I think the future of journalism will be online with blogging and podcasts. Recently, blogs have been credited with everything from professional news stations to unauthorized previews of the latest Apple Computer products, to new transparency in presidential campaigns. The big question is whether blogs, short for Web logs, have the staying power to become more than just online diaries. Our generation is so dependent on computers, however traditional journalism will always be the leading source for news. With online journalism there would be more layoffs or buyouts in newsrooms across the country.

Journalists are questioning their place in the future due to the growth of blogging. When it comes to bloggers reporting the news it is hard to trust their information. Social journalism has potential to threaten the future of journalism because it has the power to play a big role in our society. People enjoy reading blogs because it’s a quick, easy way to get information and it can be more enjoyable. Perez Hilton is a big blogger because he reports on celebrities and gets sources fast for the information he is blogging about. I don’t think that journalists should be worried about this new way of communicating with the society, in fact is creates more jobs for people in the future.

Blogging is becoming such a huge hit, but I think people will still continue listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and watch the news on television because it’s traditional. People trust traditional journalism because it’s credible, and that’s what they are use to.  Journalists have ethics that they have to follow when they report stories, they have to report trust worthy facts because their job could be in the line if they don’t. When people see a news stations name that is well known, people would believe the information provided because that station has built trust with their audience. For the older generation having access to blogs may be difficult, it would be easier for them to open up a newspaper or turn on the television. Traditional journalism will always be part of our society, otherwise it would have been gone by now. Some people enjoy sitting down in front of the television and turning on their local news channel. It will always have more access to funding. I think that social journalism targets the younger generation because they can pick and chose what they want to hear. This is also an outlet were people can express their opinion and still have it interesting for the younger generation of society.

The question is will bloggers end up the mainstream media?  Blogging will be around for a long time. I think blogging is right up there with the printing press when it comes down to sharing ideas and spreading information. The growth rate of blogging is increasing by the minute. Blogging will be successful because it’s system that is lowers the cost of publishing. Bloggers can act as fact checkers for the mainstream media.

Human beings can only process so much information a day. My experience of trying to remember things isn’t that well. The information that should be remembered is forgotten and only little bits of information are remembered. With some assistance, by being reintroduced to the information originally, your memory will remember.

With the way our society is today, the demand for humans to process massive amounts of information is desired. Reading newspapers, watching television or surfing the net allows humans to absorb the content. Whether your age, or cleverness, our capacity is limited.

The article, Rodent Regatta says, processing and storing information drops to 10 to 15 hours a day, with an exception to those to get paid to read.

 It is said that the average lifetime is increasing and people want to consume more information, but at the same time fear of running out of time to do so.

            I think the more information people try to absorb the less they remember. If you remember little bits of information at a time it is easier for you to remember because you aren’t over loading your brain. I think the amount of information that humans are able to process will remain the same, I don’t believe doing exercises will improve. 

A journalist’s biggest challenge is to sort through the clusterfuck of information when doing research. You have to be able to trust your sources and the information provided, your news has to be accurate. You have to do lots of research and find out what the story is about. When you are researching facts to see how credible and accurate are you must see how common the information comes up. For example if your find a source that says the population of Hamilton is 500 thousand and an other sources says its 900 thousand you would have to go deeper and find the information that comes up the most. 

Being a journalist, you must remember that your audience believes the information that you are presenting credible news. You need to build a relationship with your sources. Having more than one source is key to accuracy, than more than one person can back the information up.

You must only report the facts in journalism, is seems that some journalist’s will report the facts, but than give their opinion. When you write the news and your audience is the general public all biases should not be announced, if so you are playing “god” and predicting what is going to happen in the future.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6283443

March 20/2008

Peggy French, our guest speaker on Friday had provided our class a lot of useful information.

            The things that she discussed were how to source statistics, review on books, magazines and newspapers, discovering directories and to use the search engine savvy.

            As a journalist, you are constantly balancing act-between perfect presicion and reasonable relevance. When you are searching for a topic, your words can’t be too exact. You will miss too much and if you search terms that are too broad, you will have way too much information on your hands. 

            The library is a helpful source when it comes to citing statistics.

            This information that has been presented will help me in my work as a journalist because I now know of more than one search other than google. I plan on using dogpile because it gives you an overall picture through its metasearch and helps you narrow your search.

            Before you do your research plan everything out before hand, and think about what you are asking to find the correct information. Use the right tools such as thebrain and specific resources. If you need a current snapshot, don’t access books and don’t be afraid to re-group or ask for help!

I believe photo manipulation should be allowed with some guidelines. Journalists should be allowed to change the colour of a photo to make it more clear for the viewer. Red eye should also be allowed to be removed from photos. By making simple changes it improves the photo and takes the imperfections out.However, copying and pasting objects, or people into a photo should not be allowed if you are publishing it. That is misleading to the public and you are reporting false information.  

  What is going on with the material that is being broadcasted on television now a days?  There are more shows everyday that involve sexuality and nudity. I think this material is degraded to all females. Females posing in Playboy, are getting paid an outrageous amount of money to take there clothes off and look like trash. Men buy this magazine for no more than five dollars, what’s the difference between handing the cashier at the variety store five dollars, or just handing a girl five dollars? To me you might as well.This is so disgusting. These girls have no morals. Hugh Hefner’s show The Girl’s Next Door consists of 3 bleach blonde bimbos that get what ever they want. Kendra Wilkinson is a disgrace to all females. This girl always want’s to be flashing people! Have some respect for yourself. I personally don’t think that stripping down and posing in front of a camera should be a profession, however this industry will never die. But seriously these people shouldn’t be famous.

This also sets a bad example for the females in our society. The famous networking website Facebook allows people to upload pictures of themselves. It seems to be the “cool” thing to post inappropriate pictures. No one wants to see that crap. Besides do you want EVERYONE you know or not to see you like that? What kind of message are you sending out to the world…”Hey look at me, I’ll take my clothes off, but even better for free!”

Women need to have more respect for themselves and understand that their body isn’t just a tool to amuse dirty old men. Lose the trash, and have some class!

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