Ryan's Writings…at Mason

New Age of Journalism? Maybe Not.

Most people around the United States, as well as other first-world countries, could probably come to a consensus that print news isn’t as popular as it used to be. It can be untimely, something that is a journalism no-no. But does that mean we have to sacrifice our journalistic senses when reporting on newer platforms such as the Internet?Description: http://rblou.onmason.com/wp-includes/js/tinymce/plugins/wordpress/img/trans.gif

Joel Achenbach’s article about newspapers looking towards the Internet as a primary platform for releasing their news is undoubtedly correct. However, he makes a point worth mentioning twice.

Just because news platforms are changing doesn’t necessarily mean journalism has to.

Journalism can still be factual, witty work and also receive the most clicks per minute on the Internet, but for some reason, people feel that because journalism’s new platform for media has become more hands-on and casual; the content can be more casual.

We need to keep in mind that our audiences still want good information.

Yes, reading stories about celebrities and their pets are entertaining, but does that make them good journalism?

What happened to the creativity of good writing?

It almost seems as though along with publishing news and content at un-Godly speeds, some journalistic talent has gone down the drain.

Of course readers want their information quickly, but I agree with Achenbach — we don’t need to slack on the quality of our information just because our audiences want immediate news and entertainment.

Journalists have always, will always and continue to write for their audiences. We are, in a sense, working for them.

We just need to be more diligent about our work and hold ourselves to a high standard of excellence, even if our readers refuse to do so in their ravenous cravings for immediate news.

With the Internet allowing the opportunity for anyone to become published, journalists should start working with their readers. Our readers will be able to spread the word about our stories and increase the amount of clicks we get per day.

Readers are not only an audience, but they are an outlet we must recognize if we want to become successful in the digital age of media.

 

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