Welcome to our collection of compelling Journalism Quotes, where words wield the power to shape perspectives, challenge norms, and ignite change. Journalism is often regarded as the Fourth Estate, a vital pillar of democracy, holding the powerful accountable and giving voice to the voiceless. Through the lens of journalists, we gain insights into the complexities of our world, shedding light on both triumphs and tribulations.
In the realm of journalism, words are not merely ink on paper or pixels on a screen; they are instruments of truth, catalysts for action, and agents of understanding. From iconic figures like Walter Cronkite to contemporary voices like Christiane Amanpour, journalists have wielded their pens and microphones with precision, unveiling the realities that shape our collective consciousness. Whether it’s uncovering corruption, amplifying unheard voices, or providing critical analysis, the power of journalism lies in its ability to inform, inspire, and incite change.
In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. Ellen Goodman
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. Cyril Connolly
Truthfully, without over-egging it, as I often do, the library and journalism, those things made me who I am. Terry Pratchett
I believe frontline journalism is important. James Foley
I studied journalism at Binghamton University, even interning for NBC’s longtime anchor Carol Jenkins. Before graduation, I told my parents I wanted to pursue broadcast journalism. Sunny Hostin
I expected to go into journalism or law. Christie Hefner
There’s a certain elitism that has crept into the attitudes of some in journalism, and it played out perfectly over the issue of these little American flag lapel pins. Brit Hume
It is the role of good journalism to take on powerful abusers, and when powerful abusers are taken on, there’s always a bad reaction. So we see that controversy, and we believe that is a good thing to engage in. Julian Assange
By describing the origins of the coronavirus as a conspiracy theory and placing it right beside Sandy Hook trutherism. The left, the mainstream media, big tech, they shut down honest questions and good journalism, and in the process they shut down the truth. Will Cain
Ideology, politics and journalism, which luxuriate in failure, are impotent in the face of hope and joy. P. J. O’Rourke
The function of journalism is, primarily, to uncover vital new information in the public interest and to put that information in a context so that we can use it to improve the human condition. Joshua Oppenheimer
The Village Voice gave me an outlet. They encouraged writers to publish idiosyncratic, intellectually ambitious journalism in voices that ranged from demonic to highfalutin. And they paid me well once the magazine was unionized. Getting paid is motivational. Robert Christgau
Men have the power in everything: journalism, acting, direction; in banks, finances, schools. All the laws are made by men. Men think that women, when they’re not able to procreate any more, become old. That is not true – they are still amazing! Monica Bellucci
Surely the glory of journalism is its transience. Malcolm Muggeridge
There is a tradition that sees journalism as the dark side of literature, with book writing at its zenith. I don’t agree. I think that all written work constitutes literature, even graffiti. Eduardo Galeano
The challenge in fiction is to write a terrific story. The challenge in journalism is to communicate solid, objective information. The challenge in creative non-fiction is to do it both and to do it well. Lee Gutkind
For me, a really radical position for journalism to take is to stop being cynical. Cynicism is what passes for insight among the mediocre. Joe Klein
I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon. Tom Stoppard
Great journalism will always attract readers. The words, pictures and graphics that are the stuff of journalism have to be brilliantly packaged; they must feed the mind and move the heart. Rupert Murdoch
Journalism is about results. It’s about affecting your community or your society in the most progressive way. Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Journalism is not just a cause, it’s also a wacky profession. David Talbot
Environmental concern is now firmly embedded in public life: in education, medicine and law; in journalism, literature and art. Barry Commoner
Journalism has changed tremendously because of the democratization of information. Anybody can put something up on the Internet. It’s harder and harder to find what the truth is. Robert Redford
Needless, heedless, wanton and deliberate injury of the sort inflicted by Life’s picture story is not an essential instrument of responsible journalism. Abe Fortas
Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air. Henry Grunwald
Journalism without a moral position is impossible. Every journalist is a moralist. It’s absolutely unavoidable. Marguerite Duras
Fake news is a big thing in the field of Social Media Journalism. Fake news can be as simple has spreading misinformation.or as dangerous as smearing hateful propaganda. Fabrizio Moreira
Journalism is always the art of the incomplete. You get bits and pieces. Anthony Shadid
I didn’t like the competitiveness of big-time journalism. Charles Kuralt
We never see any journalism or documentaries on the oceans and what we’re doing on this Earth and how it affects the oceans and how important they are. I’m intrigued by it. It’s almost an untold story. Ed Schultz
