With the merging and closing of newspapers and the emphasis on advertising and marketing, some journalism schools must be looking for a reason to exist. Perhaps it’s time to focus on small-scale, Internet journalism — journalism for the masses. Dan Gillmor, founder of the Center for Citizen Media (affiliated with the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University), posits that online citizen journalism is not ruining the Fourth Estate but adding to it and improving it.
According to an article in a Vermont alternative newsweekly, Gillmor says that tomorrow’s news machine “will be more of a conversation, or a seminar” and that “the lines will blur between producers and consumers.” Given that, some might think that j-schools should take a more active role in educating the general public, not just current and future reporters, about how journalism works.
To add to this whole discussion, the San Francisco Chronicle recently assessed the role that amateur online journalists have had in scrutinizing the Iraq War, the Bush White House, and the Congress. The article suggests that bloggers have been tougher and more perceptive on the issues than professional journalists have. Because of the financial pressures on newspapers and the poor reputation that journalists have among some Americans, it would seem that journalism in general is in trouble. Or maybe blogs like this one represent the future of news?
