My Old-New Big Think – “THiNK! Journalism”

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Today, Wednesday, 18 Jan 2023, having blogged since 2000, now blogging in my 23rd year, thank God, in my 82nd year of earthly life, I will & can now concentrate on what I myself invented as a concept, that which I call “THiNK! Journalism” – (reprinted on this blog is my original think piece 03 May 2021 essay, “Women Journalists, ‘Access Is The New Civil Right’ – The Black Wall Street Times. I say, ‘THiNK! Before You Access’” (bravenewworld, blogspot.com).

Having actively practiced journalism from 1975, when I was still 45 years old, then at 81 years of age, why did I think of a different kind of journalism? I was nowhere a negative journalist, but the journalism I was reading or watching kept on being negative and/or destructive of people, places, principles and/or policies public & private. Mostly destructive, hardly constructive – echoing what Tom Goldstein had said many years earlier, “Journalism And Truth: Strange Bedfellows (Medill Visions Of The American Press) (10 Aug 2007, Northwestern University Press, 226 pages, amazon.com):

The complaint is all too common: I know something about that, and the news got it wrong.  Why this should be, and what it says about the relationship between journalism and truth, is exactly the question that is at the core of Tom Goldstein’s very timely book.

Other disciplines, Goldstein tells us, have clear protocols for gathering evidence and searching for truth.  Journalism, however, has some curious conventions that may actually work against such a goal.

Truth Journalism is dangerous but exciting and attractive; it is what gave Filipina Maria Ressa, CEO of Rappler, the Nobel Peace Prize 2021 (co-won with a male Russian journalist). Me, I’m neither after the trophy nor the truth, but after the thought! This is my actual practice in my own theorizing & testing:

THiNK! Journalism:
True is it? If True,
Helpful is it? If Helpful,
Inspiring is it? If Inspiring,
Necessary is it? If Necessary,
Kind is it?
THiNK! Journalism
(“I think” from brainyquote.com)

The quote from American journalist Bob Schieffer that appears on the image above is quite educational to journalists wherever and whoever they are: “I think journalism is a great way to do public service, to have an impact on your community.” As I keep true to my THiNK! Journalism, I keep dreaming: “A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope” – Howard Thurman. Thus, I appreciate much his “theology of radical nonviolence” (Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org).

My theology is Roman Catholic, I must say – and yes, we can view the Ten Commandments not simply for individuals to follow but to observe considering community of believers and non-believers. And so we may rewrite mine like this:

THiNK! Community:
True is it? If True,
Helpful is it? If Helpful,
Inspiring is it? If Inspiring,
Necessary is it? If Necessary,
Kind is it?
THiNK! Community.

Beautifully, Martin Luther Kinghas put it this way: “We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice, not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.” Great!@517
(MLK from jeannieburlowski.com)

 

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