Entries tagged as ‘industry change’
I returned from the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication yesterday afternoon and slept for 12 hours last night. It was an exhausting, but interesting and motivating week. Because I’m on the job market, I spent much of my time in interviews and didn’t have as much opportunity to attend panels and presentations as I would like. (Not that I”m complaining– it’s good to be in job interviews!)
From what I did hear, including my conversations with representatives from schools who are hiring assistant professors of journalism, the overarching theme of this year’s conference was that journalism is in major upheaval and journalism educators don’t know exactly what to do about that.
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Categories: General
Tagged: AEJMC, industry change, j-school, Journalism, research
The only thing that frightens me more than the financial hardships of newspaper companies in this recession is the financial recovery of newspaper companies after this recession. No, I’m not one who revels in the idea of newspaper failures – far from it. But the hubris that caused newspaper companies to get into this mess was challenged by their financial trouble recently. Recovering too quickly will allow that hubris to fester again and prevent the innovation necessary for newspapers’ long-term survival.
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Categories: General
Tagged: economics, industry change, Journalism
I entered the world of journalism in 2000 and was indoctrinated quickly and completely. Being a journalist was being part of a club. As part of my membership in that club, I defended my fellow journalists against critics the same way one defends her siblings: We can beat each other up, but I’ve got their backs if anyone else does. The gloves went on quickly against those who came wielding accusations of “liberal bias” and “elitism,” both terms typically used by politicians to discredit reports in the press that might damage reputations or hurt reelection chances.
Since leaving the profession, I’ve been able step back and realize that perhaps the “elitism” criticism has some merit, though not in the context of politicians and negative press about them. Instead, the charges of elitism have weight when we discuss which Americans the press and media are serving with their coverage. Emerson College professor Jerry Lansom articulated the problem in a recent column in the Christian Science Monitor: “Conventional wisdom holds that newspapers have been crippled by the flight of advertising to the Web. But they’ve been crippled just as much by corporate profiteering, arrogance, elitism, and encroaching dullness that have driven away readers, sometimes in droves.”
In the course of offering three steps to get journalists back to their roots, Lansom states, “Reporters need to cover how the other 90 percent of us live – and not only when we commit or are victimized by crimes.”
In short, Lansom is calling the press disconnected.
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Categories: General
Tagged: industry change, Journalism, local news, rant
