This quote helps to explain the responsibility that journalism has to cover the news. Journalism must cover things that will informative to citizens so that they can 'navigate society.' But just as a map that isn't correct will make it so that someone gets lost, if a news story is not correct, people will figuratively get lost, and not trust that news institution anymore.Almost as important as being truthful and accurate, journalism needs to be in proportion to what is important. A journalist who focuses on celebrity scandal because it will sell more is like a cartographer in the old days drawing England as big as Greenland because it is a popular place to be. Eventually it will catch up with them because it misleads the traveler/or the reader of the newspaper which will hurt there credibility for not covering for most pertinent information.
In this sense, proportion is they key to accuracy in journalism just as it is in map making. The job of the journalist is to predict what is most pertinent in the lives of the public so that they can get the information they need. It is possible that a celebrity gossip story will initially sell a newspaper, but people will look to other articles in the newspaper for more in depth and serious stories. If those stories aren't there, then people will start looking other places for them. Because people really do crave the information and stories that are more pertinent and relevant to their lives, I am surprised that magazines like Star sell at all.Although I guess that people who are going to buy magazines like Star are really only looking for entertainment news. Weekly World News on the other hand is a complete mystery to me. Do people actually believe the stuff that they print? There are no actual hard news stories. They are all just crazy 'mutant'-type stories. They have no credibility whatsoever.
As a journalist I obviously will not be working for Weekly World News, or Star for that matter. But I will make sure that no matter what my specific beat is, I will look for stories that will fulfill the public's need for hard news and help them to 'navigate society.'
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