Implications for Journalism

                Elder Dallin H. Oaks offers great insights about the future of society in his talk entitled “Where Will It Lead?”  He states and elaborates on four different areas of increasingly evolving societal trends that in include (1) the overemphasis on rights and the under-emphasis on responsibility, (2) the diminished readership of newspapers and books, (3) the material that is being taught or not taught that influences our future leaders, and (4) growing public distrust in public officials and figures.  These four points accurately represent the changing trends in society that can also play a major part in the future development of journalism.    

                One area of concern for our society’s future regards what is being taught (or rather, what is not) in schools or families that influences those who will be our future leaders.  These two areas of a child’s life are the most influential as they develop thinking skills and make decisions in their lives.  If they are not being taught correct principles or wholesome values, what can we expect from them in the future as our leaders?  Are we as journalist’s being responsible in this call to properly teach?  Media is another extremely influential aspect of a child’s life.  It teaches them how to perceive themselves, others, and the world around them.  Are we covering issues and reporting to the public properly so as to give them a foundation on which to base their developing beliefs?

                As journalists, it is our responsibility to appropriately cite information to the public and provide the world with as unbiased and true a view as possible.  If we are to participate in one of the most heavily influential areas of a growing child’s or teen’s life, we must raise up a generation of individuals we would be proud to have had a hand in.  We cannot simply sit on the sidelines, report incorrect or hazardous biases, and then expect the world to be a better place.  Journalists must be ever-aware of the shifting values and societal changes as they report news to the world at large and be prepared to influence the world for the better.