A recent column in the Richmond Times Dispatch, by Caroline Little (the president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America) refutes the popularly held belief that that journalism is a dying industry.
Perhaps the cause of the misconception that journalism is a dying art stems from the conflation of the term journalism with print newspaper. As Little astutely points out, newspaper media is currently benefiting from its largest audience ever. Print news falling into the background does not mean journalism itself is dying.
Whenever new technologies are introduced, or mediums change, we tend to focus on what we lose in the process rather than the exciting additions to our experience. The changes in the world of news media indicate that journalism is a thriving art. One of the most pertinent examples of this is the transformative power that the Internet and social media have had on student journalism. With the combination of journalism and social media, students have been given a new power to affect the national conversation.
The Internet — and more specifically social media — is often talked about as if it is a menace looming over society, threatening to empty our brains and consume all our time. However, I am not the first to point out the fact that social media can, in fact, have positive effects, especially on the distribution of important news content.
Today, a scroll of the Facebook newsfeed is bursting with articles and multimedia from various news sites. Users share articles that interest them, and which they think might interest their friends. These articles can (and do) include pieces from student newspapers around the country.
A recent example is a multimedia piece by the Columbia Spectator, which documents a senior’s thesis project, for which she is carrying a mattress with her throughout her day until her rapist is expelled from Columbia. After the article was shared by friends on Facebook it appeared on the website Upworthy, which curates viral-worthy content. The video, posted on Youtube by the Columbia Spectator, has garnered well over a million views, a truly incredible feat considering it is a piece by a college newspaper.
This is only one example of a larger phenomenon. Last year, the Duke Chronicle published a feature on a Duke student who was a porn actress, interviewing the student and providing context for what had become a national sensation. A piece in a Princeton University journal about privilege also contributed to a heated national debate about affirmative action. Last fall, the University of Alabama Crimson White published a feature on race and the Greek system, which resulted in the school examining its policies and sparked discussions on the remnants of segregation across the country.
The very thing that people claim is killing journalism is actually giving it new life. Instead of universities being microcosms, they are now connected more than ever through social media. The national and global news media is now engaging with student newspapers and journalists more than ever before. Social media has given individuals the power to affect the number of people that news content can reach.
Some might argue that the digitization of news is garnering sub-par news outlets more attention than they deserve. It is important to remember that the popularity of sites like Upworthy or Buzzfeed does not mean that reputable news sites such as the Washington Post or the New York Times are losing any readership. While Buzzfeed and Upworthy might not include as much meaningful content as the Times, they are not devoid of worth (as evidenced by Upworthy’s distribution of the Columbia piece). Additionally, competition between social media oriented news sites and major news corporations will cause both parties to improve their standard of work and make positive changes to retain readership.
As Little emphasized in her editorial, the future of journalism is defined by the innovation to come. In a few short months, people will be reading the news on their watches. The introduction of the Apple Watch has left even me, a child of the social media generation, gaping in awe (and slightly horrified). However, witnessing the emergence of new technologies and the ways the news media responds and adapts is exciting. Journalism is not a dying art, but rather a changing art. While changing mediums can be scary and seem daunting, they are part of the natural progression of society, and (in this case) are taking the news and putting it into the peoples’ hands.
Mary Russo is an Opinion Columnist for The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at m.russo@cavalierdaily.com.
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