Importance of Journalistic Sources

The profession of journalism has many characteristics that distinguish it from other professions and one of them is the constant need to search for data, information. This hard work of investigation it is what can make a journalist or group of them stand out from others due to elements such as their seriousness, their reliability, their objectivity. All these aspects are essential today to practice a good communication profession and having journalistic sources that are reliable and useful is of great help.

Journalism is the transmission of data and material: the need to have your own sources

If we take into account that the job of a journalist is basically transmitting or sharing information with the mass public of a community we will understand that to do that you must have people who provide you with data from different areas and spaces. Depending on the journalist's specialty, the sources will have more or less value, reliability, interest, etc. In the case of the political journalist (who is the central one or the one who at least spends the most time in the media), the information provided must also be serious and corroborated.

The people who provide information to journalists may in turn be specialists or experts in a subject, and that is what makes them serious. However, today, with the advancement of social networks and alternative media, any ordinary person can be a source if they have graphic material or audiovisual, if you have experienced situations that are of interest to the journalist, etc.

The problem of secrecy and the diffusion of sources in the communication world

For journalists (regardless of their specialty) there is a law that is inviolable and that can be compared to the secrecy that doctors must maintain regarding their patients. We are talking about the secrecy that journalists must maintain about who their journalistic sources are or where they obtained certain information from. This is so mainly because maintaining their privacy will be what makes the professional someone trustworthy.

At the same time, the daily practice of journalism requires a permanent use of sources, for which reason violating the secrecy and spreading the information to those who passed the information could easily win the career of the journalist who gives that fact. Many times the information provided by people to journalists is of great value and can even endanger their lives, which is why maintaining secrecy and privacy about them is an ethical law in the world of journalism.

The “fake news” phenomenon and the strength of the reader who today has the ability to answer

One of the greatest challenges of the current press has to do precisely with the origin of the information, in terms of scenarios clearly manipulated, which seek to deceive society in the interests of power in power, considering the affinity of the medium with the government.

Unfortunately it is not a new practice, although it is every day the communication channels are more exposed and questioned, partly thanks to the access of the population to information, witnessing and disseminating through social networks first hand, and with the possibility of responding to the media in their own spaces.

Many journalists take advantage of the idea of ​​protecting the source to present testimonies that never existed, or even take out of context a certain phrase that could harm their opponents. One must be aware that the truth is generally distorted, which can be the result of misinterpretation, without misinterpretation. intention, which may be present in the actual actors of the event, in the sense that each person inevitably has a vision of the world that affects what happens around them, or on the contrary with the desire to create something that is not real to discredit the other in pursuit of own benefit.

Fotolia image: Hideyuki Suzuki, Kaninstudio, Dalebor