Since changing my major to journalism, I have embarked on a whole new journey I would not have had the opportunity to do otherwise. Being a journalist gives you a chance to express yourself and distribute information to the public. With ever-changing social media sites and the decline of print media, journalism is not dead, it is just changing.
Back, during our grandparents age, you had to wait for the morning and evening papers to catch up on what happened that day. Now, we can learn about anything we want by not even getting up. This situation has sent journalists into a frenzy by always having to be the first ones to get a story and break the news first. With the presence of cell phones and computers, technology runs our lives and we make decisions based on whether or not a place has Wi-Fi. When I meet up with my friends to eat, the first thing to do is connect to the Wi-Fi then we all sit around the table with our phones in our faces. When something happens in the world, we can find out about it within just a few minutes.
Traditional journalism has to change to keep up with the times. Many of journalism’s norms, traditions and routines are still practiced today in this new and ever changing digital format. Being able to write well and ask the right questions will never go out of style, though the ways people will read it will. Anybody with an iPhone can report something happening, but being able to trust that person will be the problem.
I never believe a story until I see it on a major news source confirming it. Some academics at USC Annenberg’s Center for the Digital Future conducted a study wherein they determined daily newspapers would be dead in five years. Jeffrey Cole, the center’s director, says newspaper circulation is dropping as everyone is getting his or her news online. Cole also predicts that only four major dailies – The New York Times, USA Today, the Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal – will continue in print form, along with local weeklies. Even if this prediction comes true, journalism will still be around; journalists just may be writing online instead of for printed papers.
Twitter is becoming the most popular social media site these days. It is always updating itself and people are free to express any kind of opinion they want. Most of the people I know turn to Twitter every morning to catch up on what happened while they were asleep. Even our school, Mississippi State University, announces many things over social media before sending a Maroon Alert.
Even with the changing times, journalism still has a future, just not what people thought ten years ago. There will always be a need for well-written stories to inform the public about wars and events in different countries or even in our own neighborhood. I’m very glad I decided to get into this ever-changing field of work, and I encourage students to at least take one journalism or writing class before they graduate. Introduction to News Writing and Reporting really introduced me to my passion for journalism and it would be a good place to start if you think journalism might be for you.
