I was like every other student who was majoring in Journalism. I looked forward to the thrill of reporting the "TRUTH" to everyone in the world. But as of now, I guess me and about a million other people share the same dream. People don't have to take a photography class to capture the perfect image, just a camera phone ready to take the shot. Oh, and those writing and grammar classes aren't needed either. Just substitute all meaningful words with countless omg's and an excessive amount of exclamation points. These are not the conventions of news reporting that I've learned about in my journalism classes. These of are of a whole new breed. This new type of news reporting is, citizen journalism.
It use to take days for news to reach different places. Now with the click of a mouse, news can travel within seconds to other parts of the world, thousands of miles away. Ordinary people are now a source that contain information that a reporter or newspaper wouldn't have access to. That's why a lot of newspaper's websites have created a link, where people send in information, and pictures that they have about a news story. An example of this type of reporting was when there were protest after the Iran presidential election. People watched these protest but nothing shocked people more when there was footage of the Iranian police shooting people, and the footage was live. That up close video footage has never been seen that raw since footage from the front lines of the Vietnam War. And all of the footage was gotten, thanks to someones camera phone.
According to The State of the Media website, "news organizations are leaning towards citizens as sources rather than journalist". As I stated before a lot of the footage and pictures that we see now are from people present at the scene of the story. And due to new social sites such as Facebook, and especially YouTube, people don't have to search far for the news. Many of us have been sent emails that contain news, that hasn't even broken yet. So whats the need for a newspaper? None. With new communication technologies invented everyday, it makes it easier for people like you and myself to document whats going on.
News papers are continuing to suffer from the lose of people actually reading their printed news papers. With most newspapers moving their papers to websites, their days are slowly coming to an end. The Washington Post reported that "U.S.newspaper circulation has hit it's lowest level in seven decades..". The competition that the newspapers are experiencing now, extends beyond other popular newspapers. It starts now with the citizen and their phone or camera. So now when you feel as if you want to make an impact , make sure that your phone is charged and ready to record breaking news.
It is true in today’s media that a good percentage of news footage is shot by a spectator with their personal camera or phone. But does that make them a photographer? You say that people no longer have to take a photography class to snap the perfect image, but I believe that you do. Most people today can take a photo of an event but you need to be trained in how to capture the moment, the intensity and emotion of your subject. Those are the photos that leave an impact on the viewer.
ReplyDeleteJournalism is the same way. Anyone can write about a subject, but to pull the reader in and make them feel as though they were at the event is another story. It is great that the news has become like an open discussion but I feel that we should not give such authority to any Joe off the street. It takes hard work and long hours of writing and practice to perfect the art of writing. So you should not put off learning the conventions of journalism and just become another citizen with a camera.
If you have the desire to become a journalist don’t become discouraged with the amount of other people writing the news via blogs and networking sites. Even though this is where a good percentage of news comes from, it is not where people go to get the hard hitting news. I believe that journalists write the stories while citizen journalists comment and further the discussion on the story. When Moyers said “The power of corporations had to be balanced in the interest of the general public”, he was saying that there needs to be checks and balances in the government; this was watched by the journalists. This is the same with journalism, now the citizen has become the watchdog of the journalist. Not allowing them to make false statements or exaggerate a story.
So continue to learn the art of journalism, because it is not a lost practice. Even with the citizen journalist, we still need the journalist. Anybody can produce a story, but it takes a real journalist to show a story.
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/