I honestly was a bit lost at how the reading from Russell was going to help us in learning about Journalism, but after the seminar, I felt like there were a lot of links between the two. Looking at the individual philosophers and their ideas, it became clear how it all linked into Journalism really well. Here are a few notes I managed to make during the seminar.
Machiavelli
He was seen as the first political theorist, and in many ways the first journalism. This was mainly due to his brutal honesty within politics. Can it be seen that in a way journalists are armed with sometimes brutally honest information to share with the world?
“Fear is constant, love is fickle” – Fear meaning something like a terrorist story, and love being a celebrity gossip column for example, the ‘fear’ stories seem to be ongoing whereas celebrity gossip comes and goes.
Erasmus
He was seen as the first columnist and critique, partly due to his description of Utopia, which can be linked to More’s Utopia, talked about in Russell. His ideas can be linked back to journalism because without the Renaissance, Journalism would be nothing more than reports of Church, however the Renaissance; that break away from religion, opened doors for Journalists, and other professions alike.
Francis Bacon
Bacon had a method of developing philosophy, and is known for the quote “Knowledge is power”. He believed that in order to avoid distorting the truth, the inquirer must free their mind from any falseness; in other words audiences should question everything they read. The link to Journalism is the need for Cartesian doubt, journalists must question absolutely every fact in order to get things right.
Hobbes
He believed that society must have an elected leader – a sovereign. He believed in the desperatism of the public, and that a leader must rule over a passive audience, the start of mass culture theory. However if it is the public that elect the leader themselves, then surely they have power too.
Descartes
He provided the philosophical framework for political science to develop, and introduced the idea of Cartesian doubt, believing that you should doubt absolutely everything that you know, to make sure that it can be proved as fact. He also travelled a lot for his work, similar to most journalists and remembered for the quote, “I think therefore I am”.
Portagoras
“Man is the measure of all things”.
The Medici family
They are seen to be part of the pursuit for capitalism and industrialisation. If this is the case, and there is the need for constant news in journalism, then is real journalism being sacrificed here, and is there any absolute truth? Is it all being done simply for profit now?
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