For my capstone class — Journalism and Democracy taught by Charles Davis — he asked us to write an essay with the prompt, "Where is journalism headed? What is our role? Informer? Educator?" My response to this essay ties directly into my pitch/argument about the web forum for the Missuourian, so I am posting it here...
"When thinking about the future of journalism, you don’t have to look very far. With today’s technology, the simple answer to the question is the Internet. The Internet doesn’t only allow news to be posted immediately as it happens, but with the advent of wireless Internet and the shrinking of the technology you can access it with — the iPhone, for example — there really isn’t a better answer. What could be faster than the Internet and getting news right after you have walked out your door for work? Sure, something will come up that will be faster, but the Internet will have paved the way for it and therefore thinking of plans for journalism involving the Internet should be a pretty safe plan. The real question what role professional journalists will play in this online future.
Since there shouldn’t be much argument about the Internet being the main direction journalism is headed, the journalistic community must take a role as a leader in this field. Sadly, it’s really too late for journalists to pave the way on the internet that bloggers have already tread a visible path on, but that doesn’t mean the professional journalism community cannot still lead. The job for journalists now is to set the example. A person speaking through a blog can be any Tom, Dick or Harry who knows how to fill in a few basic steps on the blogger website. These “unprofessional” bloggers can make claims without reference and say whatever they want, but through the actions of many competent bloggers the bar for a respectable blog has, so far, remained high.
The problem with these respectable blogs is that they may be good, but they still aren’t quite good enough to pass as top-notch journalism in most cases. This is where the journalists come in: By blogging and setting the bar for a blog even higher, journalists can really set a new trend for what is top-notch in the blog world. By applying a sound journalistic process to their blogs, journalists can set a standard in the blog world that they set in the print medium and can then translate this into other online phenomena.
After spending the summer working at Wizard Entertainment where our website had an online forum, I saw that this could easily be the town meeting of the future. The subject was comic books and movies, but I could see how this online format could be used so efficiently to talk about national politics, town meetings or even the best hairdressers in town with a large community of people. The problem with most of these forums is a lack of mediation by a responsible person that keeps things from becoming an online shouting match or “bitch-fest” and keep the forum community on topic and civil. Here again is where the journalist comes into play. By understanding the facets of editing, the journalist is perfectly suited to moderate these forums in a way that can take them from Internet junk to the future of civic communication.
The bottom line is that journalists aren’t innovators. We never seem to be the first ones who catch onto something, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get on the bandwagon at a turning point where we can help sculpt certain innovations into great outlets for information. We can’t guarantee the role of informer, because the future will certainly prove that other people who are simply closer can get the information out faster. We need to give them an example for their blog or website that can be followed so that quality news is produced as a result. We are the educator and the sculptor. We can help to mold these new technologies into things that can be used for the good of information sharing and not as rant-and-rave online communities. That is our best hope at playing an integral role in the future of information: to get on the train, even late, and keep it on track and not flying off the rails."
I hope that this more thoroughly illustrates my points on a greater need to have professional journalism get up to speed on the internet and then keep at that pace. We may not be able to lead, but that is no reason to fall behind.
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