Of course, all of the above isn’t far from reality.

Of course, our business has changed in ways we had never imagined: today’s witness to an event would probably have pulled out his or her cellphone, recorded it before a reporter reaches the spot. Of course, there is a ceaseless deluge of information on the Internet: of news, of views, and more commonly, views as news.

What is usually unsaid is the fact that we need someone to make sense of this deluge, to ensure that the reader can keep her head above the water, know which wave is treacherous, which wave is the real one.

It’s here that journalists, good journalists, have to step

in with their compasses and their foglights.

That’s why never before has there been a more pressing need for the media to build public trust and credibility. The authority to say, look, this is what you have been hearing, this is what is accurate, this is what is false, this is what is unverified, this is noise, this is news, this is what it means for you.

There is another vital element to this trust: the courage and the commitment to do those stories that don’t pass the news-you-can-use test.

Stories of people and events that would go unseen and unheard, just because the people involved do not have a camera phone or broadband.

All the prize-winning reporters illustrate both aspects of this trust: with their meticulous attention to accuracy and credibility and their commitment to stories that had they not gone after, would perhaps never have been told.

... contd.