As we all know, the world is changing as such a fast pace that we can barely keep up with the latest trend, technology, etc. The mass media is no exception to this. As stated in Briggs’s Journalism Next, “the future is now” and “media is now at a point where it will always be changing.” This is a great sign for future journalists and public relations professionals because they are more assured that they will be landing a job in their field of study following graduation. However, current professionals are more worried about potentially losing their job to someone younger and with more knowledge of the new technology. A sign that points to journalism and public relations having a bright future is that fact that the field is in the middle of a transformation. Another reason to be optimistic, especially for future journalists, is that your ideas will be listened to. Many seem to think that at a recent graduate’s first job, they are not asked about their opinions or ideas. However, as times are changing, people in higher positions want to hear the fresh, new ideas of a young colleague. Another reason to be optimistic which some journalists may not quite believe, is that social media is not a threat, but one of the best assets that a journalist can have. Journalists and editors are necessary because there needs to be someone that can sift through the mass amount of information pouring in through social media and be able to report the facts and truth of the story.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are also those who do not think that the new media world is a good thing for journalism and public relations. For example, according to Richard Gingras, the head of news products at Google, “there are not barriers to publishing – everyone has a printing press. There are not gatekeepers.” Meaning that people will put what they want out on the web regardless if it is factual or not. In the article by Seth Ashley, he also goes on explain that big companies, such as Google and Apple, are dominating the media by putting every aspect of media and technology out on the market with their name on it. He believes that the web is not a “democratizing force” that everyone thought it would be. Much of the news that we see is put out by global corporations. Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, is also pessimistic about the new media. He believes that new communication technology becomes controlled by powerful agents and goes from an open to closed system – he calls this “the cycle.” Another aspect of the new media that does not show for a bright future is that people will search for information that coincides with their own prior beliefs. As Nicholas Kristof states in his opinion article, “there’s pretty good evidence that we generally don’t truly want good information, but rather information that confirms our prejudices.” In this type of media world, people do not necessarily look at all sides of the story. Rather they will go to a news outlet that will report the sides of the story that they want to hear.
In the new world of journalism and public relations, there are many positives and negatives. However, it is up to each individual to decide how they take in and interpret the information they receive.
Social Experiment 