War of Words

Journalism is a dying trade.

These days it's more "entertain-alism," but pretty soon those last fragments of journalism will die off and the line will be gone, much as it is with "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." When the only driving force behind news reporting is not only money, but turning a consistent, heavy profit, the days of legitimate journalism are numbered.

The film shown in class suggested that this corporate greed will bring about the demise of journalism as we know it. A deregulation of the markets in the '80s could only have led to the greed. The news media have gone from making a quality product to shooting for the tactics used by blockbuster film-makers- string the audience on with as poor quality a product for as long as you can, and then give them something exciting enough to fend off boredom.

I know that blogging and citizen journalism are on the rise and are profitable, but they are not journalism in the traditional sense of the word. A well-paid blogger has no incentive to increase accuracy or professionalism; he or she is already making money with very little effort. Besides, it seems that most bloggers do not aspire to journalism; they simply want to be heard.