Education isn’t filling a pail, but lighting a fire. You might think Yeats wrote that, but the idea predates the Irish poet. Instead, the comparison of knowledge to light stems as far back as Ancient Greece and the essayist Plutarch.
Education is a broad topic, and I’d like to shine my metaphorical light on journalism. Journalism to society is what a lightbulb is to a house. Its role? To enlighten and illuminate.
Many different tasks fall under the umbrella of illumination (though I’m still talking about lightbulbs, don’t get confused). Part of journalistic enlightenment is informing the uninformed and increasing awareness. Historically, muckraking and investigative journalists have done this.
In the early 1900s, writers like Lincoln Steffens investigated and reported on corruption in big cities like Chicago. Other journalists of the same era did similar work. Ida Tarbell targeted Rockefeller’s monopolistic practices and the Standard Oil Company, creating the most thoroughly researched investigative piece at the time: History of the Standard Oil Company. Upton Sinclair uncovered wage slavery at a meatpacking plant and wrote about the inequities of modern life, inspiring the Pure Food and Drug Act.
In more modern times, publications like the Washington Post and the Boston Globe have done work to make society more aware, reporting on the Watergate scandal and the abuse of the Catholic Church, respectively.
Journalists have a duty to shed light on the unseen. If we don’t, who will? Those in power have made it their job for as long as we have been a self-governed society to hide corruption and deceit from the public. However, our lightbulb’s reach knows no such bounds.
Walk into a dark room and flick on the light switch. Ta-da, you can see! Look at everything that comes to light. There’s so much more good in your life for it. Living in the dark has no benefit when you have access to electricity. The same applies to modern society. Turning on the metaphorical light of journalism lets more be seen and heard.
However, illumination also reveals shadows. Some spaces shy away from the light, and these dark spots represent some of the abuse of journalistic integrity. Those in positions of power like to try to control the narrative, which is the opposite of what journalism is for.
Pure journalism is a naked light bulb. Its light shall not be dimmed. However, different organizations tend to dim the glow of our lightbulb with fancy—and occasionally opaque—lampshades.
This is especially relevant when considering the relationship between the press and the CIA. According to The New York Times, agents would pose in the newsrooms of well-established publications like CBS or The New York Times and infiltrate them to influence public opinion.
That is a resounding betrayal of journalistic integrity. It denies the history our journalistic forefathers (and mothers) fought for: keeping information open and honest for the people. Light does not exist without shadow. It’s the work of a good lightbulb to minimize that shadow.
Journalism has been used for good. It’s given a voice to those silenced. When Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey investigated Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, they gave a voice back to women who had been stifled in the past. This created a domino effect on modern-day feminism by spotlighting female voices that had previously been ignored.
Journalism informs and helps us see what we wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. In Clarissa Ward’s On All Fronts, her work centers around humanizing people in conflict zones. Without her (and her colleagues) reporting, people in the West would be far more ignorant of conflicts in the Middle East.
Journalism has evolved through the years, similar to a lightbulb. Benjamin Harris published the first American newspaper, “Publick Occurrences both Forreign and Domestick,” despite colonial authorities in Boston. He put pen to paper like a match to a candle.
As technology develops, more can be illuminated. Flashlights are our “breaking news” emails, sent straight to cellular devices. Spotlights shine on important events. Your standard A19 household lightbulb is the newspaper placed on your doorstep. I could continue this metaphor until I’m blue in the face, but I think the point is made: Journalism brightens.
In our society, journalism is a light that must never go out. Its role is to inform the uninformed, give a voice to the unheard, and raise awareness. It uncovers the good and the bad, and wipes the dust off the unseen. Good journalism enlightens with simple facts and necessary information. Abuse of journalism comes from those who have fallen victim to corruption and deceit. Journalism’s job is to inform. At its core, that is what we do.
We are the vessel for which information is carried, good or bad. And it can be both. The most important thing is that we don’t succumb to the darkness.
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