I do agree that people like Jennings would rise to the top. I suppose my point would be that if he had appeared on the web first, the debate would be can he call himself a journalist.

I’m not doing the trad media down here from a journalistic point of view. Considered crafted pieces are, at the moment, only found in any great amount and range in the trad media. But we all know that much of the debate is around the economics of the industry and the defence of shaky market position.

Any industry under threat from competition has a choice – It either changes to meet that competition or it tries to market itself as something different. The traditional media has realised it’s much too slow to do the former and the quality of the online content (and I have to say some increasingly shoddy journalism) proves it doesn’t have anything to sell as the latter other than its established market position and distribution.

As a result, in the new media debate anyway, it results to bashing the competition – a kind of we were there first type of argument.

I do appreciate that there is a livelihood issue here. The recent moves by the NUJ/freelancers to re-engineer citizen journalists in to citizen witnesses is an example of that. But we can’t continue as an industry that supposedly defines itself by what it produces by defending itself from those who produce comparable content by what it is.

It’s as if the equation reads:
Journalist = trad media and good quality=journalist so good quality=trad media.

That has to change.

So yes, the cream will rise to the top, but the problem at the moment is that the traditional media think they have and should always have the monopoly on the dairy.

It is my firmly held conviction that the cream will rise to the top. There is no “battle” over who has the right to be a journalist. The true journalist, like a true artist, will, by the value of his output and by his devotion to his art or craft (or both), come to be recognized for his dedication and by the quality of his work.

I personally held a great deal of respect for Peter Jennings and I firmly believe he would have risen to the top of worldwide journalism even if confronted by innumerable obstacles. The same will evince itself in cyber-space within a remarkably short time.

I’ve been doing a similar thing with my Journalism Students (http://www.ukjournalism.co.uk/maonline
). Initially this with a blog of their day to day activities but now they have found their feet they are blogging on many journalism related issues.

I agree it’s an environment that we need to get used to but the growing pains are obvious. The students themselves seem to have no problem with the concept or the idea of the information culture bloggers and their ilk are creating. However our industry doesn’t seem to be able to handle it.

The next few years may well bring a huge shift in the way we consume information and our role as journalists in that process. But we seem to be battling over who has the right to be a journalist and assume that very important role in society.

Mainstream media, particularly print have stuck blog in front of everything in an effort to catch the wave. There is barley disguised exploitation of the ‘citizen journalist’ concept as the press, especially at a regional level, try to harness the power of user generated content for profit.

The traditional media don’t look that happy at relinquishing their position. But you’re right. They will have to change other wise they may be killing off any opportunity they have of effectively participating in the future.

It isn’t that journalism doesn’t have a future, like some of the major invested corporate concerns, it is that future and how it looks is changing rapidly. There will be room for far more. Of course that means that everyone and their brother can now pester the world at large with their pet peeve or favorite soapbox; just as we do here. It also means that you the reader will have to do the sifting to find the kernal among the chaff. The lame ho-hum will and does exist side by side with the very best of professional standards and it will be up to the reader to determine just what is in his interests. The professional will always have that certain “something” that makes the reader perk up and take notice. Call it training or style, still that will show through. So the profession has a bright future but is still seeking it’s level within the scope of the internet.

What is most disturbing in this is that journalism, as far as professional goes, is also sinking to new lows. Sounds odd doesn’t it? What I am going on about here is this. Many of the professional sites are now taking short cuts. They are ripping off blogs and sites, with cut and paste articles seeing print, that they themselves are not writing but rather using plagurism as the method to submit stuff to print without crediting the author of the site for the work. Treating these cut and pastes as if it were their own work that they did. In support of showing this happening was an article yesterday at Slashdot. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/03/1438224&tid=149&tid=99&tid=95

Still I congradulate Bill Thompson for attempting to accomplish what many of his profession in teaching may not be doing. That of preparing the student for the real world and not for some idealistic world that exists only in academic circles.