Journalism lives on

There was talk in the last issue's editorial section about the future of journalism. Apparently, "many people today" are worried about its future. But this is not the time where journalism is on the way out. This is the best time to want to be a journalist because the world is in need of great journalists.

This is an exciting time to want to be a journalist because there is a bigger reward out there to be had. Back in the heyday of print journalism, which I would put at around the 1950s and '60s just before television news began to take precedent, there was less of an opportunity to stand out because everyone was talking with the same journalistic bent, everyone was on the same page, for the most part.

And with the rise of the television anchor, like the late Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw on the networks, as well as the local news anchors, the ability for one to stand out was diminished even further as now journalism took on a face. But now, it is possible for the lowest of people to stand out. Anyone can become an Internet sensation with the right luck and timing.

But at the same time, if the journalistic integrity is there, those same people can become the Cronkites and Brokaws of the digital age and be the trusted names in news. Everyday, less and less people are starting their day with the morning paper or sitting down for the evening news. But that doesn't mean that information isn't reaching the masses.

The death of the "print" newspaper is because it cannot keep up with the Internet. Newspapers are not closing at the alarming rate that is being put out there; some are just shutting down their print edition in an attempt to keep the ethics and power of print journalism alive in an online edition.

This shutting down of newspapers is not a sign of the death of journalism. If anything, it is making it a more valuable commodity because of the lack of journalistic integrity found in the digital age.

The advent of digital media is indeed something to be worried about because there are many people out there who can pass themselves off as credible news sources or even claim what they are putting out is "news." Just take a look at the celebrity gossip web sites out there and see how much of it is professional level journalism.

The only reason journalism would be in danger is because there has been a shift in the relevance of opinion over fact. The arrival of instant news and the prevalence of 24-hour news networks had led to a need for information-any information-to fill the time and space created. There is a vacuum in the Internet that must be filled at all costs, so everything and anything is tossed in. People are fed opinion as fact and hearsay as analysis. This is what is taken as news today. Just to fill the hole that is created by instant news, half-baked ideas and opinions are tossed into relevant news stories and the result is an amalgam of journalism and thoughts better suited for someone's diary, but presented as fact.

People are creatures of habit. Once something has happened a certain way, they expect that it will continue to be that way. That is until it doesn't. Nothing lasts forever. Radio gave way to television. Vinyl gave way to CDs (which is now giving way to MP3). And now print gives way to digital.

Because of the way journalism has operated in the past and that now being more and more of an impossibility, there is a fear that it is dying out. But it is merely changing. The form is altering the way information is presented. This is evolution in action.

The world is completely open now. Never in the history of the world have we as a people been more connected. To that end, this is why journalism is needed-because there are so many more people in need of news than ever before and that is creating a need to change the way it is presented. That means newspapers will close.

That means the network news is losing viewers. But the integrity of journalism must stay the same.