(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
Josephi added his other argument about it. “That is difficult to mark out the range of
activities performed by journalists, and developments in technology keep adding to the
scope” (Josephi, 2009, p. 143).
In addition, Mogensen said, although journalism is not a profession in the terminology
of traditional sociology, some studies saw that journalist from varies news media has
norm and value related to their role as journalist (Mogensen, 2008, p. 33). The same
argument came from McNair. He said that journalism is profession, because it must
have code of ethic and it guarantees the integrity, trustworthiness and their status as
journalist (McNair, 1998, p. 64). “But to have a profession of journalism—a true
profession—would assure journalistic freedom and institutional autonomy and at the
same time would create a structure to insure high quality and morality among the
professionals" (Merrill, 2005, p. 7). In summary, if journalist is a profession, so the
work must be professional.
There are requirements for journalist if they want to be the real professional journalist.
According to Mogensen, a number of institutions providing information about “the
norms and performance standards” that should be applied by journalist in a democracy
(Mogensen, 2008, p. 33). It means that if journalists want to be professional, journalists
should run the norms and performance standards. “The journalistic profession would
have a way of expelling a person who practiced unprofessional journalism” (Merrill,
2005, p. 8).
Therefore, people who conducted journalism should be professional. For this reason
the work of a journalist is a professional job. There are also criteria of the professionals
as stated by Broddason (1994): “traditional definitions of professionalism emphasize
criteria such as collective control over entry into the profession, an ethical code
supported by self-policing, a special set of skills and a definable body of knowledge, as
well as client relations with the public.”
Refer to Broddason criteria, the professionalism in journalism could be seen in the
following items. First, collective control could be built through professional
associations of journalists. The organizations govern the conduct and behavior of the
journalists in carrying out their profession. It could also be added to this category is the
editorial organization (newsroom organization) as a control group for
journalists. Second, the journalistic code of ethics became the foundation and
guidelines for journalists. Each journalist’s activities and behaviors must be guided by
journalistic code of ethics.
Third, journalists should have a set of abilities or special skills and body of knowledge.
That is, a professional journalist should have adequate journalistic skills such as news
reporting, writing, producing and so forth. Thus the professional journalist should be
well trained and educated. They should always attend journalistic training to enhance
their skills. Meanwhile the body of knowledge is a set of concepts, understanding, and
activities that must be owned by a journalist. It has been assigned by the association of
journalists. In other words, a professional journalist should have a deep understanding
of the working procedures of journalism. According to Merrill (2005), “every
professional journalist should master” (p. 9). Fourth, the relationship between client and
415