The Internet is an amazing thing. You can send a letter to someone states away in a matter of minutes rather than days via email. You can talk to people across the country via Instant Messenger, which runs in real time, holding as many conversations at once as you wish. You can buy, sell and trade items without leaving your home.
And if you so choose, you can read or watch the latest news at any time of day.
A lot has changed, hasn’t it? The invention of cell phones with video and photo capabilities has helped there. When the shooting at Virginia Tech transpired, raw footage was taken there by a student, and then broadcast around the country. When Liz Carroll was put on trial for the murder of her foster son, subscribers of the Cincinnati Enquirer could log on to view various clips and see what was happening.
So where are we headed? What is happening to journalism?
I see a trend of more bloggers posting their opinions on news. I myself have kept a blog for about three years, and regularly post links to various stories I find online. From there people can vent their own opinions on it all. Through LiveJournal, a blogging community, I’ve read opinions on everything from why men’s gymnastics isn’t aired as much as women’s to the war in Iraq.
Do I see blogging as taking over though? Not really. While it’s nice getting people’s views on things, I like my hard news as well. I like getting my information from a reliable source. Even with all the added elements to be found in stories posted online, the main reason people go to them is to get the information. It’s the same reason people still pick up a newspaper.
In the future, with technology becoming more advanced, I see more opportunities unfolding for online journalism. Being able to post video and audio helps round out a story nicely, and provides journalists the chance to show what can’t be told. I see it as a great tool, one that will help journalists. At the same time though, I hope that the focus remains the same; provide people the information. If journalism loses that, they lose everything.
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