Facts still matter, and social media is allowing for a wider range of new and independent voices to outcompete alarmist environmental journalism at legacy publications. Michael Shellenberger
The courage in journalism is sticking up for the unpopular, not the popular. Geraldo Rivera
We don’t go into journalism to be popular. It is our job to seek the truth and put constant pressure on our leaders until we get answers. Helen Thomas
With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms. Hunter S. Thompson
I think journalism is a great way to do public service, to have an impact on your community. Bob Schieffer
I got into journalism, actually, when I started my graduate program at Portland State and ended up becoming the multimedia editor of the student paper and covered very uninteresting stories on campus: this culture event, dance night. Andy Ngo
When I bought ‘The New York Observer,’ my experience in journalism was limited to a single article I had written for a college magazine. Jared Kushner
Hindi journalism is too dogmatic. I often wonder how it can be modernised. Ravish Kumar
The central dilemma in journalism is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Bob Woodward
Journalism is literature in a hurry. Matthew Arnold
Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it. Horace Greeley
I realize that I had the best of serious picture journalism. Eve Arnold
Objective journalism is one of the main reasons that American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. Hunter S. Thompson
At Gallaudet, deafness isn’t an issue. You don’t even think about it. Students can pay attention to accounting or psychology or journalism. But when a deaf person goes to another college, no matter how supportive it is, that person doesn’t get the same access. I. King Jordan
For me, I used to be shy towards journalism because it wasn’t poetry. And then I realized that the events that I covered in essays that became journalism were actually great because they inspired me, and they became my muse. Alice Walker
A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts. Glenn Greenwald
I started attending community college when I was 14 or 15, just doing general education stuff like history and mathematics. Then I went on to California State University Long Beach to pursue a degree in journalism. And then I ended up dropping out to found Oculus. Palmer Luckey
Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine. Walter Cronkite
Journalism isn’t about how smart you are. It’s not about where you’re from. It’s not about who you know or how clever your questions are. And thank God for that. It’s about your ability to embrace change and uncertainty. It’s about being fearless personally and professionally. Mary Pilon
Journalism is the protection between people and any sort of totalitarian rule. That’s why my hero, admittedly a flawed one, is a journalist. Andrew Vachss
Journalism largely consists of saying ‘Lord Jones is Dead’ to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive. Gilbert K. Chesterton
I am deeply interested in the progress and elevation of journalism, having spent my life in that profession, regarding it as a noble profession and one of unequaled importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of the people. Joseph Pulitzer
Some people call it the ‘Al Jazeera spirit’ – courage, re-thinking authority, giving a voice to the voiceless. We have never been favored by the authority. The human being is the center of our editorial policy. We are not a TV station that rushes after stars, big names, press conferences, hand-shake journalism. Wadah Khanfar
I went to school at the University of Rhode Island and pursued a degree in journalism, which is a little bit ironic. Candace Owens
I thought I was going to be a professor; then I ran screaming from there into magazine journalism. Courtney A. Kemp
I don’t have any well-developed philosophy about journalism. Ultimately it is important in a society like this, so people can know about everything that goes wrong. Charles Kuralt
Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read. Frank Zappa
We all have our likes and our dislikes. But… when we’re doing news – when we’re doing the front-page news, not the back page, not the op-ed pages, but when we’re doing the daily news, covering politics – it is our duty to be sure that we do not permit our prejudices to show. That is simply basic journalism. Walter Cronkite
My father was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. My grandfather had been in politics, too; however, my own inclination was for a job other than politics. I wanted to be a diplomat, perhaps do some journalism – certainly not politics. Benazir Bhutto
The lowest form of popular culture – lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives – has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage. Carl Bernstein
I ended up switching over to journalism in college. A few weeks into freshman year, I realized that business school wasn’t for me. And writing stories and reading and talking to people is something that I just enjoy doing, so I figured why not try to build up a post-basketball career with that. C. J. McCollum
In a meritocracy, actors who act well get good roles. They don’t get to be journalists, too – a job that, in a meritocracy, should go to those who do journalism well. George Packer
I realise that I had the best of serious picture journalism. There was an innocence in our approach, especially in the 1950s and 1960s when we naively believed that by holding a mirror up to the world we could help – no matter how little – to make people aware of the human condition. Eve Arnold
