Whenever I tell someone I'm a journalism major, I'm often reminded that there is still some time left to change my major. It's pretty discouraging, but I like to think my degree isn't the most useless of diplomas from a four-year school. That is a daily struggle with art history majors.
But the constant message in journalism is that of multimedia. Journalists are supposed to be proficient at getting a story online well before final deadline for print, and supplement it with video of the scene, audio of a few interviews and a less-than-objective blog update detailing what the event was really like. Balance that with another similar story due that day and an investigative piece that demands attention and nothing gets done well.
It'd be nice if we could all take a breath. Average journalism isn't hard to do, it's probably why the pay is so low, but the good stuff takes time. When newspapers post clunky videos from a shaky handheld camera over a bad connection of what happened that day, is it really worth it to the reader? A few hundred more page views is always nice to tout, but that's time the reporter could spend probing further. I'd imagine most readers still get their news while at work, a time when it isn't really practical to turn on the speakers and watch a video of local news.
I'm far from against new media, my personal goal has always been to work internships in different mediums to find some sort of well-rounded view of journalism, but this shift away from telling the most detailed and interesting story we can is depressing. If it brings in more advertising, I say kudos for finding an outlet. Overall though, it just seems counter-productive to what we're trying to do.
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I was pretty stumped on what to link to this time, so here, enjoy this classic again.
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