Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Guest speaker, Bob Wigginton graced the class with his presence today.

I sat and I listened. I agreed with a lot of the things Professor Wigginton had to say. Having spent 25 years in the newspaper industry, he made some valid points.

In reference to the 6,000 jobs lost in the newspaper industry in the last two years, many blame the economic crisis we now face. I think it is more than the crisis. In a world where, as Professor Wigginton said, "It is vital that we understand the issues," a need for journalists still exists. Nonetheless, the question still lingers as to why journalists are losing their jobs.

With new media outlets constantly growing, Gen Y is doing less of the traditional news gathering and instead focusing their attention on-line. According to a survey done by the Carnegie Corporation, the average age of the newspaper reader is 53. Newspapers are just not as popular as they once were. Gen Y uses other sources for information. The need still exists, it is just switching to different medium.

So newspapers are getting rid of journalists, but that doesn't mean there isn't a place for them. There will always be a need for news in some form, whether it's paper or electronic. Other media outlets will not survive if they do not have a newspaper like source to get their information from.

There are some major downsides to the changes in the newspaper industry. As professor Wigginton said, "Newspapers are controlled by Wall Street." This is ownership style is concerned with making money, which has led to a number of cuts. These cuts are causing newspaper quality to decline. We are seeing backpack journalists hired to fill the missing spots, but it is hard to achieve quality when you are trying to master all aspects.

Moving to the web is something that a lot of newspapers have done. Sure there is still circulation of the actual paper, but news is now available online as a supplement to the paper itself. This slow transition to the internet is a smart move for newspapers. As Generation Y ages, the demographic of news readers will change. Adapting to this change is going to be the most important factor in keeping newspapers, in paper or electronic form, around.

I have no doubt that journalism will continue to be a valued profession (no worries Samantha!). However, it will be interesting to see how the newspaper industry is doing in ten years.

Citizen Journalism

Thanks to the large number of emerging technologies, we all have the ability to be a 'citizen journalist.' There is no journalism training needed. With tools like blogs and the internet, we have the ability to create our own source of media.

The internet has played a huge role in making newsworthy events available to the masses, sometimes before the news catches it. Sites like YouTube take citizen journalism to a new level, allowing us to post videos almost as soon as we see them take place. We are no longer relying only on the 6 O'Clock news for updates, instead we are looking to the internet to see raw footage on posted videos.

The question as to when this shift from traditional media outlets to the new ones occurred is not entirely definable. According to Mark Glasser, who wrote 'Your Guide to Citizen Journalism,' the shift sped up around 9/11 when so many people were witnesses to the events and had stories to tell and images to show. Their experiences became a major part of the story, a part that the news could not tell as well as the story holders could.

News channel websites are picking up on this media shift and many reporters now have blogs, like this one from News Channel 5. Along with these reporter's blogs, viewers are also able to blog their thoughts on the sites.

However, not all of this new media we are seeing is 'citizen journalism.' There is a fine line between informing your peers and posting random things on the internet. Simply posting a video on YouTube does not mean you are contributing to informing the masses. Collecting, reporting, and analyzing information is the role of the citizen journalist. Audience participation such as blogs or photos is considered analyzing and collecting information. Participatory news sites such as NowPublic are also ways people can be citizen journalists.

I wonder what really caused the growing popularity of citizen journalism. It might have something to do with our need for constant information, available at our fingertips. Sure, we have 24 hour news channels, but with the click of a mouse we are now able to view millions of videos and pictures. We also have the ability to read the opinions of others on newsworthy events. We have the capacity to be so tuned in with the world and the opinions of those in it and that might really be what citizen journalism is.

The Medium is the Message

Having never heard the name Marshall McLuhan before, I did what any product of Gen Y would do and went straight to Google.

I found that in all my searches, a common phrase accompanied McLuhan's name - "the medium is the message." That sounds familiar. I thought about where I had recently heard that phrase. I racked my brain for all the useless sites I scan and the bad television I watch. I finally realized I had heard the phrase while watching Degrassi - I said bad television. This phrase from a man I have never heard of is hitting mainstream teen culture. One of the teachers was telling a scantily dressed girl selling sports drinks to students that "the medium is the message." The teacher was telling her that it did not so much matter what she was selling, instead the way she barely covered herself was making more of an impression that the drink.

