Humility in journalism: The epistemic virtue that allows journalists to learn from experiences of others

Journalists have long been associated with a strong ego and the hubris necessary to share the news as “the way it is.” But overlooked, and perhaps more important, is the humility required by journalists to gather new knowledge in the first place. Through the lenses of joy and journalistic epistemology, the present study explores interviews with 27 journalists in Chile and the United States in regards to their experiences with humility. Journalists broadly believed that their work could be done without humility, but that good journalism necessitated humility. The best journalists, across these national contexts, were considered to be those who were humble: which journalists defined as being willing to listen, to learn, to be corrected and to apologize for mistakes.