Journalism is available on so many different forms. It's pretty fun. And then what the assessments are going to be. Then they told us that I AM a journalist already (aww shucks, me? really?) Something about blogs. Quotes are cool.
A good summary? I thinks so.
What really stuck with me about this lecture, and then the later discussion in the tutorial is: What classifies as journalism? Newspapers and magazines and news shows, we can all agree on. But what about blogs? Advertisements? Blogs? Twitter? Facebook rants? Scribbles on the back of napkins? The line starts to get pretty fuzzy, pretty fast. Even when we get a solid, unshakeble opinion about what we think qualifies to be journalism, what do we know? Why do some things count as journalism and others don't? Why do we get to decide what is worth knowing? It's easy to say that some information, say "Drinking an ice tea and watching Pride and Prejudice. Life is good :)" is not important to the public (because it really isn't). But then what about a magazine doing a piece on Kim Kardashian's wardrobe? That is equally unimportant; to me, that is. Or an Australian newspaper leaving out an incident that happened to a small village in Africa? That IS important to me. When you start thinking like that, you start going in a never ending loop.
And it hurts my head.
I think Easy A said it best:
"I don't know what your generation's fascination is with documenting your every thought, but I can assure you, they're not all diamonds."
What IS our generation's obsession? Why do we feel that what we think is useful to the world? It is every person's right to say what they want. As the heading has tried to say (very poorly, I admit - I just like puns. A LOT), the weak are winning. The ones who do not really care or try or are talented at journalism are getting ahead with the shortcuts and easy tricks that all these platforms are providing. But I think it is compromising the quality of journalism. It is hard to compete with the millions of other bloggers and tweeters and facebookers. And to be taken seriously when society seems to think that "everyone can do it". Everyone can do it, but not everyone should.
That is why I think JOUR1111 and the rest of the course will be important. It will give us some structure. It will show us how to find our voice and do something unique in whichever field we choose to pursue. I hope so anyway.
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