Jay Hartwell
Guest Speaker of JEMUN Journalism
With 35 years of experience in journalism and education, Mr. Jay Hartwell is one of the top names in the field with many honors, awards and international level workshops in journalism for professionals and university students.
“Journalists should report what is truth, and they should have objectivity and integrity.” This is how Adirani Heraputeri, an Indonesian student from Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, explained what the needs for being a journalist are. She is also looking forward to working in the journalism industry in the future because she wants to tell people truth. As a journalist, she said journalists should maintain good judgement.
In the current world where we can attain any information from over the world with ease, contributions by journalists are indispensable. However, current world affairs including Brexit, the United States presidential election and the rise of populism have brought forward lots of information regardless of credibility. What will the future of journalism be like? What skills will students who want to be a journalist need?
In a lecture titled ‘My Life in Journalism’ on June 23, 2017 at Kindai University, Osaka, Japan, journalist and author Jay Hartwell from the University of Hawaii suggested four important points of being in journalism industry.
The first one is curiosity: you may want to wonder about things that are going on in the world. The second one is flexibility: you need to be flexible in order to adapt to all the changes that take place, not only within the industry but also in a team you belong to. The third one is ethical behavior. Having ethical behavior leads to people’s trust. The last one is to continue to strive to be the very best and that never stops. Think how can you do your job better, how can you tell the story in the way that reach more people.
Caroline Graham, a lecturer from Bond University in Australia, also mentioned how important it is to be curious about anything in terms of being a journalist. She also suggested that sincere interest about various things and lots of experience, such as joining Model United Nation and utilizing social networking services (SNS) will help you in order to work in journalism.
The future of journalism will depend on future journalists—and whether they have strong curiosity about what is going on in the world and integrity. Indeed, the most important thing for journalists is passion for journalism. As Mr. Hartwell said in his presentation: “Embrace the future. Follow your passion.”
The Future of Journalism
By Yoshiki Ishiuchi
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