Tune in, tune out, goodbye, goodnight.

People talk about vocations a lot--vocations to religious life or married life, vocations to a job. But rarely in that last class of vocations do people talk about practical side of things. If you truly treat your job as a vocation what does that mean.

The Archbishop of Denver wrote a very interesting piece discussing that very question in regard to the news media. For the newspaper and news stations hold colossal sway over what information the public receives and this power ought to be accompanied with a sense of responsibility and attempts to reports the news accurately and fairly, to do research into the facts and back story and to follow leads.

To often the news seems instead like a logo, an advertisement, something over sensualized and trying to sell us on something. Our vocation then as readers of the news is to intelligent and engaged with our sources--particularly with the nameless persons behind most of the news whose opinions and prejudices are obscured by their anonymity and the requirements of the form.

As the Archbishop says:

We need to remember that material progress is never an unmixed blessing. It gives, and it takes away. And it always has unintended consequences, which means we need to be more – not less – vigilant about the way our news media form us, and how their influence shapes the content of our public life. Just as a rich society can grow callous to the suffering of the poor, so an information-addicted society can lose track of the purpose of its information. In the case of the news profession, its main purpose is to accurately inform a public dialogue that pursues the good, the right and the true.