This is what McLuhan was trying to tell us by saying "the medium is the message." McLuhan argues that the content we receive is not as important and the vehicle transporting it. The medium directly influences how the message is perceived. McLuhan was ahead of his time, writing books and essays from the 1950's to the 1970's. He captured ideas on paper that had never even crossed some peoples minds at the time. This book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man from which the phrase "the medium is the message" is taken is just one of the great works published by McLuhan.

McLuhan's ideas on the 'global village' are very relevant today. The concept of "electronic interdependence" focuses on the media connecting the world though mediums such as the internet. It is astounding that a man growing up at a time when the internet was not standard as it is now and world news was not quite how we receive it to have insight to such notions.

I wonder how McLuhan could have predicted that we would have the ability to be so connected to the world. Currently, we have the potential to know what is going on not only all over America, but all over the world. The internet is a great tool for this.

I am able to find information about current events in other countries with a simple Google search. I can find friends from other countries with services like Facebook or Twitter. The internet allows me to be connected in ways that are not possible with face to face interaction. We know how much snow England is receiving right now because of "electronic interdependence." With out the means to find all this information we would be stuck in an era that would not be as full of potential knowledge.

Yes, this concept of the 'global village' has it's down side. We lose the face to face contact in some cases. We are relying on a computer to spit out our information rather than our parents. However, as much as they would like to think, our parents don't know everything. The internet allows you explore beyond your dimensions. The world comes closer, so close all you have to do it type what you want.

His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama Joins Twitter

If I said the Dalai Lama was a social networking enthusiast most of you would not believe me. It's alright, I would not believe me either.

They say seeing is believing, so check this out.

That's right. The Dalai Lama has a Twitter account. And that's not all. Apparently he is on Facebook and Myspace as well. Imagine that - the spiritual leader for Tibetans and political leader in India of the Tibetan Government-in-exile is catching on to the internet social services. The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is in control of all accounts and is responsible for all updates on the sites.

It seems that not only Twitter, but other social networks are becoming so popular that even world leaders are getting in on the action. Media professionals should be aware of the growing popularity of these sites and how they are being used in new ways. Advertising on these sites is growing and some sites, like Facebook, offer access to niche audiences.

One of the "tweets" sent out by OHHDL since belonging to Twitter said, "His Holiness thought it was prudent to make his office assessable to a more youth and technologically advancing audience." They've certainly got the right idea. Media professionals take note: if you want to reach out to Generation Y, you have to know how to.

Social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are new media outlets capturing the attention of millions. These sites will continue to grow and evolve and the professionals better be ready to keep up. Businesses have started

Generation Y is so in-tune with all of the new technology because we are the ones creating it. Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, is a millennial who came up with the social network in his Harvard dorm room. Zuckerberg knows that media professionals need to start paying more attention to the newer media outlets and created thus created Facebook Ads. While in New York speaking to marketing and advertising executives, Zuckerberg said, "For the last hundred years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation. And they’re going to do this by using the social graph in the same way our users do.”

Making access to our attention so easy means we are bound to see more from media professionals coming soon.

Well You Can Say What You Want...

I’m all for the idea that one can express their opinions and feelings without being persecuted for it. I’m down with hearing what others have to say and I’m glad that I don’t have to agree “OR ELSE.” Freedoms of the press and all included in the first amendment were wonderful ideas. Not being jailed, or worse, killed because of your religious beliefs is pretty excellent. Way to go America!

The first amendment gave Americans something else that not many others had at the time and that was a freedom to do or say as they wished to a certain extent. I think the idea of this was great. Freedom of the press, meaning the freedom to criticize the government when it is not fulfilling its duties without being punished is exceptional.

Where is that same freedom today? I am positive it still exists; the Bill of Rights is still intact, yeah? That’s surprising because it seems all the stories coming from Washington are put together in a way that only shows the good side.
Where were the stories that went inside and dug out the truth? I thought that newspapers were to inform us and to ‘expose’ the truth. It seems that the press is not so free as much as it is fed now a days.

