MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

  Exit  

MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News

MDN Menu

MDN Home

Journalist's Creed

Print

MDN Help

  Exit  

MDN.ORG Mo. Digital News Missouri Digital News MDN.ORG: Mo. Digital News MDN.ORG: Missouri Digital News

Lobbyist Money Help  Close

Posted 05/10/2012: 

Journalist's Creed

Walter Williams began in 1908 with the first world's shool of journalism: The Missouri School of Journalism. Williams believed that the best way to learn about journalism and advertising is to practice them, but this practice must be on the basis of principles that he expresed in the Journalism creed. One century later, his declaration remains one of the clearest statements of the principles, values and standards of journalists throughout the world.

EL CREDO DEL PERIODISTA

Yo creo en la profesión del periodismo.

Yo creo que el periodismo es un bien público; que todos los que se relacionan con él, para plena medida de su responsabilidad, tienen la confianza del público; la aceptación de un servicio menor que el servicio público es traicionar dicha confianza.

Yo creo que el pensamiento claro y la exposición clara, la precisión y la justicia, son fundamentales para el buen periodismo.

Yo creo que un periodista debería escribir solo lo que él considera en su corazón que es verdad.

Yo creo que la supresión de noticias, por cualquier consideración distinta al bienestar de la sociedad, es indefendible.

Yo creo que ninguno debería escribir como periodista aquello que no diría como caballero; que sobornar a otros debe ser evitado tanto como dejarse sobornar; que la responsabilidad individual no puede ser eludida alegando instrucciones o dividendos de otros.

Yo creo que la publicidad, las noticias y las columnas editoriales deberían servir igualmente a los mejores intereses de los lectores; que un único estándar de verdad y limpieza debería prevalecer para todos; que la prueba suprema del buen periodismo es la medida de su servicio público.

Yo creo que el periodismo que triunfa - y que merece triunfar-  teme a Dios y honra al hombre; es firmemente independiente, impasible ante el orgullo de la opinión o la avaricia del poder, constructivo, tolerante pero nunca falto de cuidado, sereno, paciente, siempre respetuoso de sus lectores pero siempre valiente, pronto para indignarse ante la injusticia, no se deja influir por el atractivo del privilegio o el clamor de la multitud; trata de dar a cada hombre una oportunidad, y, tanto como la ley y el salario honesto y el reconocimiento de la fraternidad humana  pueden hacerlo, una oportunidad igualitaria; es profundamente patriótico a la vez que promueve sinceramente la buena voluntad internacional y cimienta la camaradería mundial; es un periodismo de humanidad, de y para el mundo de hoy.

Walter Williams

DECANO DE LA ESCUELA DE PERIODISMO, UNIVERSIDAD DE MISSOURI, 1908-1935.

Looking for best opportunities of development, different groups go to the public arena to defend their own interests; the Hispanic-Latino group is no exception.

The Capitol is the center of political activities in the state of Missouri. The Jefferson City Capitol houses the Missouri General Assembly, which is composed by two bodies, The Senate, which has 34 members, and The House of Representatives with its 163 members. It also houses offices for the governor and other government employees.

The work in the Capitol is legislative. They make laws that, if approved, affect all Missouri citizens and, because of this, all different social groups seek to be represented in it.

In the 2012 Missouri Legislature, there are three members who claim Hispanic-Latino ties. They are Democrat Senator, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, Republican Senator, Brian Nieves and Democrat Representative, Mike Talboy.

These three persons represent 1.5% of the Legislature, while the Hispanic-Latino community in Missouri represents 3.4% of the population.

There are also organizations such as Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, The Coalition of Hispanic Organizations (COHO), Hispanic American Leadership Organization (HALO), The Hispanic Development Fund, Hispanic Capitol Day and others, through which the Hispanic-Latino community is involved in the public arena.

Hispanic Capitol Day (HCD) has the specific goal of the political empowerment of the Missouri Hispanic community. Since 2002, this corporation has organized every year the, so called, Hispanic Day at Jefferson City.

The Hispanic-Latino leaders meet with the Governor, the General Assembly, and government agencies “to educate politicians, in a non-partisan manner, on issues of importance to Hispanics, and put forth informational activities to increase public awareness of Hispanic causes.”

On February 22th, the eleventh Hispanic Capitol Day at Jefferson City was celebrated. The issues for this year included education, English as the official language, immigration an civil rights.

But how serious were these issues taken on that day by the General Assembly?

Well, it would be good to ask them.

Missouri demographics are changing and these changes have their own impact in the social, political and economic area.

Missouri society is formed by different social groups, one of which is notably increasing and changing the demographics of Missouri.  That is the Hispanic-Latino population.

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, Hispanics or Latinos are “those people who classified themselves in one of the specific Spanish, Hispanic, or Latino categories listed on the Census 2010”. Hispanic or Latino origin can be viewed as the heritage, nationality group, lineage, or country of birth of the person or the person’s parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States.

In 2000, the Hispanic –Latino population in Missouri was 118 617, but in 2010 the Census reports it to be almost 212 500.  This is an increase of 79% in a ten year period. Now, Hispanic-Latino represents 3.4% of Missouri's population. It is not as large as that of other states, such as California, but it does have an impact.

The 2006 American Community Survey shows the socioeconomic characteristics of the Hispanic-Latino population in Missouri:

The median age is 27, 60% were born in the US, around 60% of those 25 years and older have graduated from high school and 12% have a Bachelor’s degree.

The principal occupation for men is in production and transportation; for women it is in sales and office work. However, 22% of 16 years and older women and 13% of men have a professional occupation. The income for full-time work is around $26 000 a year.

The rural counties in Missouri possess a large percentage of the Hispanic population.  For example, in Sullivan County, 43.5% of Milan's population is Hispanic.

Hispanics are also business owners. According to the 2002 Economic Census in Missouri, there were 3 652 Hispanic owned firms, some were family businesses but 722 of them had 5,507 paid employees.

So, Hispanic-Latinos are present in the farms, factories, universities, business, etc., but there is an area in which this presence doesn’t seem to exist, at least in Missouri: the politics area.

Is it true?

Well, that is the subject for the next post.

I am here, because I want to learn everything about journalist: Who they are? How they work to find information? How they write the stories? How they do "Agenda Setting"? What are they asked by editors? What are the principal problems in the work? How they solve them? What are their tools? What are the most important News Values? How a News Room works? How the News Room offers information to the media?

After these few weeks I'm sure that MDN News Room is an excellent opportunity to learn from within the journalism profession.