Journalists or journalism which one lost its glory: A study of global journalism

By Sifat Kabir

There was an epoch when our senior men in the house kept newspapers where I grew up. I remember my grandfather, father, and uncles sat on the arm of the sofa, waiting to be picked up and whistled over and argued with, and for us they captured the world of other people.

Those were the days now no more exist. Number of keeping newspapers in the house has shrunk. When I was 14 or 15 I remember every week something entertaining brochures were attached to a newspaper. Elderlies used to scrutinize the leading headlines and we then kids were more interested into those colorful brochures. 

That journalistic glory now had fade away. Worldwide people including the journalists have become more commercial. Journalists are called the conscience of the nation, does that conscience still work?

The researchers who study journalists will agree that conscience works very little within journalists, these days journalism can be said is a kingly profession.

Edwy Plenel is a French political journalist and a former editor-in-chief of Le Monde. He is the president and co-founder of Mediapart, an independent, web-based investigative journal, and was a speaker at the Nov. 1 plenary session of the 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference (#GIJC21).

Plenel, who is an icon of the French media landscape (with roughly one million followers on Twitter) spoke with GIJN’s French editor Marthe Rubio after the plenary session to offer, in his own words, key advice for investigative journalists around the world.

What were those key advices Plenel discussed?

1. Defend the Value of Information.

2. Build a Strong and Horizontal Link with Readers.

3. View All Subjects Through the Prism of the Public Interest.

4. Accept Frustration.

5. Keep Questioning Yourself and Share Knowledge.

All these points are important advice to journalists living globally, however, remember the last point Plenel spoke about? How much do we drill that?

We journalists globally are now more concerned with commercialization than with giving knowledge and we no longer form bonds with our audience. We have matured to the point where we have lost our conscience.

Sifat Kabir is Senior Newsroom Editor at Banglanews24.com and a researcher studying local and global journalism.