A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends, and issues. His or her work is acknowledged as journalism.

Reporters are one type of journalist. They create reports or articles as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media such as newspapers, television, radio, magazines, documentary film, or the Internet. Reporters cultivate sources for their work, their reports can be either spoken or written, and they are often expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good. A columnist is a journalist who writes pieces that appear regularly in newspapers or magazines. A polemical journalist combines reportage with personal opinion.