Journalism equals truth... at least to the general public.

I agree with what the group said in their presentation last week. We expect journalists to report the truth. We as consumers of the news assume that because a story is published that it is 100% true. I think that is a huge mistake with todays media.

With the main stream news sources you can always assume that the facts have been checked, however more and more people are turning to alternative forms of news. Blogs and social media make getting news very simple and people are able to post their own views and opinions; however, not all of these posts are factual.

One of my favorite websites is called "The Onion". It is a website that creates totally fake news that is in the correct style and format. It honestly take about thirty seconds for you to realize that this stuff isn't real; it is a joke. They stick to current issues and I think it is interesting social commentary.

This picture is from an article that describes how in an effort to earn money for the US economy Obama appeared in a Japanese commercial.  The reason why I think "The Onion" is so interesting is because when you see an article or a news clip in the accepted style you assume that it is actually news. People have no common sense when reading the news. They take everything presented as hard fact. If you ran this story in The Daily Universe I think that most people would take it as fact. Very few people would question the information and write in about it. The whole story can be found at http://www.theonion.com/articles/obama-earns-money-for-us-by-appearing-in-japanese,21292/

The Future of News

 I think that the future of news is secure. It's unrealistic to predict that print news is going to disappear any time soon. After all, every time a new form of media has become popular the older form has had to adapt to survive. For example radio had to change significantly when television began to absorb its viewers. I think that Ryan Singel says it better than I ever could "Paper is dying, but it’s just a device, replacing it with pixels is a better experience." http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/03/the-future-of-n/
 
I agree with the group that presented; professional journalism will continue to lead our new craze of citizen journalism. People today are using professional journalists to point them in the direction of important news. They then write what they think about this story or add their own information on top of it. It is very rare for a blogger to come up with their own independent and original breaking news. I do think that news is returning to its roots. It began with citizens sharing their local news with each other, I think that with social media it is returning to this form. http://www.economist.com/node/18928416

I found this awesome clip where a bunch of important reporters and people in the news industry talk about the future of news and the citizen journalists. It is a little overly serious and pretentious, but I still think it is interesting. http://www.newseum.org/programs/future-of-news/index.html

What is Journalism?

To me journalism is reporting events or trends to a broad audience. My first real look into journalism came about because of September 11, 2001. The news anchors took the as much information as they could and shared it with the world. I think that for myself and the rest of the nation journalism changed in a specific way that day.
First and foremost the content of the news changed. According to PEJ Analysis reporting of foreign policy and terrorism has risen significantly since 2001.http://www.journalism.org/node/1839/print On top of what is reported I think that the method of reporting has changed as well. The most common methods were television and the newspaper. Now I think that most people go online for their news and are able to get news much faster.
Since there have been so many improvements in media I believe that more people are accessing and using these recourses. I think in the next decade journalism will be forced to change just as much if it hopes to stay a critical and vital source of information for the masses.
http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/viewArticle/1416/1521
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journalism