The Future is on the Computer

"If newspapers went dead for a week, radio, television newscasters and bloggers would have nothing to talk about" (loosely quoted from the film, Stop the Presses)
I love this quote because it really brings one to ponder and realize the magnitude of service that print journalists give to America and even the world. I do agree that the nation be drastically information deprived if we lost print journalists. However, I agree with John Carey and Nancy Hicks Maynard that the news businesses many are so familiar with, is "tuned to earlier lifestyles" (The Press).
So the industry has to change the way they deliver the news. I predict (and it is happening as I blog) that the reading news will be a much more social engagement. Through FacebookConnect and sites modeled after NewsMixer, we will be able to converse about news with loved ones, associates and friends, both near and far instantaneously. Word of mouth drives audiences, therefore this social integration of FacebookConnect-like tools will be crucial to newsrooms. I think throughout the next fifteen years newspapers across the board are going to be pouring the majority of their resources to building and experimenting with their online sites.



I don't know how journalists will be payed in the future. I think there will be less well-payed journalists but there will be a smaller group of extremely well paid online journalists. Maybe this online subscription based version of newspapers is the future of news (The New York Times Reader 2.0 featured above). Come what may, I hope journalists will be at forefront of new technology, being the first to weave it into their line of work.

A Journalist & Journalism Defined

What is journalism and who is journalism? That's been the topic of discussion in class the past two days.

Define Journalism

I love this definition, "journalism helps us "see with other eyes, hear with other ears and think other thoughts than those we formerly used"(pg 77, The Press). The public's access to this kind of journalism is harder to achieve in this day and age of online news, where readers are picking what they are interested in and most of the time, not reading other thoughts than they are used to. The newspaper offers this kind of journalism because as Professor Campbell said, the newspaper offers a variety of pieces on a single page and can draw the reader to new thoughts or interests.

I agree with the definition given in The Elements of Journalism that first and foremost, journalism's primary purpose is to "provide citizens with information to be free and self-governing"(pg 12).

Define Journalist

Anyone who provides information to the public is a journalist. However that doesn't necessarily make them a good journalist. A good journalist "tackles the complicated and unobvious" and that in turn empowers citizens (pg 70, The Press).