Monday, November 14, 2011
Page One
The documentary, Page One, is all about the New York Times and how new media has affected circulation and the paper as a whole. It talked about the lay offs, the papers shut down, and the constant struggle for newspapers to try to keep ahead of the internet, which seems pretty impossible. I have to wonder how media will affect newspapers in the future. Will there even be papers to pick up at convenience stores? Will they become so obsolete that the next generation will not get to even see or hold a newspaper? The documentary seemed to keep focus on a few individuals throughout the corporation. One being David Carr, an outspoken and opinionated columnist for the New York Times. Not only did he provide entertainment value to the movie, but he also brought up some very hard hitting problems journalism will end up facing. It even showed how he was reluctant to use twitter, but after trying it he became hooked because of all the convenience and ease. He was amazed and said how you could look up all this information before you're done waiting in line at Starbucks. The entire documentary was revealing in a way I never thought about. Obviously, as a journalism major I think about working in some sort of news room some day, but actually seeing the inner workings of such a major company was eye opening. I never thought of something like the New York Times having financial troubles or looking for hand outs, so not only was this unsettling, but it also made me feel the need to reevaluate my decision for becoming a journalism major. Newspapers are slipping, what will be next? How much longer will broadcast news be around? When will it become obsolete? Will the only way of getting the news be via internet, or will something else come along? For students studying journalism, will there actually be any jobs? If there are jobs, how long will one be able to keep it, or will they be laid off within the first year? New media raises a lot of questions and there is no way to tell for sure what the future of journalism has in store.
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I would hate to think you came away from this thinking there will be no journalism and no journalism jobs--there are LOTS, but they just aren't in the old pattern or sequence. And I think you have to be more careful not to fall into a non-job job, a content farm, for example, like the one in the Columbia Journalism School videos I assigned. But there's lots of great journalism out there--more, some say, than ever. And look at the NYTimes--it's doing WELL in the face of the challenge. :-)
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