This week's reading is mainly about the history of journalism, the nature of news, the journalists' roles, and the changing media landscape.
In The Element of Journalism, the authors well defined the truth and objectivity of the news. The authors claimed that the truth and objectivity of journalism were not absolute. But good journalists should make every effort to present enough information for the readers to make their own minds.
With the development of the technology, new media quickly occupied the media market and totally changed the media landscape. The 2008 Pew study showed that more and more people got news online, and young generation had less interests in reading news. Whether or not newspapers will disappear in the future is always debated by people.
The same question also bothers Chinese scholars and journalists. Last month, a top student in the college entrance examination showed interests studying Journalism in college. Several journalists persuaded him to change his mind during the interview because of the low salary and the changing environment. Finally, that student decided to take economics as his major. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hqgj/jryw/2014-06-28/content_11912556.html
This was just a small case. But it did show that many people lack confidence in traditional media area.
In the book of News Reporting and Writing, the authors thought that some legacy companies would continue to thrive, but they would like to hire young people who have multiple skills to deal with emerging media environment.
In my opinion, journalists are still needed by the market. A good journalist must be really passionate about journalism, good at storytelling and familiar with multiple reporting skills. Also he or she must have the consciousness of the society.
We'll talk about this in class (more than once), but I'm guessing that all of you read news but rarely newspapers. It's important to understand that news takes many forms, and that journalism and newspapers are not the same thing.
ReplyDeletePat, I agree. I will happily read the newspapers that my parents subscribe to but, as of yet, at least, don't subscribe to any myself. I do, however, follow several newspapers/newspaper departments as well as several food magazines and writers on Twitter and often read the full stories that go with the links they post.
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