The Future of Journalism

As Journalism as we know it begins to change, in order to stay ahead of the continually changing consumer economy, we must be innovative in order to create a successful company/news channel. To create a news company or system, we must look at current trends that represent what our consumers want. Then, we must create an idea or prototype that will display our thoughts about how the company will distribute its information.

Paper publishing has slowly but surely faded away in the rank of occurring journalism. The internet has taken over publishing. Online journalism has allowed access to information at any given time and it has allowed us to "choose" the stories that we pay for and the stories that we read. At almost any given data search base, you are required to pay for an article once you past the abstract. Some will allow you to pay for a single article, while others will require you to subscribe to the company. This is becoming more prominent in journalistic companies as well.

Journalism is turning to the internet and the internet is being placed into cars. Google is creating a self-driving car which could allow for a completely new mode of transportation and the amount of things that could be accomplished while "driving" in your car. During Journalism class, a group of students and I were put to the challenge of creating a new system to display journalistic news to consumers. We immediately thought of the the self-driving car. We began to experiment with ideas on how we could display news in the cars and how it is displayed currently. Together, we made small changes to the traditional entertainment system in a car and that led to a very new operating system.

At first, we recognized that we could display information on the windshield of the car because it would not be necessary to see the road ahead. This information helped us to create a panel of options that would appear on the windshield that would be large, at eye level, and extremely accessible. The "screen" would be operated much like a television. It is controlled by the center counsel which is a touch screen. By pressing the silver arrows, you are able to "thumbs up (show me more) or thumbs down (show me less)". By pressing the side arrows, the news that is being displayed will switch.

We then looked at how important social media is becoming to America. We decided that in order to satisfy the wants of consumers we would need to create an "applications" program. In this program, you are able to use the arrows to navigate through the sites. By using the side arrows, you are able to access multiple sites and by using the up/down arrows, you are able to scroll through the news feeds. This program would also allow you to play games on your counsel which would then appear on your windshield.

Could this be the future of journalism? I'm not really sure, but I do know that journalism is changing and that in order for it to survive, journalists must create new ways for it to live. Whether this is the way that journalism can survive, it still does not change the fact that journalism is constantly changing and adapting to consumer wants and needs.

Journalism is passion.

Journalism is not simply reporting. It is what you begin your day hearing or looking at, and it is what you see as you close the page of a newspaper or turn off the news channel for the night. I believe journalism is more than news though, because I believe that news can be so microscopic and meaningless, but still be passionate. As consumers of a first world country, passion drives our economy.

Without passion, there is no meaning to anything. There would be no purpose to picking up a magazine if the publisher decided to invest 2 minutes of a 1400 minute day to writing an article about something. It would most likely be a story that would be comparable to one that was written by a kindergartner. Maybe there could be one argument in it, but it would probably be a mess of a story. When we do things so mechanically (without any investment) and without thought, there is not any emotion.

Emotion is extremely meaningful in publications, we see it in the news almost everyday. It is evident that emotion is used in publications because it is used in commercials, public apologies, and through storytelling. As journalists, we write in a way that will have an impact on another person or a group of people. We share details that will make our audience feel. Whether they feel awful after learning about it or they feel compelled, this feeling is so important to maintaining a supporter.

The commercial above was published by the ASPCA, its use of music and pictures are used to draw attention to the company and to make you feel bad about what is happening in the world while you are sitting on your couch snuggling your dog and not doing anything to help other animals. It uses pictures of beaten animals that you stop to think "what if that were my pet?"

UNICEF does a very similar thing to what the ASPCA does in this informative video. It uses general knowledge to show you how high our quality of life is compared to the other 14% of the world who does not know when their next meal will be. It displays pictures that are so focused on how terribly these people live. Almost every picture shown in the video is of a child crying, yet it uses such simple phrases to tell the general public what is happening across the world.

People need find a passion for something and to run with it. The creators of these videos that bring tears to our eyes, have a passion for what they do. Because they are so passionate about their ideals, they are so convincing. They are well educated on what they want the public to know have found a way to bring their opinions to the public eye in a very dramatic way. I believe that this dramatic appearance is what is what journalism is. Whether we show this through storytelling, an article, a picture, or a video, journalism uses emotion to be informative.