Nowadays, it is not easy to teach young aspiring journalists the trade.

The call to serve society as a fundamental reason for pursuing a profession does not exist. Those who want to become journalists see this profession as an opportunity to become influencers. In classes, when asked what is the difference between an influencer and a journalist, the answers were vague, unclear, and in some cases they even believed that they were the same.

Bad news has arrived for those who studied journalism and intended to enter the world of entertainment with little or no rigor with their degree in hand.

Everyone wants to become an influencer and produce interesting and engaging content for all types of audiences. With their videos, publications and announcements, they reach thousands of people who follow them and don’t want to miss any news.

Not together, but mixed

Over time, influencers become well-known, recognized people who manage to connect emotionally with their rapidly growing followers.

Influencers are hired by more companies to promote their brands. 46% of network users trust influencers when making decisions, according to studies conducted on the role these agents play in consumer decisions.

Influencers talk about everything, politics, health, nutrition, fashion, economics, cooking, art, sports, etc. They know everything, and even make value judgments without any fear. People trust them and follow their advice that they share through social networks, in many cases the only means of information. They create broad conversations and opinions. The situation is so serious that there are influencers who talk about mental health and even give advice to their followers without having any professional knowledge on the subject. And so, they become famous and earn a lot of money.

Journalists, on the other hand, do not live off fame. The more discreet our work is, the better we feel. Our work has many requirements in terms of source processing, document retrieval, collation and verification. With our stories, we aim to help society understand what is happening, why it is happening and how it affects them. With all this information, an informed society will be able to make better decisions for its future.

New communication technologies have expanded the spaces in which people get information. However, not all of these spaces are journalism. Influencers will continue to live from shows and spectacles. Creators of “sexy” content, who, in the desire to gain an audience, cross the boundaries of the profession, not respecting ethics.

We, on the other hand, do not lose sight of the goal of our work: ordinary people.

It is difficult to find a difference between these two spaces, but very necessary in times like these we live in, in which there are “so-called journalists” who, under the pretext of getting a story, get intimate with drug dealers who kill, traffic and steal without any scruple. (OR)