New Media vs. Journalism

Lindsay Ferguson
lf245706@ohio.edu

The fact that several newspapers and magazines throughout the U.S. are either filing for bankruptcy or having major layoffs can send a frightening message to aspiring journalists as we realize that these once valued news resources are no longer in the same demand as they once were.

These days it seems like everything is going online, and the news is no stranger to the move to Web. Not only has technology made the media an open forum for anyone to comment on, but it’s made news consumption itself somewhat of a frenzy. There is now a profound speed and interactivity to reporting, unlike any other time before. Not to mention, going online is significantly cheaper than issuing thousands of print resources.

For me, some fleeting questions cross my mind every time I hear another bleak story about media job cuts: Am I going to find employment after I graduate? If I get a job, should I pick up another one just incase I lose mine, too? Should I have spent the last 3 years studying something else???? For now the answers to those questions are maybe, yes and no.

Today, Ohio University's E.W. Scripps School of Journalism hosted the Schuneman Symposium, a forum that focused on new media and politics. One of the speakers, Bob Benz, who is chief operating officer at Radiant Markets and also serves on the advisory board at Scripps, spoke on the issue of new media versus traditional journalism. Should we, as journalists, view it as a vicious battle or a powerful alliance? Benz opted with an accepting stance and stated that although the media industry is, in fact, in crisis, that from these problems come an opportunity.

This is the fate of journalism, whether we accept it or not, and the new high-tech ways of informing the public (such as this blog…Twitter, anyone?) is just another arena in which journalists can exercise their talents.

I think that Benz is right, though I hope that the decline we’re seeing in the industry today is quickly reversed. While I’m compliant enough to share my Twitter updates with the rest of the world and perhaps blog about what I updated on my Twitter account (!!), I much prefer the traditional print form of journalism, which I think nothing can really replace.