All too often these days, we hear the phrases, "Journalism is dying," and, "Journalism is dead." But is that really true?

In recent years, journalism has been struggling, true - more and more journalists and reporters are turning to corporate- and politically ruled news organizations because they just can't survive independently or with smaller news groups. What this means is that highly talented individuals who could be reporting real, factual and meaningful news are instead writing and reporting based on biased agendas, most often political. The problem, however, is not that journalists cannot do their jobs; it's that the consumers, the people, don't want to hear what they have to say.

The majority of today's populace who consume the media just aren't looking for real news. They don't want to hear about the things happening in the world, which are often terrible, difficult things to see and think about. People don't want to have that weighing on their conscience, so they instead look for entertainment and scandal, which is why so many journalists end up as little more than entertainers rather than informers. In addition, many people look to social media for news, which is often unreliable and altogether false. Citizen reporting appears to be increasing in number - bloggers, university students, and people who just happen to be at the right place at the right time are reporting news more and more, so people often rely on those outlets for information, though it is difficult to sort out what is true and what is not.

Whether journalism is truly dying or not is unclear, though it is certainly suffering, due in large part to lack of interest from the people. Perhaps we will see a resurgence in real reporting in the future, but for now it seems the age of information has become warped and twisted into the age of entertainment.

I, for one, do not intend to be part of that entertainment. Do you?