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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > April > 06 > Entry
The future of journalism
With all the bad news about newspapers these days, it was good to see that at least one aspect of the future is bright: tomorrow’s journalists.
I was privileged last week to speak to a Journalism 101 class at Miami University Hamilton about the field they are studying. I talked about the trials and tribulations of my job, and answered questions. The students were particularly fascinated with the story about the exotic dancers busted at V’s Nightclub in Hamilton for allegedly violating the city’s adult entertainment ordinance.
No surprise. They are college students, after all.
I was impressed by their inquisitiveness, and how well informed they are on local issues. People say newspapers are in trouble because young people don’t read them. But that was clearly not the case.
How they read them is changing, though. The class was in a computer lab, and as we went through this blog and other stories online, I watched as some of them pretty much ignored me and surfed news Web sites as I talked.
My talk came on the heels of this story about how journalism majors at MU are way up. I find that amazing, considering these stories about the health of newspapers these days.
And the irony of the fact I just linked to a Google news search is not lost on me.
But amidst all this dour news about news, let me assure you that this newspaper and I aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
But I’m curious: Why do you think so many newspapers are in trouble? Why do you think young people are drawn to the field in spite of it? What do you think is the future of news?
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Comments
By Media Fan
April 6, 2009 4:24 PM | Link to this
Why are newspapers struggling? A history of voracious appetites for often costly acquisitions (Cox too) that burden operational costs, especially in economic downturns like these. Continued reliance on business models that give away content, especially local content, for free that at best surrenders print dollars for digital dimes. And, continued stories by newspapers themselves that would appear to support gloom and doom and their coming deaths. Young people live in a world that is increasingly tracked by the second online through their Facebook, Twitter, etc. accounts. They live for information, just not in the format that traditional newspapers built their fortunes. And, they recognize that the need for information, even more of it, is there…even in print.
By Leslie Spangenberg
April 7, 2009 2:16 PM | Link to this
Josh, Thanks for coming and talking to our class. Sadly enough, its the norm in the class for people to stare at computers instead of paying attention to the speaker. Sorry you were ignored, but your time was appreciated by some.