Who Is a ‘Journalist?’ An Evolving Definition
Who is a journalist?
The answer was simpler in earlier times, but in the 21st century, it’s being reshaped by time, law and technology.
But while definitions vary, the First Amendment’s protection for a free press makes no mention of employment or the means of communication to qualify as a journalist. Instead, freedom of the press protects the right of anyone to spread thoughts, ideas, news and views by publishing them.
Over time, however, courts have created additional legal protections in specific circumstances for those who gather information with the intent to present it to others. This includes the right to withhold the identity of sources and, at times, to enter locations or buildings where the public is excluded.
Who is a journalist according to common understanding?
Merriam-Webster defines a journalist as “a writer or editor for a news medium” or “a writer who aims at a mass audience,” while Cambridge Dictionary says a journalist is anyone “who writes news stories or articles for a newspaper or magazine or broadcasts them on radio or television.” The job search website Indeed defines the term as “a professional involved in the collection, editing, and presentation of news through the spoken or written word.”
Freedom of the press protects the right of anyone to spread thoughts, ideas, news and views by publishing them.
But who Americans see as a “journalist” varies widely, Pew Research Center found in an August 2025 report. The report cites a “lack of consensus and perhaps some uncertainty” about whether news aggregators, opinion writers, and people who share information via newer media like newsletters, podcasts and social media are journalists.
It noted that “many everyday Americans who participated in our focus groups said they think of traditional TV newscasters.”
The report also found that “Younger adults tend to be much more likely than older Americans to say that people who report on or host a news podcast, write their own newsletter about news, or make posts about news on social media are journalists.”
Freedom Forum’s 2025 “Where America Stands” survey similarly found that younger people are much more likely to recognize nontraditional media as protected under press freedom. According to the survey, “Gen Z are overwhelmingly more likely (65%) than the average across all respondents (47%) to say that social media platforms are protected but less likely than the average to identify broadcast TV and radio (67% versus 73%) and cable news (60% versus 69%) as protected.”
How is journalism evolving in the digital age?
“Prior to the digital era, who was a journalist was largely defined by the small mix of news outlets available,” said Amy Mitchell, founding executive director of the Center for News, Technology and Innovation, in an email to Freedom Forum from August 2025.
“It was the internet era that made the point of entry much more feasible,” Mitchell said. “Social media sharing, podcasts, individual content creators and citizen reporting continue to expand that mix. That leaves it much more up to the public to define who they see as a journalist and/or a journalism provider.”
A 2025 Center for News, Technology and Innovation survey explored these trends. It found that while 77% of respondents in the U.S. think “news organizations that employ reporters are a critical part of an informed society,” 73% also agree “everyday people” can produce journalism. Indeed, 22% of respondents in the U.S. said when looking for information on issues and events, they seek out information from a “certain individual” — which includes social media accounts — rather than from an organization.
Longtime journalist Mark Trahant, former editor of the multimedia news organization ICT and former editorial page editor for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, recognized this shift in an August 2025 email to Freedom Forum. “On one hand,” Trahant said, “It is easy to scroll past the voices on TikTok, shake your head, and shout, ‘This is not journalism!’.” But he notes, “There is an audience.”
In fact, Pew Research Center reports that 20% of adults regularly got their news from TikTok in 2025. “That means, like it or not, journalism [is] being committed [on the platform],” Trahant said.
Aaron Parnas, a digital influencer with a reported 4.5 million TikTok followers and author of the Substack newsletter The Parnas Perspective, spoke to 51 high school students at Freedom Forum’s June 2025 Al Neuharth Free Spirit and Journalism Conference. Reflecting on the experience, he wrote: “I told them what I wish someone had told me at 17: ... You don’t need a degree from an elite school or a connection inside a legacy newsroom to get started. All you need is a phone, an app, and a commitment to the truth.”
While the extent to which social media figures are journalists remains debated, many are recognizing the need to embrace these online content creators. In a January 2025 NPR article, Summer Harlow, associate director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin, explained her thinking behind creating a class that aims to provide “newsfluencers” with the tools they need.
“This is the future of journalism. What these newsfluencers are doing is really ideally what journalism is supposed to be at its very core. It's holding power accountable, but it's also serving the interests of the public,” Harlow said.
Journalism’s evolution in the digital age goes beyond social media accounts. Grey Journal, an online magazine that studies societal trends, noted in a 2024 article that podcasts, another popular outlet, “provide an opportunity for longer-form journalism. They allow journalists to explore stories in more detail and engage listeners on a deeper level.”
Who is a journalist legally?
Courts have often focused more on defining the protections and limits on actions associated with journalism than on defining who is a journalist.
One area where courts and the government have created rules around the functions of journalism is the right not to reveal confidential sources and newsgathering notes, sometimes called reporter’s privilege. Another such area is press credentials and access to government events and officials that the public may not have access to.
Who is protected by state-level reporter’s privilege and shield laws?
The U.S. Supreme Court said in 1972 that journalists do not have a First Amendment right to refuse to identify confidential sources “that other citizens do not enjoy” (Branzburg v. Hayes). Like other cases, this decision did not focus on defining a journalist, but on how journalists work.
In that case, Justice Byron White wrote that creating a special privilege for reporters would require defining who qualified for the privilege, which would conflict with “the traditional doctrine that liberty of the press is the right of the lonely pamphleteer ... just as much as of the large metropolitan publisher.”
Since that 1972 ruling, many states have passed what are known as shield laws to protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources and information.
According to The National Law Review, when it comes to determining who’s protected under these shield laws, states define a “journalist” or “reporter” differently. Some base this definition “on the function of journalism,” other states “only provide the reporter’s privilege to persons employed by an established media entity.”
In 1987, a U.S. Court of Appeals set a legal standard around who is a “journalist” for the purposes of reporter’s privilege, again emphasizing purpose: the intent to provide information, from the start of the newsgathering process, to the public. That legal standard is still in use today and has been used by other courts around the country.
Other appeals courts have extended the protection of journalists’ right to protect sources to “a professor and to a non-fiction writer of investigative books.”
Who has a right to press credentials, access to events and officials, and government information?
In its 1972 Branzburg decision, the Supreme Court didn’t create special legal protection for journalists but said, “News gathering is not without its First Amendment protections, and without some protection for seeking out the news, freedom of the press could be eviscerated.”
In order to gather news, journalists often need access to places other members of the public cannot go. This often occurs through a process known as “credentialing,” which gives a person a physical pass — a credential — identifying them as press. But as demonstrated by the controversy around the Pentagon’s October 2025 media policy, there is no uniform process for anyone, including journalists, to obtain “press credentials” that grant access to places or data. And public institutions and private organizations can freely establish their own credentialing processes.
And questions remain around journalists’ access to other government events and spaces. For example, an ongoing lawsuit against the White House by The Associated Press involves the administration’s denial of access credentials to the AP for certain events and places while covering President Donald Trump.
The bottom line on who’s a journalist under the First Amendment
The First Amendment’s free press protections ensure journalists can fulfill their watchdog role. But definitions vary of who is considered a journalist and to whom these protections apply, although they often focus on the functions and actions of newsgathering and reporting.
Still, the definition of who is a journalist has been broadened and complicated by technology’s expansion of each person’s ability to bring news, opinion and information to others.
Gene Policinski is a senior fellow for the First Amendment at Freedom Forum. He can be reached at [email protected].
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