I can’t entirely down the freedom of the press idea because when carried out correctly can very noble and an excellent way to inform. We are lucky that we have the ability to print, within reason, what we want to on the front page of a newspaper and all following pages for that matter. I believe it would be more beneficial to the United States citizens to keep practicing the expression of ourselves through the first amendment and ignore the suppressors out there.

Indian Idol?

I am no stranger to the international scene. I grew up in England experiencing a different culture most of my childhood. No matter how different the culture seemed to be, my very homesick American mother could always count on the media to keep her up to date with “home.”

The same seems to be the case with international Lindenwood student, Sakshi Bagai. We sat down to talk about the media in India and I was quite shocked to hear that it is not really all that different from the United States.

Adopting popular shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and American Idol is becoming more common in India. This might be because Indians look up to western culture for examples.

“Modern generations are changing the culture,” Sakshi says about the move from traditional music to more contemporary popular music. The younger generation is so influenced by western culture that Rock music and Pop are dominating the radio airwaves.

Bollywood is the Indian equivalent of our Hollywood and ‘news’ about the actors fills as much of our television screens as it does in India. American movies are quite popular as well. Sakshi said, “People line up on Fridays to see the new releases, American cinema is very big in India.”

Having just witnessed Superbowl Sunday in the U. S., Sakshi could relate that back to the game of cricket in India. “It is a very big deal when India plays someone like Australia. You see so many advertisements on the television.”

It seems to all be very alike at this point, until we hit the subject of news. News has its local and national segments, but there is a stronger focus on international news. The news is also raw, sometimes showing things we might never see in the U.S. The topics of news in India are also different. There is more of a concentration on politics and the economy.

With surprising similarities in taste of bad television like The Bachelor, and a ridiculous need to know all the details of a Hollywood or Bollywood actors life, it is interesting to see our connections. But what do they learn about Americans through the media? Coming from a very conservative society in which women are always covered up, they believe American girls reveal too much of their bodies. Sakshi also said that her opinion of Americans before moving here for school was one of openness and being blunt. However, after living here she feels that there is much to learn and not all the assumptions from the movies are correct.

"People try to put us d-down...Just because we g-g-get around..."

I think The Who said it best.

Millennials are an easy target for older generations to pick on: we are seen as lazy, careless, and inexperienced. In my generation’s defense, we have a different set of values than our parents or their parents. Older generations don’t give us the credit we deserve. We are a well-educated generation energetic about things and constantly working to make things better. We are fast paced and open-minded, which is more than some of the older generations can boast.

We are so faced paced, we require instant satisfaction or we move on to the next thing. This is both a good and bad thing. It obviously is upsetting to older generations who have worked their whole lives one way to achieve a goal and then a millennial waltzes in gets a different answer than the one they were looking for and walks right back out to find it another way. As much as older generations hate us for it, it is what makes us so adaptable to change. We are always looking for another way to do something. Like the 60 Minutes segment said, we “only take yes for an answer.”

Another practice that older generations are finding trouble understanding is millennials moving back in with their parents after finishing school. We hear the “back in my day” story about how their parents tossed them out with $20 and a college education and told them they were on their own. That’s probably why so many parents are all right with letting their kids move back home. The baby boomers were being thrown out by their parents and now feel the need to nurture their children longer. Really, it’s a smart choice in economic times like this. It’s more affordable to live at home and in an economy on the decline it will save many from making big mistakes.

I think there is much more of an effort being put forth for the baby boomer generation to connect with the millennials. I logged on to facebook the other day and saw a friend request from my mother. Weird. But it shows how baby boomers are being forced into technology to keep in touch with the changing world. If more baby boomers were okay with learning about the new technologies, it would sure make it easier for everyone to stay connected.

We will continue to be chastised about our so-called laziness and sense of entitlement because this is nothing new. Our baby boomer parents rocked their generation’s expectations and values in the sixties and seventies. They were considered too extreme and too much into sex. Now look at them. They are quickly trying to figure out how to keep up with the millennials. This is a smart idea on their part. Leaning how to effectively communicate with us is going to make us less frustrated with an un-technological generation and hopefully make them more understanding of the way we do things.