The lecture below was created for students in a course entitled Twenty-First Century Journalism, and tackles the first course topic on the syllabus for the course: “What is journalism? When, where, and how is it practiced? Who can practice it? What does it require?” To be very clear, this lecture was not developed with Substack or even with a general audience in mind. But after recording it, I realized that it may be useful to the general public at a moment when the question “What is journalism?” is absolutely critical to the future of America.

The lecture is about 65 minutes, and as you might expect given the purpose for which it was first created, it’s a slow burn that takes an academic approach to its subject. But I think that, if you have the time to devote to it, you will see that—in a manner akin to the Socratic Method—the lecture does build to a credible answer to a critical question.

{Note: As this is an unlisted video, you’ll need to click the link below to watch it on YouTube.}

You will hear, at the beginning and end of the video, components that are exclusively relevant to students in the asynchronous, remote journalism course in question. So feel free to disregard these components, as they’re not (of course) part of the lecture proper.

If you appreciate this lecture, I hope you will consider subscribing to Proof via the red button above. In the coming months, Proof will be on regular occasion publishing—along with numerous essays and investigations related to domestic politics—material concerning the present crisis in American journalism. The first such article on Proof just appeared, and can be found here. It’s entitled Twelve Things You Need to Know About Metajournalism. More such articles are coming soon.