What about Journalism?

A week ago, I had the honor of being part of an educational trip to the nation's capital, Washington DC. This trip, organized by the Institute of Politics at Harvard, aims to give a selected group of students an insider's view on what and who shapes US politics. My next few articles will be based on my experience in this trip, focusing on my adventures at the White House, Capitol Hill, the Newseum, and the many interesting and influential personalities I had the pleasure of meeting.
A lot of us have made it a habit of picking up newspapers to read the happenings of the day, we tune to ETV and other news channels to see and hear news as it happens, and some of us even follow news on the internet. You have bought this paper that you are holding to catch up on the weekly news, and the media industry has grown beyond borders that I can follow Ethiopian news from my room and write for Capital when I am actually over 10,000 Kilometers away. To understand the media industry, its development, and its significance, we visited Newseum, a museum fully dedicated to journalism. The Newseum is the most interactive museum in the world and it was launched 3 days before our visit. While on this tour, my fascination with the media industry intensified, and I was able to understand journalism a bit better, which lead me to share some of my insights with you.
When I was in secondary school, I thought of creating an independent student voice and I started a newspaper that gave an avenue for students to share their views with others and tell everyone else what has been happening in the school. Starting and running that newspaper, getting students to write articles, getting revenue by selling media space, and doing 'my own thing' make it a very exciting job and it felt like the greatest entrepreneurial experience. But it was about time that I noticed some of the potential of a newspaper, and it all started when students started writing about their concerns and views that rather than just reporting the past they were affecting other's views and even affecting the administration. I was reminded of this experience when touring the seven levels of the gigantic Newseum and browsing through the 300-year-old newspapers to cameras and phones used in mid 20th century news reporting. A recreated travel adventure of the history of journalism is a unique experience this museum offers with a 4-Dimensional show. Yes, it does not get any more interactive, with 3-D film and fourth-dimension special effects took us on a journalistic trip back in time. The museum succeeded at making our group appreciate journalism and the roles that it played and still plays in society.
I was stunned and most of the times very shocked with the Pulitzer Prize winning photographs that I saw, which I recommend others to see on the Internet. Journalistic photographs of wars, famines, conflicts, fights, peace, happiness, sadness, natural disasters, and the many more photos were displayed, and videos and text on each photo was there to give background information on each photograph. Reading the stories behind those photos, I couldn't control my emotional outbursts and reaction for every photo; I felt sadness, terror, disgust with the human race, pity, rage, satisfaction, and triumph. These photos captured the moments and kept them alive. The photojournalists shaped opinion, headlines, and even policies with those photos. At times, those images stuck better than words in people's minds, and the journalists were able to show the real situation of events they were covering. The exhibit also featured eight 12-foot-high concrete sections of the Berlin wall, the wall that divided Berlin into a Soviet block and a Western capitalist block. Touching that wall made me imagine the life and struggles people endured during that era in time. Two-minute walk away was the crumbled tower head of the World Trade Center, the tower that came down during the September 11 attacks on the United States. Just above that level there is a two-story glass structure bearing the names of journalists who died in the line of duty, and next to it is a journalist's car that was used during the Bosnian conflict with hundreds of bullet holes on it. Walking around the museum, all these events, good or bad but very defining moments in history, appeared to be vivid and real in my eyes. The journalists who risked their lives (and they were sometimes too daring) left a mark in the history of civilization by bringing the attention of society to the major happenings in the world and they left so much evidence of the past that we can use to reflect on. After this experience, I was able to appreciate journalism better.
I used to consider journalism as a career just like any other one, as "the hard tough job that doesn't pay much." But this experience lead me to believe that journalism is public service, that it is a passion, and it has great power to shape the present and the future. Sometimes the media makes mistakes, and sometimes it gets it right, but it serves more than record keeping. It is certainly a field that deserves great respect from society.

Yoseph can be reached at askyoseph@gmail.com