In a February 1, 2007 column on the Poynter Institute website, Distinguished Poynter Fellow and CCJ Traveling Curriculum trainer Butch Ward recounts an exchange he had with a former colleague about professional standards, his thoughts on an ASNE conference on journalists' First Amendment rights, and how those things intermingled to inform his thoughts about professional purpose.

Ward notes that journalists, and anyone for that matter, can find meaning in their work by understanding the connection between what they do and the ultimate success of the enterprise for which they do it.

Ward writes:

We must learn to shoot video, learn to record audio, learn to blog, learn to podcast, learn to chat online, learn to file multiple times for the Web and then file for the paper and our newscasts, learn to point our stories forward because so much of our audience "already knows," learn to post content produced by our users, learn to publish news reported by the public.

Are we clear about why?

Has our newsroom taken the time to discuss the work that all of these new skills will help us produce? Is it about doing better journalism? More revenue? Shareholder value? Reader service?

What's the "why"?

We don't have to like the answer. We don't have to embrace it. But if I were working in your newsroom, I would need to know what the answer is -- so I can decide what difference my work has the potential to make. Whether, for me, it has any meaning...

Click here to read Ward's article in its entirety on the Poynter Institute website.