A look into journalism's future

Add a Comment

October 7, 6:41 PM

by John Kirch, D.C. Politics Examiner

 

 

According to a panel discussion held at the University of Maryland-College Park, the journalists of the future will be less wedded to individual institutions like the New York Times and instead will operate in a world in which they must continuously market themselves to multiple news organizations.

Reporters will not only have to know how to interview sources and write stories for different media platforms, the panelists said, they will have to know basic business principles so that they can create individual brand names for themselves that can be used to build audience followings and create job opportunities.

"What's nice about the Web ... is you can develop a brand for yourself for people to engage with you," said Amar Bakshi, a reporter and filmmaker for washingtonpost.com.

"Journalism is not dead," added panelist Kevin Blackistone, a sports writer and professor at Maryland's College of Journalism. "Journalism is alive and well. I would argue [that] journalism is thriving."

While journalism may be strong, newspapers are not.

Leslie Walker, a visiting professor at the University of Maryland, said many newspapers will "wither" as daily sources of news and focus most of their efforts on the kind of analysis once done by the weekly news magazines.

She said regional newspapers are more likely to survive than large metropolitan dailies because these smaller outlets focus on local news that readers can't usually get from any other source.

In addition, Blackistone predicted that within the next year some newspapers will stop publishing Monday-to-Saturday editions, instead using the Internet to deliver news during the week and saving their printing presses for Sundays.

"If there is a newspaper worth its sole, its shifting its resources from print to online," he said.

The forum, which was titled "The Changing World of Journalism," also focused on audience demands and press freedom in the Internet age.

Panelist Mark Miller of WBAL-Radio in Baltimore said he was concerned that the trend toward less serious news and more trivial stories about celebrities will only be exasperated as reporters and editors become more focused on which stories get the most "hits" on a Web site.

Walker agreed that this danger exists, but she said "the challenge for great journalists" has always been to maintain their integrity in making sure that important stories continue to be reported even if they are not necessarily the most popular ones. Instead of fearing the two-way dialogue the Internet creates, Walker said, journalists should embrace audience participation as a force that will enhance press freedom.

The panel also expressed some concern with the wild west nature of the Internet, where anyone can post anything -- true or not.

Bakshi, who spent a year overseas researching a video story examining how people around the world view the United States, said that one way the Internet may be tamed is through the need of online reporters to validate themselves as "honest brokers" of information.

Walker added that the audience must also carry some of the burden, adding that readers and viewers must become more media savvy so as to distinguish between dubious and trustworthy news sites.

The two-hour forum was sponsored by the National Press Club, the Maryland Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Washington, DC, and Maryland pro chapters of SPJ, and the Washington Chapter of the Radio-Television News Directors Association. It was moderated by Jerry Zremski of the Buffalo News.

The discussion was one in a series held throughout the year to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the press club, which plans to air a portion of the Maryland forum on its Web site later this week.

   Subscribe   Feed

Include other special offers from Examiner.com
Terms of Use