With the way journalism has evolved, specifically with the large amount of citizen journalists and bloggers surfacing, getting your voice heard by both employers and the public has become extremely difficult. With technology comes opprutunity and ordinary citizens now have the extraordinary opportunity to share and post breaking news as if they were payed journalists. Which they are not. This doesn't mean they're useless. Bloggers pay a big role in assisting journalists find "contacts". Not the lenses, but buisness contacts. See it's a blog, I can use humor and opinion. Doesn't make me very credible does it!
What are the differences between citizen journalists and payed journalists? Some would argue education. Journalists attend University, most of which spend time frivolously drinking themselves to the point of temporary dementia or spending it in front of their laptops cramming for tests they aren't prepared for during what is usaully far past what any parent would deem to be "bedtime", in order to hone their craft. Bloggers sit at home and rant and rave about this and that with unlimitless access to vast amounts of hot pockets. Either way education is a key factor. Journalists have been trained to take in information at a higher level than regualr citizens. It's what they're good at. Good ones anyways. But still, bloggers remain and will continue to do so. The competition to get the story out first just went up dramatically.
Technology has a big role to play here. According to blogherald.com there are over 180 million blogs circulating on the interenet right now.(http://www.blogherald.com/2008/02/11/how-many-blogs-are-there-is-someone-still-counting/). That's impressive to say the least. Still, Journalists can cling to the hopes that self- respectful citizens rely on getting their news from respectful sources. That aren't FOX News. People within the news buisness, the TV news buisness that is, are killing it for us up-and-comers. We arrive on scene in a time where the media, in some countries, are described and talked about in the same context as prostitutes. The media are not well respected by the public right now, that has given bloggers the power and the attention they have received lately. It's a form of public backlash. People want what's real. News has turned fake. More clowns on the news than in the circus.
As Journalists we should embrace the new technology that has been given to us. Make it our own. Make news more credible by using live video and audio podcasts and with up-to-the moment Twitter updates. Draw opinions and commens from all over the world, from various "real" people or "sources." Make it real again. In a sense. Twitter updates still sound ridiculous to me and that's probably not going to change. But the media landscape is. So in order to keep up, so must I. Nancy's blog , "the use of Social Networking sites", says it well. http://prow135.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-of-social-networking-sites-nancy.html
What are the differences between citizen journalists and payed journalists? Some would argue education. Journalists attend University, most of which spend time frivolously drinking themselves to the point of temporary dementia or spending it in front of their laptops cramming for tests they aren't prepared for during what is usaully far past what any parent would deem to be "bedtime", in order to hone their craft. Bloggers sit at home and rant and rave about this and that with unlimitless access to vast amounts of hot pockets. Either way education is a key factor. Journalists have been trained to take in information at a higher level than regualr citizens. It's what they're good at. Good ones anyways. But still, bloggers remain and will continue to do so. The competition to get the story out first just went up dramatically.
Technology has a big role to play here. According to blogherald.com there are over 180 million blogs circulating on the interenet right now.(http://www.blogherald.com/2008/02/11/how-many-blogs-are-there-is-someone-still-counting/). That's impressive to say the least. Still, Journalists can cling to the hopes that self- respectful citizens rely on getting their news from respectful sources. That aren't FOX News. People within the news buisness, the TV news buisness that is, are killing it for us up-and-comers. We arrive on scene in a time where the media, in some countries, are described and talked about in the same context as prostitutes. The media are not well respected by the public right now, that has given bloggers the power and the attention they have received lately. It's a form of public backlash. People want what's real. News has turned fake. More clowns on the news than in the circus.
As Journalists we should embrace the new technology that has been given to us. Make it our own. Make news more credible by using live video and audio podcasts and with up-to-the moment Twitter updates. Draw opinions and commens from all over the world, from various "real" people or "sources." Make it real again. In a sense. Twitter updates still sound ridiculous to me and that's probably not going to change. But the media landscape is. So in order to keep up, so must I. Nancy's blog , "the use of Social Networking sites", says it well. http://prow135.blogspot.com/2010/01/use-of-social-networking-sites-nancy.html
I love the humor Trevor! Your title definitely holds truth in today's world of journalism. Education is key like you point out, and hopefully those with an education will be recognized as credible sources and remain as the ones people turn to for news rather than the 14-year-old girl sitting at home blogging about Britney Spears.
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