ABSTRACT
The journalism that merits applause today is an achievement that the founding heroes never knew and would not have recognized. There is a technological history of journalism, and heaven knows it is important, too, but the journalism that has had the greatest influence on the world is defined not by commercialism nor by print technology or digital technologies or their various hybrids. Everyone recognizes that loyalties to family or loyalties to a local or regional or national native soil may often override political preference or affiliation. Journalists often speak of their goal as simply giving people the facts they need to make wise decisions at the voting booth – as if voting were the whole of democracy. Journalism helps make liberal democracy work as a professional record-keeper and explainer of the public spaces in society thanks to two professionalizing developments.
