
The Committee of Concerned Journalists is a consortium of journalists,
publishers, owners and academics worried about the future of the profession.
To secure journalism's future, the group believes that journalists from all
media, geography, rank and generation must be clear about what sets our
profession apart from other endeavors. To accomplish this, the group is
creating a national conversation among journalists about principles.
Three Goals
- To clarify and renew journalists' faith in the core principles and
function of journalism.
- To create a better understanding of those principles by the public.
- To engage and inform ownership and management of these principles
and their financial as well as social value.
How Do We Accomplish Them?
To initiate a conversation about standards, the group first issued a
statement of concern, created a network of professionals nationwide, held
twenty-one forums, and conducted surveys and content studies to identify the
core principles journalists share. These were then distilled in 2001 into a
book, "The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the
Public Should Expect" (Updated and Revised in April 2007). In turn, these
ideas are available to news people through our Traveling Curriculum of
workshops. The work continues through further research, reporting, writing
and discussion.