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Journalism in the last five years has changed dramatically and I don’t think anyone believes that change is going to slow down. News can now be found in Apps on ipods and iphones and people read their morning paper from an ipad. But news still needs to be written and told no matter how technological our society becomes. I know that blogs are a huge thing in social media right now, but when people want to find realy news, they turn to CNN or FOX or MSNBC, not the blog of a stay at home mom who posts recipes along with her opinion of political candidates. As we talked about in class, bloggers get their initial information from a news article or and anchor on TV. If journalists were to stop going out and finding information and researching, bloggers wouldn’t have anything newsworthy to write about. For most people, blogging is a hobby not a life. Bloggers will maybe take a half hour out of their day to jot down a few paragraphs. They do not have time to find a story on the streets. But journalists make journalism their life and their career. Society will always need people who are driven to find the news and to fairly write about it.

The youtube video that the presentation started off with was really great. I know that I sometimes lose perspective of the impact that social media has in our world. I remember when my brother, who was in college at the time, told me about facebook. But at that time it was only available to people in college. I also remember the night that a friend of mine made me an account and tried to show me how to work it. I was so confused by his instructions and confident that I would never use it. But now, it’s just sort of an extension of me. I have 1,279 “friends,” 1,223 photos and 72 videos. Which is sort of crazy, but normal if you compare it to someone else’s profile I guess.

Like any social site, it can be used to good or for bad. We can let it consume us, take over our life, or give out too much information to allow stolen identities. But we can also keep in touch with friends all around the world, share photos and videos with family, and find people who love the same things we do.

News sites need to start infusing the social media sites with their information. They have fan pages on facebook and you can follow them on twitter, but as of now, they are not taking the proactive approach. For the news business to stay relevant and keep up with social media, news sites need to do more.

This was a really funny video about how much facebook and taken over some of our lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA

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The most interesting thing to me about the presentation last week was the question that asked “do people want to know what’s going on?” I would say yes, but what would they give to get the information. I like having the Daily Universe and the New York Times available to me, but would I pay to have it at my door on subscribe to an online version? No. Though I will admit I like to be spoon-fed the important facts, just like a large population of Americans. So I read the front cover of the newspaper before class so that so I can pretend I’m not just a college student that lives in the library and her apartment. I can pretend I know what’s really going on outside of Provo. But without the press, I couldn’t imagine our society. I don’t think journalism will ever go away, but it will change drastically with the times. Because not only is the technology changing, but the new generations will want different things. I can say that I like having a physical paper in my hands much more than I like an online version, but what will this new generation want?

Journalism is for providing citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing (Kovach & Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism). In addition to that, “One of the core functions of the press is to present citizens with a picture of reality that is factual and fair (p. 427, The Future of News, the Future of Journalism). Journalism is for the citizens of the country. But also with that, journalism often keeps government “in line” by always being a constant pressure. The government cannot get away with anything it wants to because journalists will be there to uncover the truth and to report it, sometimes even within the hour. As technology continues to change, journalism has been changing with it. The evolution from a weekly paper, to a daily paper, to broadcast journalism, and now to Twitter, Blogs and online newspapers has kept journalists moving and trying to adapt.

The role for journalism in society is difficult to determine. Anyone who writes facts with the strict goal to inform and not to persuade is a journalist. But for professional journalists, the goals should expand to keeping balance in the internet driven world and striving to keep false information out of the minds of the citizens. Some blogs are good and worth reading, but some are full of strong opinions stated as facts that can poison whoever reads them. Professional journalists need to keep the facts at the forefront so that citizens can form opinions based on fact and not fiction. Journalism needs to stay truthful and loyal to citizens above all else.

This video was posted two days ago and already it has hit over 1,000,000 views. The power of twitter and other social media sites are changing how we share news, and this video shows the impact it has in our life. Twitter Video

Print Journalism Class:

Journalism is information published in a form of media with the intention of informing a specific public. The “specific public” could be citizens of the United States, University of Oregon alumni, or people who live in Somerville, Boston. Journalists can write to whomever they want about whatever they want, but if the audience doesn’t want to hear it, the writing will not make it that far.

So who is a journalist? In this world, anyone can be. Any writing that is based off of facts is journalism. If your opinion takes over the piece, then sadly you are stuck in the Op Ed section and may be piled alongside with the ranting bloggers of the world. However, even an album on a facebook account can make a person a photojournalist. With blogs and social media sites readily available, the line between journalist and the average person has blurred.