Twitterfied Journalism

Osama bin Laden is dead, and we have the body and proof.  Last night, it was announced around 10 p.m. that the President would be making an official announcement later that night.  However, before Mr. President ever made his announcement, journalistic efforts and twitter combined to leak the news.  In this increasingly digital age, stories are more frequently breaking over social media platforms.  However, credit must still be given to journalists for doing their work, and getting the news out.  They are still the ones behind the scenes doing all the work, it is just being disseminated over different platforms, and not just in the next day's paper or in an over the air broadcast.  These new platforms allow journalists to not only get the news out faster, but they also open up access to more information and sources that can be used to get the news in the first place.  If this had happened 20 years ago, people would have had to anxiously await Obama's broadcast in order to find out what was going on.  But, thanks to good journalism and the Internet, America pretty much knew what was going on instantaneously.

EDIT: A twitterer from Pakistan accidentally broke the news first.  This is just one more way in which social media are changing our world and journalism.

The Internet Giant

I'm a journalism major.  Saying this out loud to myself or better yet, a room full of people can be quite intimidating.  I get asked what exactly I plan to do with my degree, since it appears to the naked eye that the journalism world is on its way out.  I always politely respond to people who question my decision, telling them about how I don't think journalism is quite dead and how my skills are applicable to many other jobs should I find otherwise.

Today's two articles both deal with this sensitive issue of the vitality of journalism in the face of the Internet and new media.

Journalism is ever expanding into the digital world, where the readers are.  Readers for the most part no longer flock to the print media, and we realize this, and are in the process of adapting & evolving to fit these new demands.

Though, the digital world presents a fair share of problems as well.  Including increased competition, which might very well bring an end to journalism as a serious profession.

I personally believe that journalism can and will survive, it is just going to morph into whatever form that the public demands and wants, and that is perfectly acceptable to me.

Teched Out

With all of the technology out there today, learning has become easier, but also more complicated.  Schools and teachers are using social media as well as programs such as Skype to communicate with their students outside the classroom.  These tools can be useful when students miss school due to inclement weather, illness or other various reasons.  They can also be useful in an everyday sense.

I'm currently enrolled in a technology for teachers class.  We're talking about how communication tools can make learning more exciting and engaging for students.  Since students today are digital natives, they require different types of tasks to learn.  These students are more capable of multi-tasking and enjoy being on the computer, so teachers need to use these capabilities to their advantage.  There are all sorts of websites, games, applications, etc that teachers have access to, and should use.  However, just because the task is on the computer doesn't mean that it's appropriate or effective enough, teacher's must still think about if the task will really enhance the lesson they are teaching.  Not all tools will, and that's okay because not all traditional lesson plans or tasks will either.  Moderation and effective tasks are the key to educating America's future in a digital society.