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Boucher

Rosemary Boucher

Professor Pantalone

Journalism 410

April 2nd, 2019

The Heart of Journalism

The 2016 election was not handled well from a journalistic perspective. There were many

blunders such as disproportionate news coverage and wrong predictions. Kyle Pope, of the

Columbia Journal Review, gives a list of the ways in which journalists can do better in reporting

on the upcoming 2020 election.

One of Pope’s complaints about the 2016 election is that journalists reported information

that was not relevant to the public and often reported things in an uninteresting way. He cites the

example of the campaign announcement of Elizabeth Warren where many aspects were reported

on such as the aesthetics of the location rather than what she promised to bring to her candidacy.

Also, Pope talks about how politics are not being explained plainly enough for the average

person.

The other complaint that Pope had was the need for diversity. He emphasized both

looking for new and different sources, being open to criticism, and focusing on events outside of

the United States as well. Pope says that it is easy to be so self consumed that we forget about the

rest of the world and lose sight of the things journalists could learn from them. When these

things happen it closes the media off from the truth resulting in them turning a blind eye to the

past of each candidate, turning a deaf ear to the needs of the public, and becoming so
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introspective that we refuse any help. Lastly, Pope talks about turning away from trying to

predict the outcome of any thing in the election, citing the wrong predictions of the last one.

Some of Pope’s points are valid. There is room for improvement anywhere, however, he

seems to take it to the extreme. While I agree that not all information is important, like what a

candidate wears, I think the timing and location of the campaign announcement is important. It

partially revels things about their character that are important when choosing the next leader of

the country. I agree that many news outlets disregarded the pasts of the candidates at the start of

the campaign. These and a few other things seemed to point at him talking about a specific set of

news outlets rather than journalists in general. However, he did have valid criticism. I think more

political aspects need to be explained better for all people to understand and there is room for

more diversity in sources. The lack of journalistic poise in taking criticism was a big problem in

the 2016 election.

Overall, the principles of journalism still hold true in all these things. The obligation to

the truth and loyalty to the citizens is at the heart of Pope’s article. There are elements of

verification in his desire to end election predictions, maintaining independence in his request for

more diverse sources, making the significant interesting in his call for more plain explanations of

politics, and for things to be presented comprehensively and proportionally when he talks about

not emphasizing unimportant details. Pope does not part from these principles in his article,

however, I think that based on how a journalist morally reasons through their work they can

determine the finer details of what Pope’s points look like.