The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1873-04-03
The Journalist.

The Journalist.
The colleges, ever since it became fash
| ionable for colleges to be sensational
have threatened to give instruction in
Journalism. Eminent professors are to
lecture in these institutions on Political
| Economy and International Law, while
I professors of Pitman are to teach short
| hand to young men who are fired with
| an ambition to emulate the glorious ca
reers of Greeley, or Raymond, or MedIll,
or Bowles. or Bryant, or Prentice; or to
| follow in the footsteps of such men as
| Whitelaw Reid, ParEe Goodwin, Major
Bundy, Charlton Lewis, George Jones,
F. b. Sanborn. Manton Marble, Horace
White, John Hay, Sydney Howard Gay,
the yet vigorous Oliver johnson, and the
rest who adorn this great calling. And
| there are doubtless many young men
who will be foolish enough to imagine
that by listening TO such lectures they
may prepare themselves for success in
this most important and infuenential of
pursuits. But unfortunately for the COZ
leges who wish to make capital out of
this move, journalism is not science
| that may be studied like mathematics or
| geology. 1t Is not an art governed by
set of rules or fixed principles Journal
ism can not be put into textbooks. 1t is
not even profession in the more limited
sense of the term. 1t can not be taught
| like law or medicine or theology. There
is nothing more subtle, more undefinable.
| than the principles Of journalism. 1t
! resembles statesmanship but is even
more delicate and difficult in its highest
relations
| Colleges may make good photographic
reporters. But photography is no more
journalism than pharmacy is medicine.
] Colleges might turn out penny-a-liners,
/ !
/ as superabundant as that OF Canada this
ties. If our great institutions could So
cure the most eminent journalists, and
the more successful younger journalists,
those, for instance who are in the heat cf
the conflict on our city dailies, and cou d
get them to tell what they know about
newspapers (if, indeed, it is not untella-
| ble), they might help many young mon
destined to journalism to a more intelIi-
| gent comprehension of the art of making
a paper. But to teach men journalism
that can never be done except in the Of
| fee, and only few of those who sper d
their lives ein newspapers ever know
much about their calling. The great ma
| iority are capable of obeying orders.
| Some principles lie on the surface. To
be up with the occasion, and, if possible,
little ahead of it, is the first business of
a newspaper man. And the necessity for
this, the reporter who gets the news OF
| prize-fght ahead of cotemporary un-
derstands as well as his chief. The dif-
| ference Is, that the chief knows what the
occasion Is, the reporter does not. For
sense OF perspective, q knowledge of the
relative values of different popular ex-
elements, is one of the first essentials Of
good journalism. And a true journalist
does not allow his own feelings to mis-
| lead him. He does not ask what heels
/ Il
public. lie does not go Irosing about
what nobody is thinking OF; he waits for
! the wheel to,turn around and bring this
topic to the surface.
1t may be said of all successful journal
| lists that they have possessed, in an emf
nent degree, two traits: quick percep-
| tions and strong convictions. Cavalry
has been said to be the eyes of an army.
Journalists are the ewes of the world.
and nearly half the art of journalism
consists in seeing quickly. The Tribune
saw instantaneously the greatness of the
/ issues at stake in the late European war,
and met the eXigency with an enterprise
that gave the paper a vast advantage over
all contemporaries. And it was because
the conductors Of the Tribune perceived
upon which side the right lay, that their
editorial articles helped them as much
as their news. The same quick appre-
hension gave the Times the lead at the
outset of the anti-Tammany war; r
No really great paper has ever been
built up without positive conviction No
paper that is the bond-slave of larty
ever yet grew TO any greatness. The pa
pers most quoted, the papers that lead
the public sentiment OF the country
you can count them on your fingers--are
those that speak with the clearest and
sharpest positiveness in regard to every
topic in their field, and that bend the
least to the trammels of party.
But why not give young men special
instruction in the things a Journalist
should know 2 Because the knowledge
of a Journalist is not special. A young
Methodist preacher once wrote TO DR..
Adam Clarke to know if he would advise
him to study geology. To which the
/ great Irish Doctor immediately replied
in q sentence: Dear Brother-A Meth.
odist preacher wants to know every
thing. Whether true or not ola preach
er, it is true of Journalist, that the
characteristic of his knowledge should
be its breadth, The symbol Of journal
ism is the Encyclopaedia aa-4g