Is New Media Killing Journalism?

I’m a former reporter and lots of people think I’m just being an old grouch when I complain about the current state of journalism. But I can’t help it. I think real, true journalism is becoming a dying art.

Reporters are forced to work too fast these days, what with filing their stories, posting on Twitter, giving updates on Facebook, shooting pictures and video for their websites, all while trying to follow the actual story. “News gathering” organizations spread their already thin staffs way too thin.

Which leads me to talk about this announcement by the University of Colorado Boulder: The school is considering pulling the plug on its school of journalism in favor of some kind of “new media” program offering.

According to an Associated Press story, Chancellor Philip DiStefano said in a written statement: "News and communications transmission as well as the role of the press and journalism in a democratic society are changing at a tremendous pace. We must change with it."

Change sure, but kill an entire worthwhile program? Where will our future journalists, real journalists come from?

Again, the grouchy former reporter here... I know the times they are a changin’ but reporting the news and reporting it well and accurately is a really big deal. And the people doing the reporting have to know what they’re doing. They have to be trained well. They need to have a foundation.

David Hazinski, an associate professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and a former NBC correspondent, told DailyFinance: “Ethics and standards will become even more important as the sea of opinion grows deeper. The content and context will be distributed over many platforms but someone has to be at the top of the information food chain. Those people will be skilled journalists, not technicians."

Reporting the news is serious stuff and has to be taken seriously by people who know more than just the glitzy, high-tech side of things. They have to know about accurately gathering and reporting the facts, and what to do with them.

When I graduated from Penn State many years ago, I graduated from the School of Journalism. A few years after I graduated, the university combined Journalism, Advertising/Public Relations, Film-Video and Media Studies, and Telecommunications under one roof of “The School of Communications.”

The name change still makes me cringe a little. That’s what happens when you’re an old grouch. I hope the “new media” grads that the schools are turning out know what they’re doing. Journalism is too important to treat lightly.