Out-Of-Class #2: What Journalism Really Is

Before the second OOCer was due, I got this email from one of youze:

Hey Omar!
I've been putting together my second out of class story today and I've realized that the interviews I've done both with the experts and students lead me away from "how to get the most out of your smartphone" and gave me a lot more substance to write about the pros/cons of smartphone use with a lot of focus on social media (because it ended up being what most people used their phones for).
So to revise my topic:

I'm writing an article on smartphone usage amongst college students and how it affects them positively and negatively. It will delve into the aspect of social media and the pros and cons of being constantly connected to those websites and to friends.
I hope this is okay with you, it's just where my interviews lead me so I feel like I have a better hold on this then trying to construct something around my original topic that isn't really there. 
Thank you!

And my answer was an enthusiastic YES! Not simply because you were switching the topic, but because you were switching the topic based on where the facts were taking you!

And THAT is journalism. Journalism isn't starting with an initial assumption and then finding facts to support it. That's a term paper. Rather, journalism is starting with an initial assumption, then seeing where the facts take you. Sometimes, research finds that the initial premise was correct. Other times, not so much. And still other times you discover things that support a premise that's better than the original one.

It's that process of research and then determining what you actually have that is journalism. That's what separates it from simply finding out about stuff; it's that discovery through doing reporting.

It's like being a detective: you start out with a dead body, and then you start interviewing people to see what you can find out. You may start out with one suspect, but the evidence might take you to another suspect -- or none at all, if you find facts showing it was an accidental or natural death, or a suicide. Either way, you follow the facts, and you make your final determination on the facts you find, rather than simply what you initially presumed.

Ideally, each of us will have a story that evolves this way. I'm glad at least one of us did, so the rest of us can see this process in action.