I took an oath

The future of the news business was on everyone’s minds during the recent Society of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference. Even though I devote a large part of my workdays to public relations and marketing, I spent more than a decade in newsrooms around the country and have been a SPJ member for 14 years.

I remember taking an oath to “uphold the ideals of the Society of Professional Journalist” as a sophomore at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. My journalism career was barely beginning and I hardly knew a lead from a nut graph (I’ll let you non-journalists Google those terms).

Through the years, SPJ has played a significant role in my life and career – teaching me about the profession, deepening my love for a job that truly has the power to make a difference, giving me lifelong friends bound by that similar oath.

This year we marked the 100th anniversary of the Society – not to mention the 40th anniversary of when women were admitted to the organization. SPJ has roots as a fraternity, first named Sigma Delta Chi. In many ways, we remain that fraternity.

This year I think I felt that fraternity spirit more than others. We all pulled together for those who’d found themselves on the other end of a pink slip. We collectively expressed our concern over the dwindling number of newspapers, the shrinking newsroom staffs, the buyouts and the furloughs.

And yet at the end of the convention, we raised a glass a champagne, toasting the last 100 years and looking ahead at 100 more. Because journalism can come in many forms – print, TV, radio, online – but the people who report the news, who keep a watchful eye on government, who tell the stories that need to be told, well, we’re not going anywhere. We took an oath.