For my last column of the semester, I have decided to address a topic very close to my heart – the future of journalism.
All through high school and college I have been told that journalism, especially print journalism, is a dying industry and I shouldn’t get too invested.
Last semester I visited Limerick, Ireland, where I met a journalist who said something that has stuck with me for a while.
He told me I am lucky because I get to experience this new era of journalism.
He did not think of it as a dying industry, but an ever-changing one that is entering a new era.
A lot of people seem to think that journalism is ceasing to exist due to fake news or online news, but everyone will need to get the news somehow, so there will always be a need for it.
Even when TV became popular, print journalism took to more investigative reporting.
As technology progresses, journalism will adapt.
Some of my favorite movies include “The Post” and “Spotlight.”
Both stories are about journalism; each examines the print industry of reporting. “The Post” exemplifies the time in history when journalists cut ties with politicians so they could objectively tell the news.
“Spotlight” was about the team at the Boston Globe that exposed stories of sexual assault in the Catholic Church.
Both of these delved into the topic of how journalists have the responsibility to get truthful information to the public, no matter who is in the way.
Without journalists like this to do in-depth reporting, a lot of people and organizations would not be held accountable for the issues they have caused.
Journalists shine a light on people who exemplify change needed in our society and tell the stories that might have gone unnoticed otherwise and as a result, would go unchanged.
“Fake news” is giving journalism a bad name, and it is frustrating to be grouped in with that, just like when any group is incorrectly stereotyped.
Journalists who truly have a passion for what they do want to use their platform to tell a story and let readers decide what to do with that information.
They are not biased and they only present facts.
With more and more people getting their news from social media, there will always be that fact-checking purpose that journalists serve and that will be considered credible to people who want to know the actual facts.
This new era of journalism may be going more digital and be facing a lot of criticism, but it is nothing new.
Just like always, journalism is far from over, and I am extremely lucky to be part of what comes next.
CHLOE FORBES
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