I received the
Spring 2009,
Pomona College Magazine and was sitting by the pool reading it when I realized the magazine editors had compiled a timely and comprehensive set of articles on the present and future of
journalism. The articles were written by
Pomona College alumni ranging from
Bill Keller, Class of 1970, and
New York Times Executive Editor to
Molly Goodson (
@mollygoodson), Class of 2004,
Editorial Creative Director at
PopSugar.
The title of this post refers to the
University of Georgia,
Grady College,
New Media Institute,
Technology For The Turnaround (
my blog post) event I attended April 25, 2009. That event focused on the future of journalism, public relations and mass communications. At the end of the event, all attendees agreed this is an evolving discussion and a critical piece to the future of the
social web ecosystem. If you want to review the conversation and discussion that occurred during the event, use the hashtag
#tech4turn and do a search on
Twitter.
I believe journalism and journalists are very important to researching, analyzing, synthesizing and reporting on local, national and international events. I also believe that bloggers are and will become more like journalists and journalists will become more like bloggers and
vloggers. It is the merging of professional and practiced journalism technique with social technologies that will lead to the future of what we currently call newspapers and magazines. Once newspapers, magazines and journalists truly embrace social technologies and become unencumbered by the spatial requirements of paper, they will both deliver far more depth and insights and more concise stories. Journalists must embrace tools like Twitter that enforce a 140 character limitation while also taking advantage of the infinite space afforded to them on websites and blogs to deliver far more background and depth to their stories that were edited out in the past.
There was also an excellent debate last night (July 6, 2009) on
#Journchat (
@Journchat) about journalism and public relations specifically related to a
New York Times story: "
Spinning The Web: P.R. In Silicon Valley" and the corresponding arguments about this article on
TechCrunch: "
The Reality of PR: Smile, Dial, Name Drop, Pray" and
Dave Taylor's The Business Blog At Intutive.com: "
Mike Arrington Doesn't Understand PR At All..." Both blog posts make strong arguments about the pros and cons of PR today and how integration of traditional and new media approaches are required to be successful.
Below are links to the Pomona College Magazine articles on the present and future of journalism. Read and enjoy.
I hope you enjoy these articles and I look forward to the continuing conversation around this vital topic during the weekly #journchat and #blogchat events or at a future University of Georgia, Grady College
CONNECT (
CONNECT Blog) or New Media Institute events.
July 8, 2009 Revision - I am adding this blog post: "
Thoughts on the Future of Journalism from the Purple List" as another good discussion on the future of journalism.
