Sunday, January 30, 2011

Blog Post No. 2


This week’s set of readings is just another scary reminder of the fact that it’s becoming easier and easier to fall behind in the journalism industry. The rise of social media networks and the ability for anyone to publish content are unavoidable additions to the media world that must be embraced going forward. This doesn’t mean that we must take every single post by simply everyone out there and consider it as news, but we should respect the opinions of others and allow these inputs to better shape our own views.

I think it’s pretty cool that I can now consider myself a network journalist. It sounds like I make a lot of money. But being able to function on multiple platforms is now the norm in this field. Newsrooms are continually advising employees to familiarize themselves with new outlets like Twitter and Facebook, to step behind a camera to snap pictures or capture video, and to learn how to use computer programs like Adobe InDesign and Photoshop.
As an aspiring sports network journalist, I use Twitter to stay connected to the latest news from my favorite beat writers and columnists. The revolution which began with a simply hashtag phrase in each tweet is most often used by the writers I follow. For example, #Gators is one that’s always in my Twitter timeline in regards to all Gators sports news. Some writers use it, and some don’t, especially if they tweet solely about Gators sports, but the hashtag allows any Twitter user to post their input on a Gators game for anyone to see if they choose to research the query. It truly provides for the interaction of complete strangers on a platform where the same interests are present.

With that said, just because someone tweets or blogs about something that is news-related, we should not automatically grant it as news. There still needs to be some levels of traditional journalistic values abided by to even be considered credible. Having superior facts and resources to back prove their validity is one step any blogger out there should master. In the end, it all is subject to points of view, and how a particular writer sees a situation and shares their viewpoint with the world. This is the difference between what some are trying to classify as news versus what it really is – just another opinion.


1 comment:

  1. Nice summation without listing every reading. Sort of filtered through your mind.

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