To conclude: good journalism is one of the models of good conversation and communication in the wider social context. Rowan Williams
I went to Indiana University for college for a couple of years, where I double majored in dance and journalism, and after my sophomore year there, I went to the San Francisco Ballet school for the summer, but then they offered me a scholarship to stay for the year. Amanda Schull
Pandering to the scandal hungry public is a total lack of responsible journalism. Dick Van Dyke
There is kind of this spirit in journalism to tell both sides of the story and to just let the listeners choose what they want to choose, and I understand that, and there’s a place for it, but on some issues, we really do need to take a stand. Shaun King
By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community. Oscar Wilde
If journalism is good, it is controversial, by its nature. Julian Assange
If you’ve done a bit of journalism, everyone assumes you must be moving into PR. We’re absolutely not becoming a PR agency and we’re not turning into Brunswick. We will remain SRU, but we will be owned by the Brunswick Group. It’s quite different. Peter York
Journalism is what we need to make democracy work. Walter Cronkite
In journalism just one fact that is false prejudices the entire work. In contrast, in fiction one single fact that is true gives legitimacy to the entire work. That’s the only difference, and it lies in the commitment of the writer. A novelist can do anything he wants so long as he makes people believe in it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ratings don’t last. Good journalism does. Dan Rather
Rigorous skepticism is a prerequisite for good science, just as it is for good journalism. Miranda Devine
My only advice is, follow your dream and do whatever you like to do the most. I chose journalism because I wanted to be in the places where history was being made. Jorge Ramos
What I am is something unbearable for the world of journalism and the world of cliches. I’m a realist. Gore Vidal
Unbeknownst to me, I started doing journalism, just because I was bearing witness. Tim Pool
The quality of life in America is dependent on the quality of the journalism. Most people don’t realize that, but if you think about it, journalism is one of the pillars on which our society is perched. Scott Pelley
As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity. Hunter S. Thompson
Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change. Andrew Vachss
I was attracted to filmmaking in college because of my love of storytelling. You can have such an impact and reach a broader audience than conventional journalism. Rory Kennedy
I think that more diversity is a good thing, and fresh points of view articulated by people who are committed to excellence in journalism is a beneficial change in the American media landscape. Al Gore
Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space. Rebecca West
The biggest problem in rock journalism is that often the writer’s main motivation is to become friends with the band. They’re not really journalists; they’re people who want to be involved in rock and roll. Chuck Klosterman
I never, ever have seen media this way. It’s almost indescribable. Making up stories, refusing to run real stories. It’s making themselves look like utter fools. There’s no journalism, there is no media. There’s pure, full-fledged advocacy here. Rush Limbaugh
Journalism is in fact history on the run. Thomas Griffith
You’re miserable, edgy and tired. You’re in the perfect mood for journalism. Warren Ellis
When I got a little older, I started writing for the high school newspaper, ‘The Maroon Wave,’ and that’s when I fell in love with journalism. Jeannette Walls
After I left high school and got my GED, I studied broadcast journalism for a year at a community college. Chris Rock
I believe that ‘advocacy journalism’ is not an oxymoron. If that means that I’m going to disrupt the cable, partisan fracas of obsession over what this means from left and right, then so be it. I will be disruptive of it. Chris Cuomo
As I occasionally survey the pack of sycophantic shih tzus in the Washington press corps, wriggling on their bellies to kiss the feet of those in power, I feel plumb discouraged about the future of journalism. Molly Ivins
All of us just go to college and waste our time and to pass our exams. So just learning journalism does not mean I’m good at it or any of the journalists are, either. There is no difference; it’s just class, and it’s just college. Nithya Menen
I’m fascinated by journalism. I put a keen eye, not a negative eye, on its role, particularly how it is changed by the times we’re living in. Robert Redford
It’s all storytelling, you know. That’s what journalism is all about. Tom Brokaw
The Defense Department’s plan to ban newspaper reporters from pool coverage of military operations is incredible. It reveals the administration to be out of touch with journalism, reality and the First Amendment. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read. Oscar Wilde
A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth, but that doesn’t work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth – having an object outside of our personal point of view. Nate Silver
Journalism is about bringing people to an event or something that they couldn’t attend. Chris Milk
The dilemma for early 21st century journalism is this: Who will pay for the news? Nathan Myhrvold
Journalism keeps you planted in the earth. Ray Bradbury
