The Digital Reporter

After reading a stinging argument about how journalism will be met with technologic advances and new waves of blogging ability, I decided to blog about it. Which is this. The article, posted ON THE INTERNET (http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=142379)describes what is happening currently with the news. Since there are so many newspapers going under in the metaphorical rip tide of electronics, what and how will news be distributed? More and more people get information from online sources and things of that nature, or forums where one can post a question, get many answers and choose for themselves what answer suits them or is most plausible or even just which answer pops up most often and therefore must be true. The paper aspect of news is disintegrating just as it would if you left one of those thin sheets out in the rain. The bright side is that we, as news consumers, are being more environmentally healthy. This new way of doing things is saving so many trees, one whole forest may be saved a year. And 40% of statistics are made up on the spot.

I am still growing up in a society that loves to waste. There is, however, an inherent slanting toward the newest and shiniest way of thinking which led to the personal computer, the laptop computer, the phone computer and the notreallybeingabletothinkforyourselfanymore computer. I like this last one because it's easy. Its like me and math. The higher levels of math I enroll myself in, the more lower level math gets pushed out of my brain. The more internet/tv/blogging news there is, the more paper media gets shat on.

The article also makes the point that middle-of-the-road news just doesn't make the cut anymore. This is true. Even on TV, I really don't like all the mumbo jumbo news they show on bipartisan networks anymore (Not that many stations are REALLY bipartisan anymore). I like, no LOVE John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I am a flaming democrat. If you couldn't tell. I get more news from their scathing remarks than I ever would from CSPAN, CNN, NBC, or even FOX NEWS combined. They tell stories that may have been mundane in their purest forms, and they tack sequins, goose feathers, show girl makeup, and a unitard to those stories and parade them around like you are in Las Vegas. I like this. I listen to this, and I even can disagree with this. When I watch these shows (Countdown with Keith Oberman or Rachel Maddow Show), I find myself actually taking in the news and deciding for myself just how much to believe, how much to reject, and what to disagree with.

News papers may be used more and more as streak free window cleaners, but news sites will always flourish. Until the next better thing comes along. Reporters need to have a job and citizens need fodder. The news will never go out of style. There is always something new for people to grab onto. Blogging about blogging about news and how news has evolved is not really the best way to change the world. But saving the world, one tree at a time, is a good thing. So let the people eat cake-let them have their new-age news and post-technoboom rioting. It's the news that needs to change.