Future of Journalism
By: Andrew Heywood
New York City, NY -
What is the future of journalism? What will the future journalist look like and how will they work? These are great questions for a time like now. A time where the economy is hurting forcing news papers to stop going to press and rely on the internet; a time where said companies are making extreme cutbacks. It’s a scary time for the media business right now.
On March 2nd, the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) held a web-inar to discuss the future of journalism. This we-inar was hosted by Sree Sreenivasan, the self proclaimed “tech evangelist” and dean of student affairs as well as professor of new media at Columbia University’s School of Journalism. Sree has done these types of things before for RTDNA, he hosted their “Social Media Boot Camp” and was also named in AdAge’s Top 25 people to follow on Twitter.
Joining Sree was a member of the New York Times, Vadim Lavrusik who currently works on social media and as a digital storyteller for the Times. Vadim studied at Columbia under Sree, as well as the University of Minnesota. While in Minnesota he spent time as a reporter and editor for the fourth largest paper in Minnesota, The Minnesota Daily.
It is safe to say these two men have a grasp at the changes in journalism. Together they were able to put together the PowerPoint like presentation. At the New England School of Communications one teacher and a student gathered to be a part of the web-inar.
Social Media was a hot topic during the presentation, and was referred to as the same way Radio was in 1912, and Television in 1950, or even the web in 1996. They also drove home another strong point, “we can’t forget the fundamentals of journalism.”
According to Professor Sig Gissler, Administrator of the Pulitzer Prize, journalist today need to “convey a joyful entitlement.” In other words have a sense of pride in the job that they posses. The days of giving people their news and that being the bottom line is over, people now more than ever are able to give their influence and communicate back.
It is also a point of change, almost like a changing of the guard in a sense. Young journalist are stepping in and are able to do more. They are not the specialists of one trade any more; they are able to do more. They are able to be jack-of-all trades. This was evident when Sree, or the “old guy”, was unable to keep his microphone connection and his former student Vadim was.
The failure of being able to stay connected shows how ever changing technology and the way it is used changes. The only constant in this world is change. So what does that mean for journalism, where will journalism be in the near future? For more about the web-inar check out the RTDNA website.
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