Week One Reading

    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. 

    

Week 1 Reading Response

While reading, I was struck by the concepts of "we media" and "citizen journalism". Having lived in St. Louis, I have followed the events in Ferguson fairly closely. Potentially emotionally-charged events tend to result in confusion, at least immediately after the fact. So many conflicting reports from so many there can exacerbate those feelings of confusion or disbelief. The differences between accounts of those actually there in Ferguson were striking. Given the amount of conflicting information, it was difficult for the public to judge which was accurate. 

In this rise of citizen journalism, how can the general public sift through all of the various accounts available to determine what is factual and accurate? Do they accept reports from professional journalists who may not be at the scene over accounts of those observing the event firsthand? Which is true? Or, is the "real story" some combination of the accounts out there available via social media, television news sources, and print news? Will the rise of citizen journalism result in the public perceiving that journalists are less credible than before? And if so, how can we combat that?

Honestly, I’m still stuck on the answer to most of these questions.

Week 1 Post

One of the main focuses of the reading was the future of journalism and the transition from print to Web formats. In order to survive most major newspapers now have websites and some even post articles on social media sites. The fate of small local newspapers was also brought up. While some hyper local papers have garnered a loyal following in their communities others have fallen by the wayside.

I observed this transition firsthand when I worked for The Journal, a small newspaper in Seneca, SC. The journalists and editors at this paper were very stuck in their ways and didn’t really feel that Web was important because they were writing for an older audience. As a result their website was pretty terrible.

This reading resonated with me because I know how frustrating it can be when a legacy news outlet doesn’t want to get with the times. I knew the paper had a lot of potential, but because of its local focus and the staff wanting to appeal to an older audience the paper couldn’t realize its full potential.

            This weeks reading really focused on the role that news plays in the publics’ lives, and I was surprised to read about the amount of impact that journalists have and their “power” over society.

            A journalist’s job is tough, and the reading really emphasizes that aspect because not only is it a journalist’s job to inform the public, which is what I always thought of it as, but journalists also have to consider things like what the public wants and what they need. When writing an article, I never realized that journalist’s have to keep in mind their audiences’ different beliefs or what they are going to want to read about that day, so it’s not just about tracking down a good story and telling people about it.

            Another main point of the reading that really stuck out to me was the changing community for journalism. Now people don’t have to wait for a news article to come out, and they have the ability to post news themselves on websites. So a journalist’s job isn’t just reporting the news anymore; it also includes photos, videos, editing websites, blogs, etc. It was interesting to see how the roles of journalists have changed and are always changing.