The Real Journalist

Kevin Duresky
kd201505@ohio.edu

Today I attended the New Media vs. Traditional Journalism panel discussion at the Schuneman Symposium. When I saw this was the only panel I was able to attend, I thought I wasn't going to get anything out of the discussion. After all I have grown up with this era of new media, I know that new media is forcing newspapers to scratch their heads and wonder what they can do for survival. What I took away from this particular panel I did not expect.

A main point brought up by Peter Shaplen, freelance network television journalist, and reinforced by Gary Moneysmith, Interactive Strategy Director for a Columbus advertising agency, was the fact that every company, every organization, and every single person in this new wave of technology is a journalist. In this age of extreme information sharing everyone who contributes to communication is essentially their own journalist. They gave examples of non-journalism majors who have profitable blogs and business CEOs following Twitter and Facebook, all of these information sharing entities are journalists.

Where I disagree with this statement is the journalistic quality of these non-journalism individuals. I can attribute luck to successful bloggers, and any company can set up Facebook or Twitter, but do these social media tools have a focus? a purpose or function? Maybe, but to ensure these tools are used correctly and written properly a real journalist will be required.

Companies realize they cannot utilize this new media on their own. I was able to intern at a small remodeling company this past winter to set up social media tools because the owner requested a journalism student from Scripps. In Journalism 472 my group is working with the OU Credit Union because they have needs (especially in the new social media) they want fulfilled by senior journalism students.

So maybe everyone can be a journalist through interaction and communication, but if you want the right message given to the right people you better call a professional.