What Do You Think
Journalism has enjoyed a rich history. It is the art of gathering, creating and presenting news and information to the readers. There has always been a debate about the roles and ethics of journalism as to what news should be presented and how to what degree a journalist should give a biased report. Since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, the field of journalism has taken a new turn (Zuckerman, 2017). President Donald Trump has found a different way of announcing American policies. Mr. Trump’s reports have an undulating impact on the field of journalism. Tweeting about his diplomatic relations, making threats to North Korea and boasting about these policies is a new method which has created doubts in the field of journalism. Mr. Trump is fully aware that every word he utters is thoroughly analyzed by a journalist, as this is a rule of journalism that every word and action of a famous person is important (Iggers, 2018).
The question of whether to cover or not to cover the tweets by President Donald Trump is a big issue. Many journalists give their opinions regarding tweeting by President Donald Trump at unexpected times and on unanticipated topics. Some journalists believe that his tweets should be treated as news, and some believe that his nebulous tweets should be ignored as these are just his thoughts, not the policies of the USA.
The New York Times described the tweeting of President Donald Trump as an attention-grabbing tactic and a propaganda weapon (Grynbaum & Ember, 2016). This is true for most of the part, as there are pieces of evidence that the practice of tweeting before the Presidential Elections helped him a lot in gaining popularity (Wells et al., 2016). It is also a fact that his tweets are creating a disturbance in the whole world. His tweets in 2017 threatening Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, created an impression that a nuclear war was about to start (Sanger & Broad, 2017). On the other hand, there are many tweets by Mr. Trump which does not hold any significant importance.
In a democratic country, it is essential to keep the nation enlightened about the happenings in the country. Keeping the nation in the dark about its president can be termed a sin by many journalists. Some journalists believe that it is their moral and professional duty to report everything a president says (Blake, 2016). Analyzing the tweets of President Donald Trump helps in creating an understanding of his personality and beliefs. On the other hand, some journalists also find it hard to report all their tweets as they lack resources or abilities. They believe that reporting a thing without legal documents is not an ideal thing for journalists.
Scrutinizing the different arguments by journalists and the impact of President Donald Trump’s tweets, it can be concluded that it is not obligatory for reporters to report every tweet by President Donald Trump as news. This is because his tweets are just his thoughts, and there were many tweets by him which were just words, and no action was taken by the American government. His thoughts are vague and unpredictable and create confusion many times. The best news coverage policy addressing this issue is to ignore the tweets of Mr. Trump, these tweets are not only impacting negatively on our country but also the image of US President is diminishing all over the world. Mr. Trump’s aggressive words and attitude towards immigrants and other ethnic groups create controversies. If journalists stop reporting his tweets, these controversies will decrease automatically.
References
Blake, A. (2016). Why we can’t–and shouldn’t–ignore Donald Trump’s tweets. Washington Post, 29.
Grynbaum, M. M., & Ember, S. (2016). If Trump Tweets It, is It News? A Quandary for the News Media. The New York Times.
Iggers, J. (2018). Good news, bad news: Journalism ethics and the public interest. Routledge.
Sanger, D. E., & Broad, W. J. (2017). Trump Inherits a Secret Cyberwar Against North Korean Missiles. New York Times, 4.
Wells, C., Shah, D. V., Pevehouse, J. C., Yang, J., Pelled, A., Boehm, F., … Schmidt, J. L. (2016). How Trump drove coverage to the nomination: Hybrid media campaigning. Political Communication, 33(4), 669–676.
Zuckerman, E. (2017). Mistrust, efficacy and the new civics: Understanding the deep roots of the crisis of faith in journalism.
