What is the role of the press today?

Question

I'm doing a journalism survey: what do you think the role of the press is today, ideally and practically?
If you were allowed to fix one thing about the press and its audience, what would it be/why?

Answer 1

The "press" today is simply a robot of the government, finding it easier and more cost -efficient to simply read the government news release verbatim instead of digging out stories for themselves.
The "fourth estate" used to be a responsible watchdog that looked out for citizens' interests, doubted the government's word, and was sensibly skeptical about government's actions. As a retired newspaper publisher (and former middle-manager for USA TODAY), I would revitalize the 'press' to be more than just a puppet for the government, returning to its role as the 'fourth estate' that served the people and not the government. I would also try to instill skepticism, doubt, awareness, and a healthy dose of mistrust in the minds of Americans so that questioned the government's actions and demanded more accountability from the government and the press.
Franklin once said: "When people fear the government, it is tyranny. When government fears the people, it is liberty." We are slowly losing our liberties, rights and freedoms all because we don't question what our government is up to - or why. -RKO- 06/16/07

Answer 2

The role of the press should always go back to Reithian ideals; inform, educate, and entertain. What does it actually do? Many journo's get hung on the ego trip of journalism, and want to break a big story, or support their favourite politician etc, and thus end up being bad journo's with an axe to grind. But most (at least here in New Zealand) care about writing an acurate, objective story, and yes it has to entertain or else no-one would watch/listen to/read it. If there's one thing I would change it would be to make the public question all news they see, not just the news they don't like.

Answer 3

You want it in a nutshell? To direct the society of our nation in the direction that achieves the most good for the majority of the population, in all respects.

By being fully informed the public can make the decisions necessary to achieve the long term goals of social equality and stability.

The one thing that maybe needs to be fixed is the ability of government and big business to suppress or downplay bad news so as to keep the public under control.

Answer 4

The role of today's press is entertainment, shock, half-truths, quoting of unnamed sources, and general hysteria. The thing I would fix, have the news presented unbiased, accurate, and truthful. Oops, I disqualified myself, that's more than one.