What is news?
According to dictionary.com, news is a report of a recent event; intelligence; information.
But what can we consider a recent event if it didn’t actually happen? Or did it?
Using Journalism in Second Life is like a crash test on one of the newest, hippest, and most technologically advanced cars in the world. Whether or not it is necessary, is up to each individual user. I believe that being a journalist in Second Life can be a practice run for journalism who someday wish to pursue a career in the “real” world.
I mean, ever since we were little we have been conditioned to be afraid of what will happen once we graduate school and venture out into the “real” world. With second life, I’m not sure what is real anymore, and what is just virtual. That could be one of the main challenges when applying journalistic skills in the virtual world: not knowing what is real and what actually did not happen. It’s hard to believe that is even possible, but with programs such as Second Life that make events seen so realistic, who knows if what goes on “in world” didn’t actually happen out in the real daylight?
Obviously, it would be easy to say that since we don’t need to use planes, trains, and automobiles to teleport to virtual worlds in Second Life that it would make news life much easier for journalists. But, I believe that the main challenge with this is credibility. How can we be sure that the news being reported in Second Life is actually “real” and not made up? If the journalists reporting the news are not even people (A.K.A. bunnies, foxes, bears, etc) how can we be sure their news is not as fake as their appearances?
Either or, Second Life can be used as a very helpful tool for journalist of every kind whether or not they are simply just starting out and want some experience, or maybe they are retired and want to get back into the game. Will this catch on?
I guess time will tell.