The Fifth Estate

Five years ago, in an attempt to reinvent myself, I became a journalism student.  Unfortunately, no sooner had I started taking classes when the media industry took a nosedive.  Newspapers and magazines became smaller, literally (have you seen how tiny Rolling Stone magazine is now?).  The industry began laying off writers; according to Robert Hodierne, writing for American Journalism Review, over 15,000 newspaper jobs were cut in 2008.

So much for my new career.

I lamented the death of the Fourth Estate and wondered if I was doing the right thing by holding onto my journalism major.  My fears were quelled, however, after listening to the latest lecture by Elizabeth Soutter, our blogging professor, who explained that journalism isn’t dying after all – it’s just different.  People still read the news, but the way they read it has changed profoundly.

There are pros and cons about the shift of media from paper to digital, but the positives far outweigh the negatives.  The most obvious advantage of digital media is that it moves at lightning speed and reaches more people around the globe faster than newspapers could ever do.  The internet is being used effectively to change the course of history, by bringing people together for a common cause, even to the point of sparking revolts against oppressive governments, as Barrett Sheridan outlined in a Newsweek article last April titled “The Internet Helps Build Democracies” (http://www.newsweek.com/2010/04/30/is-the-internet-good-for-democracy-a-debate.html).  In this article, Sheridan extols the impact of blogging:  “Bloggers and tweeters are fulfilling the watchdog role in places where the mainstream media is muzzled.”

For better or worse, there can be no doubt that digital media has changed the face of American politics.  According to politicsonline.com, Jerry Brown was the first person to do an e-mail campaign in 1992 (http://www.politicsonline.com/content/main/firsts/).  Since then, politicians and pundits have exploited digital media to spread their views and raise money.

The downside of mixing digital media with politics is that anybody can say absolutely anything about anyone without having to go through the filter of editing.  For every legitimate political website (http://www.whitehouse.gov/), there are thousands of websites that exploit the passions of Americans without ever seeing the light of truth (http://www.orlytaitzesq.com/).  And thanks to YouTube, no politician will ever again be able to back away from "mis-statements" or "untruths" because the whole world watching.

But this open, uncensored platform is exactly the reason why digital media is so important; it is READERS who do the vetting, rather than an editorial staff.  Now readers can let their voice be heard with a few clicks of a mouse, and these clicks can spur people into action.  Take for example this August 31, 2010 post by mrsammercer on reddit.com titled:  “I’ve had a vision and I can’t shake it:  [Stephen] Colbert needs to hold a political rally in D.C.” (http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/d7ntl/ive_had_a_vision_and_i_cant_shake_it_colbert/).  mrsammercer later added this edit to his post:

             The response to this post has blown my mind. I really did jump out of bed at like 5AM and type this thing up. Then I checked from work and it's front page and there's a Facebook page and people are emailing one of the Executive Producers. I was just hoping some people would get a laugh out of it . . .

Two weeks later Stephen Colbert  announced on his show that he would hold a D.C. rally on October 30th called “The March to Keep Fear Alive” (http://www.keepfearalive.com/) in conjunction with a rally by Jon Stewart called “The Rally to Restore Sanity” (http://www.rallytorestoresanity.com/).  Today, well over 100,000 people have pledged to attend the rallies (http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/the-latest-updates-on-the-jon-stewart-and-stephen-colbert-d-c-rallies).  How many people actually show up remains to be seen, but regardless of the turnout, an event this huge could never have been hatched in conventional news outlets as fast and effectively as it has online.

This is an exciting time to be a journalist; despite all the bogus websites in cyberspace, good writing is extremely important because nothing catches and holds readers’ attention better than a well-written piece.  And since people scan web pages rather than read articles word-for-word (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html), this gives digital media an added benefit of making journalists write more precisely and concisely.  I can now breathe a sigh of relief; journalism is NOT dead after all.