We're headed, I think, for schism, tumult and divide as the religion of the American press meets the upheavals in global politics and public media that are well underway. (Not to mention the roaring force of the market.) Changing around us are the terms on which authority can be established by journalists. And I have argued so here and here. The Net is opening things up, shifting the power to publish around. Consumers are becoming producers, readers can be writers. Consensus is breaking apart on definitions of The Good in journalism. And that may be a healthy turn for citizens and for our future experiments with a free press.
Meanwhile, faith in the press we have is not at all a sure thing.
Jay Rosen's weblog is PressThink: Ghost of Democracy in the Media Age.
And what do you think? Is journalism itself a religion? And what's happening to it? Or is the metaphor misplaced? Hit the comment button and speak.
Rosemary Armao, then (1995) executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a major professional group: ""Public journalism is a cult-like movement, you're either a believer or a heretic. It even has its own jargon like a cult."
Reese Cleghorn, former Dean of the J-School at the University of Maryland: "Since we are all journalists, I get to preach the gospel, go to the freshmen and tell them we are the only profession mentioned in the Constitution, that we have a unique responsibility and our democratic government depends on it."
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God, why do the religious nuts always write so much unreadable blather? Try beliefnet. :)