As my time in college has progressed and I have paid more and more attention to the field of journalism, a concern has started to grow more strongly than ever in the pit of my stomach regarding the business field I hope to enter as a professional upon graduation.

That concern is simply this: nobody seems to like what I want to do anymore. Well, maybe its not so much “liking” the business of journalism as it is respecting it.

From the war in Iraq to the war in trashy magazines to find better and more exaggerated entertainment news, it seems to me that the ideals of journalism that were once held high in this country have waned considerably over the past couple of years.

Recently a professor from Texas, Robert Jenson, was quoted regarding the state of journalism in America. He condemned the work being done in the states as “lots of reporting on Brad and Jolie,” and said the work being done overseas by American journalists includes “frequent failures.”

Jensen’s main point in improving American journalistic practices would be to get back to the business being an independent source, a sort of check on major issues throughout the country.

That is something with which I couldn’t agree more. It seems that, from television news to columnists in the daily papers, the agenda has become much more important than the news.

If the news isn’t tied to a particular political party in order to sway the public’s thinking in one way or another, that news item becomes less of a priority.

If there isn’t something sensational about the story, there is less of a need to run the story because it won’t grab readers’ attention.

And there in lies the problem from the business end of journalism in America. The business side of it is about selling newspaper and finding a way to end the trend of declining readerships. But in trying to cater to the readers in the sense of just trying to get their attention, maybe a certain attention to detail and news quality has been lost.

Another problem in journalism arises when the main focus is grabbing readers’ attention, and that is when journalism principles are sacrificed for flashy material.

This brings on cases like Jayson Blair of the New York Times, Stephen Glass of The New Republic and Janet Cook of the Washington Post who all got caught fabricating stories.

It was reported that these cases were brought on because the writers wanted to be the best and to be the best they had to be the most read and most popular writers. In their haste to present catchy, easy to read articles on serious issues they left their journalistic principles behind them and continued with information they knew to be fiction.

These problems, I believe, do not mean the end of good journalism. There is still good journalism out there being written every day, it is just that those cases are the ones that should be highlighted and held up for all to see.

To me journalism is about telling the world’s story. Whether the topic is religion, war, sports or whatever other item is newsworthy that day, those stories need to be told to have a knowledgeable society.

I just hope that people realize this while they are criticizing all the work that is being done for that purpose.