A Short-Form Essay for the Columbia Journalism Review

The Columbia Journalism Review is running a feature in which it asks a wide range of people to answer these questions: What is journalism for? And who is a journalist? Here’s the catch: The answers are limited to 100 words (or thereabouts). Here’s what I wrote:

Digital production and networked communication now allow anyone to create content and disseminate it widely. In this environment, we should consider journalism as an approach to content creation. Those who employ the journalistic approach strive to produce content that helps users better understand and navigate their communities. This approach is characterized by rigorous research and verification, the fair presentation of competing ideas, and a commitment to independent inquiry that follows the facts, challenges the facile and engages with complexity and ambiguity. The journalistic approach can be applied to any form of content. And its use is not limited to those who identify as journalists. It is the act of informing and enlightening that defines content as journalism, not the actor who created it.