting.

Managing now in a mixed or hybrid environment, journalism has the scope to deploy research resources, use of data, audiovisual inputs and reach users of its news or content with quality information, whether in print or digital media.