My Reflective Paper

Where is Journalism Going?
A Reflective Paper
By Anna Webster
Internship Tutorial Final Assignment



Being a journalist means being a jack of all trades. The traditional answer of “I like to write” to explain the career no longer works. You have to like to write, edit, take photos, take video, market yourself, make websites, network with PR reps, and stay up into the wee hours of the morning surviving only on coffee.

Don’t find out the hard way that being able to put a few words on a piece of paper is not enough to become a journalist. That’s what I did.

I guess all those A’s in English class in High School seemed to add up to equal a career in journalism in my head. Stumbling through articles and publishing stories for my college newspaper the Daily Free Press in Boston had me thinking that there might be a little more to this.

Climbing the totem pole of journalism is not glamorous. In jeans and flip flops at my first internship in High School I’d scan through a daunting stack of hundreds of pages of dispatch from the police department looking for what would make it into the paper’s weekly log.

“911 call at 19:07, response time, false alarm.”

“Unmarked vehicle on Franklin Ave reported at 22:03.”

…and on and on and on…

Every once in a while I’d find things like “raccoon in chimney reported on Rockaway Ave” or “ducks crossing road on Maple Lane” and have to put it in the write-up for my own amusement. There once was a week that summer where at least 5 people came into the office to alert us that there was a wild turkey roaming Marblehead. You learn very quickly that not much happens in a small town.

Every once in a while I have to pinch myself to remember that I am in London now interning at a new up-and-coming online magazine. And, I’ve upped the wardrobe from sandals and jeans, to boots, blouses and sometimes – black tie.

Last night, I networked at an event called the Plus Awards and in the morning interviewed young business executives about their new officepod project, said to be the new innovation in professional workspace.

Over my career as a journalist, being introduced changed from “Hi meet Anna, she’s a student working here” to “Hi meet Anna, our intern” to “Here’s our journalist for the company, her name is Anna.” How to get from here to there? The answer involves following the trend of journalism.

My family likes to say that it is “disappearing.” I don’t think it’s gone – you just need to know where to look! My communication professors tend to prefer the term “changing” to describe where I hope to base my entire career and future.

I remember the first article I ever published as editor of Spotlight, my weekly page in the Daily Free Press. After staying up until three in the morning laboring over every word, I opened the paper the next morning and found nothing. Turns out it was just put up online instead. Why spend all that time working on it if no one was even going to see it? I guess my editor didn’t think it was worth the space.

That night, the Editor-in-Chief called me over to his desk for…congratulations? Turns out my story had received comments online from people saying it was well-written. Not so bad, I guess how people view the news really is changing. Online is the way to go. But most of the time, people are unaware (like I was) about the resources available in the field of online journalism.

According to an April 2008 survey by the Newspaper Association of America, subjects polled were generally unsure of what is offered by their local newspaper website. While a small majority (59%) are aware that user comments and reviews are offered, less than half of all respondents are aware of any other tested content, with just a quarter aware of podcasts, article saving and social networking, and roughly a third aware of article sharing, RSS feeds and photo/video sharing.

But the trend is still looking like most papers will begin to move online to cut the cost of printing and distribution.

An average daily newspaper reaches 47% of adults who own a personal computer. This means that 75.2 million adults who own a personal computer read a newspaper on an average (Monday – Friday) weekday. Five weekday issues reach 65% of these consumers. An average Sunday newspaper reaches 55% of personal computer owners, and 4 issues of a Sunday newspaper reach 68% of these consumers, according to the NAA’s Business Analysis and Research Department from 2008. The numbers are only expected to increase over time.

Many magazines are opting to go online as well. According to those in the industry, the key to staying afloat is finding an identity.

There is a magazine for almost any interest or any hobby no matter how strange or small. In order to stay alive yours has to be unique and yours has to be GOOD. Newspapers report the news. Magazines do not need to report anything. Magazines can say what they want when they want. The hope is you can find an idea about which people would want to listen.

“Newspapers don’t have that problem,” said my Three’s A Crowd supervisor Melissa Gilmour. “We are in the middle of an identity crisis trying to figure out who we are.”

Working in a newspaper can open your mind up to breaking news, trends, and what issues people are talking about. Working for a magazine has even broadened my horizons to keep an eye out for fashion, celebs, and new exhibits or theater.

I get teased by my friends for keeping a digital voice recorder on me wherever I go. I was the one teasing them when I scored an interview with one of lead singers from my favorite bands, Brad Corrigan from Dispatch, while he was walking around campus last year before his concert.

Keeping one eye out for story ideas is what makes journalism something that will always be essential. No matter what, people are still going to want to know about their favorite interests. They will always want to know where the fire is or who was arrested.

The question is how they find this information out. This is why journalism has not shrunk, but expanded to new mediums.

Twitter…
Email…
Blogs…
Texting…
Video…

All are each new ways people are getting their news and it’s just the beginning. It comes as no surprise that a recent study by Pew Internet & American Life project found that the Internet has become the primary news source on the average day. And the news online is being updated constantly.

Working as a journalist does not happen between the hours of nine and five, but 24/7. As I walk to work in the morning I look to see what is happening around me. When I talk to friends at the pub I try to see what is on people’s minds. A story can be anywhere; the best ones are usually the ones right in front of your face sometimes so obvious that they go unnoticed.

“What’s in the today’s paper is what the editor saw on his way to work,” is what one of my journalism professors used to say everyday in class.

It’s true.

“How do we tweet on our twitter page about how the gig went yesterday?” I overhead my coworker Mark Emms as he talked on the phone in the office.

Discussing tools to use online has become a huge goal for Three’s A Crowd. Their website has a social networking feature where people can become members to comment or friend others. The site also works similar to a blog where people can make a post to the site themselves. The biggest problem Three’s A Crowd has is getting the word out that these features are available.

In a poll by April 2008 NAA study showed 54% of people polled said that they were familiar with blogs and 51% were familiar with photo sharing. The numbers are predicted to grow.

The study found that blogs are most appealing to newspaper website visitors and those with lower incomes, while older people are less likely to find them appealing. Awareness of newspaper blogs was about 50/50.

Three’s A Crowd has hundreds of members and the number grows as the more stories are published and the word gets out.

As trend show that journalism has begun to switch to online, more people will become familiar with the tools they have at their fingertips. Journalism is changing but is still alive and well.

Learning how to write sassy for a magazine has brought me to be introduced as a professional journalist. Uploading video and photos just like at home for my blog is becoming acceptable in the office too. Although I’m no longer sorting through hundreds of pages of dispatch, I still have to sort through hundreds of WebPages looking for something with pop and zazz to publish. While journalism continues to change, the basic idea remains the same –

Keep your eyes and ears open and write what people want to read.