When I learned of this week's essay question, I thought, "How am I going to answer this question when I know very little about what a web journalist does?" How should I know what a web journalist will be doing in five years. Shouldn't I be asked to answer this question after I've learned something about online journalism?
After much thought, and a brief conversation with Professor Musser, I realized that I might have more insight as to what a web journalist will be doing in five years than I thought. During our conversation, I began to understand that being a web journalist in many ways means being a multimedia journalist and multimedia journalism is something I know thing or two about.
Although my primary interest is television news, for the last couple of semesters I have tried to learn as much as I can about all different types of media, working at newspapers and in radio. I realize that, as the lines that separate the various media begin to blur, having experience in more than one medium is something potential employers will value. Additionally, as the separation of the media becomes less distinct, the skill-set a web journalist has today will, in five years, need to be much more diverse and advanced. Also, my guess is that in five years the web journalist's job will not only be to tell a story in the best possible way but to tell that story quickly.
In five years, in addition to being proficient in writing, operating a camera and creating graphics, web journalists will need to be efficient in producing a final product. And as technology becomes more advanced, online producers will expect web journalists to create a product faster and have more advanced skills.
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