the case for journalists

everyone says that journalists are a dying breed in the age of wordpress, google (and now bing — still need to check it out), twitter, facebook and the like. quite the contrary, i actually think there’s argument to be made that the propensity of these mediums only make the need for journalists far greater.

today, we have millions of pages and bytes of data at our fingertips and combing through them can be a rather time-consuming task. journalists have, and SHOULD, seek out that objective truth and perspectives that should depict a situation.

i think what needs to happen is that we should take a hard look at journalism schools again. true, we are in the age of new media and interactive media has become the overnight sensation of the journalism world. however, what cannot, and should not be forgotten are the core values that define journalism: TRUTH, ethics, and seeking that balance between perspective, fact, opinion, and emotion. more than ever, journalists today need to embrace new technology as a means of understanding how to use all these new mediums to support and uphold these core values.

in the end, i don’t think it will be new media that will kill journalism — it will be journalists themselves if they cannot learn to adapt quickly in the age of 140-characters-based communication.

i should caveat this by saying that since i’m not in journalism school and hear very little about what actually goes on, these are things that may already be taking place. if so, i think it should be communicated moreso than it currently is. can anyone else shed light on this?