Life outside the newsroom: May 2009 Archives

During my J500 Media and the Environment class  we learned a lot about urban farming.

We each were assigned a farmer to create a blog about and we also had to help on a podcast.

Talking with Ericka Wright about her farm, the Troostwood Youth Garden showed me that urban farming was all about adaptation. Her neighborhood has very little fresh food around and a lot of youth. She decided to start a garden in her own yard to feed her community and help educate the kids.

This is what journalism needs to do.

Adapt. Find new ways to present information. Become better at everything.

For a while I just considered myself a photographer. Then after working at the Kansan I considered myself a photojournalist. Now after learning about blogging, copy editing, video editing, dreamweaver, fireworks and podcasts I have the confidence to say that I am a journalist and I am proud.

I am the future of journalism. Adaptation and learning a little bit of everything

Right now, I have no words. What I mean is, I am so weary of discussing the "future of journalism" that I doubt I have anything interesting left to say about the topic.
I have gabbed about what makes a journalist, who shouldn't be a journalist, how to monetize Web space through advertising, whether we'll have jobs when we get out of here, and

bla                           bla                             bla

Why am I so cynical? Because I know that I do not and cannot know the answers to these things.

This reminds me of the time a breaking news story happened on a Friday morning and nobody knew the scoop. Oh, wait. That was this morning. A person allegedly fell from the top of Naismith and died. That is all we know, besides that it was a male. All of us are asking questions because that's what we do. We are journalists. We speculate, formulate, investigate. But do we really know what's going to happen? NO!

Don't get me wrong. There is great value in speculation and formulation and of course, investigation when possible. But there is no certainty, no solidity in our speculation. So, lately, I've been pretty tired of "the future." I don't know what job or internship offer I will have received (or not) in a year and I don't know what the next new thing will be.

Beyond speculating about the possibilities and making myself the best product for tomorrow, I am tired of the future for now. I am choosing, right now, to live in the present for the rest of the semester and this summer at my internship.

Tomorrow, my sentiments may change and I may be up for a lively conversation on digi-newspapers, Flitter, Clutter, and the next new thingy. But for now, I'm content not knowing. As they say, ignorance is bliss.