The mind of a journalist

Book review 

Name of the book: The mind of a journalist 

Author: Jim Willis

Review 

  

                   The mind of a journalist

The author of this book is Jim Willis, who is a veteran journalist for the Oklahoman and the Dallas morning news and is now chair and professor of communication studies at Azusa Pacific university in southern California. He has authored ten books on journalists and the media, and he lectures widely in Europe on the American news media.

The mind of a journalist book is all about how reporters view themselves, their world and their craft. One of the things that the mind of a journalist does is to look how a cross section of online journalist, print and broadcast perceive themselves. Journalists must think critically and differently not just like other people. A journalist sitting in a office the whole day may not be able to make contacts, but instead they must move around and get to know their town. They have to build relationships with their sources and do a lot of thinking about what they do, whether they do it correctly or not, and how they might do it better next time.

This book teaches the independence factor, that most journalists or writers love the independence that comes with this craft. Writing is an individual effort but some reports for a television stations, where videographers and editors work as a team. Newspaper reporters pursues stories on their own but they do that after they have consulted the editor about what to cover on the story. It also teaches that there are restrictions to a reporter's independence, such as available of resources. Some stories consumes a lot of time and they are the expense to the newspaper. For example if the reporter want to cover a story that is in another region you might discover that the project is too expensive for that. Also when the reporter takes a lot of time doing a research on the particular story that story will not be published. Sometimes when a reporter wants to do a story that his editor doesn't define as news or the story that is not interesting a lot can happen and the story may not be done at all.

What may be seem as a core strength is that there is diversity among journalists, where there are groups where one belong in which shape how they interpret the world. Which may include, geographic region, race and ethnicity and many. This is good because it improves storytelling and journalists brings something new which may results in accurate reporting. Diverse journalist are important in ensuring that communities are well represented and their voices are being heard.

To sum up (The mind of a journalist) is a good book which teaches a lot about the Journalism industry and on how to be a good journalist. It encourages those who want to be in this industry to learn how to be independent as a reporter, and how to face the consequences that comes with being a journalist. It also shows the bad impact that comes with not sticking to the honest story, that journalist must always write the truth when they cover the story and nothing but the truth.

The mind of a journalist by Jim Willis