Keeping up with Technology in the Career of News and Media

Kathryn Cook 

kc133410@ohio.edu

The following articles ("Want to Stop Mass Murder" by Christopher Hanson and "Crimes Best Coverage Now Requires Constantly ‘Feeding the Beast’" by David J. Krajicek and Debora Wenger) all concentrate on the harsh concept that the journalism field will constantly be changing. As technology grows and national tragedies occur we as journalists will continue to speak to the truth to the public. Everything that lies beneath the truth is what journalist will struggle with from the public.

Lets begin with technology. As social media continues to grow the journalism field keeps up the best it can, but its growing so fast a 15-year-old girl can barely keep up. From the small stories to the big stories things are easily leaked or misinterpreted through social media. As David J. Krakicek and Debora Wegner point out, journalists are fighting to get the story to the public before someone in the public does. The public is a huge competitor for journalists due to witnessing an incident or gaining information from an inside source a journalist might not have access to. Cracked.com calls out the media on stories they released claiming to be true that were clearly fake. Some of the stories are humorous stories you would never believe, then there are the stories published that could cause panic or worry with the public.

When social media leaks information it is hurtful and deceiving at times, but it is often helpful, especially for how high social media is on this generation's priority list. The generation today doesn’t watch the news or pick up the newspaper; their free time consists of Facebook posts and tweets. When a tragedy occurs and tweeters ask their followers to pray for the tragedy and hash tag it, it catches a follower on Twitter's eye.  

Tweets are now forcing the younger generation to turn on the news to see what horrific tragedy has occurred. As the journalist and media cover the story they get emotionally involved; the stations know the public has the TV on, waiting for updates of the story. So what about after the story has been published or broadcasted? When do the families and friends affected by the tragedy have time to mourn or recover from the tragedy that has occurred?

Christopher Hanson focuses on the media’s obsession of getting comments, photos or material to keep their viewers watching and interested about the tragedy. This coverage is over stepping a personal level, and I believe as a journalist I would take a person’s feelings in a tragedy more seriously than just getting another story. The article "Coverage Rapid, And Often Wrong, In Tragedy's Early Hours" focuses on the early influence of tragedies and makes a valid point that sometimes it is too early to be discussed. The media should focus on getting the truth out of the tragedy and stay out of the personal side of the tragedy that has occurred.