Being an English major, I frequently get asked what I want to do with my life after I graduate (no, it's not teaching, sorry). Instead, I reply that I work for my school newspaper and I would like to go into journalism or some sort of media where I can edit or possibly write for some sort of news outlet.
However, in the changing times, this has gotten a little harder for people to understand. Nearly everything we do and all of our news sources are through the internet. Even as I write this, for The Odyssey, this can be seen as a form of journalism. Granted most of the pieces that I contribute are opinion based, but most are influenced by something that is happening in the media that day. There are almost always elements of some news story that had most recently happened to influence me to write that piece. I know that many people who write for The Odyssey, just by scrolling through their front page, write about news pieces, even if they have an opinionated twist on them.
I've been asked, throughout my time as being involved with a newspaper, what I think of the change to web-based news and media versus the standard print. Of course, I have always been a fan of being able to hold something in my hand, such as when the Kindle first came out, I was not amused by the fact that I wouldn't be able to flip the pages or even get that book smell that I adore. But, I also saw the perks of having a Kindle or similar device. It is certainly less bulky than a regular book, and you can buy several books at once and keep them there on your device. It was convenient to have.
This goes along with my view of how news is getting digitalized. I like the idea of having a newspaper in my hand or something equally as tangible, however, it is convenient to have these articles be out on the internet. We can easily look at multiple articles at once, from all different sources. We can search, by keywords and phrases, to try and narrow down a search to find an article that we need for an academic paper or just by personal interest.
Some people may be concerned that this is no longer "real journalism" due to the fact that anyone could write anything and call it a news story. Granted this is sort of true. Just look at me! Who says that I am qualified to give you my opinion on news items and say that they are valid? The point is, this has been happening even in print. Look at any tabloid magazine that you see as you are checking out at your grocery store. These ridiculous titles that always seem to do with some sort of alien invasion or some mysterious affair are maybe not the best form of journalism. There are those "trash" articles in whatever form of media that you are looking at, it's sort of unavoidable.
Am I concerned about the state of news and news media? No, not really. I know that there will always be a need for the spreading of news events, no matter how big or small. Now, am I concerned about getting a job in this field? Well... that's a completely different story.
