On Sunday, the guests of the “Profession: journalist. Debate” program discussed the agency of journalists. – This is something that attracts, but also carries a danger and should not be the goal of our work – said Marcin Gutowski. – First and foremost, agency is showing the world to the audience – he added.
On Sunday, another debate in the series took place on TVN24 “Occupation: journalist. Debate”. The guests talked about the agency of journalists and the materials they created.
Justyna Kopińska from “Gazeta Wyborcza” said that “agency means social change”. – When, after our material, either the law changes, or the tormentor goes to jail. For me, agency is also associated with letters from readers who write that they will no longer be passive to evil – added the journalist.
– Are we following the cases we described? In the most famous cases, every journalist tries to keep his finger on the pulse – she said.
Kopińska: journalist’s agency means social changeTVN24
“I would be very careful that agency was the goal”
Marcin Gutowski, a reporter for “Black on the White”, admitted that “agency is something that attracts, because we want to have a sense of agency”. – But it is also probably a danger and probably should not be the goal of our work. Of course, we feel good when our materials cause some change, change the world. But I would be very careful about this being the goal, that it would drive me – he emphasized.
He added that “agency is primarily showing the world to the recipient, that he can understand this world better”. – If it somehow translates into a change of law, punishing the guilty, that’s great. But if not, I keep doing it – he said.
“For a journalist, agency is showing reality”
Bianka Mikołajewska from Oka.press stated that “for a journalist, agency is showing the reality, revealing what the authorities would like to hide from the public, that is simply fulfilling the basic role of a journalist.”
– When we talk about agency in the sense of the effect that a publication has, it is beyond us, it does not depend on us. To a large extent, the next stage is a derivative of the situation in the country, whether the country is democratic, whether the institutions work in the right way – she emphasized.
“It’s not like we are poets who write in a drawer and that satisfies us”
Wojciech Bojanowski, journalist from “Fakt” TVN and TVN24 admitted that “every journalist who deals with a topic would like someone to find out about it”.
– It’s not that we are poets who write in a drawer and that satisfies us. It seems natural that if we devote a lot of time to the matter, we want something that touched us to seem unfair, unfair, someone found out – he said.
According to Bojanowski, “the moment is extremely dangerous when we think to ourselves: ‘I, a great journalist, have agency, I can change the world’ ‘.
“The journalist’s skill is the ability to open his eyes to certain phenomena”
Bertold Kittel, a reporter from “Supervisor” TVN said that “the agency of a journalist is primarily the ability to open people’s eyes to certain phenomena”.
– Every day, hundreds, thousands of journalists penetrate the country, people’s problems. From Zamość to Szczecin, they deal with small matters. It’s not that the journalists who deal with the biggest issues have a monopoly and only they can change the world. For many people, a journalist is the last resort, he noted.