Jason Manning, Director of Student Media at ASU, talked to the assembled Fellows of the Reynolds Institute on Thursday morning about The Future of Journalism. He brought in a few pertinent quotes about the changing platforms of journalism, but my favorite one was the one from Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., the owner of the New York Times: "I am absolutely agnostic regarding methods of distribution." He said that if someone would invent the technology for it, he would have no problem beaming news content directly to someone's cortex. Isn't that what iPods & earbuds do? Just kidding. Sort of.
I think this is probably the healthiest mindset for a journalist to have. We don't know how things will change, we just know they will change. What doesn't change, according to Manning, is the need for:
- good writing
- multimedia skills
- ethics
- diversity
There's more, but frankly, I'm perilously close to information overload. Just chew on this bit for awhile whilst I regroup.
Juli Stricklan
Rigby High School
Rigby, Idaho
Posts
The EPIC video was great. I will be sure to implement this in the first week of class. I'm sure my students will get a kick out of this, and will serve as a great learning experience.
ReplyDeleteYour list is absolutely right. People are too quick to blame the hardships journalism is facing entirely on technological developments. Traditional journalism has done a lot to work against itself, specifically it has failed to deliver anymore things like diversity or, often, even good writing. There are some great interviews with top journalists about the future of journalism at http://www.ourblook.com/component/option,com_sectionex/Itemid,200076/id,8/view,category/#catid69 which I have found useful.
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