Tuesday, March 1, 2011

The New Journalism

I'm lucky enough to have gone through the Watergate era of investigative journalism as a young reporter. I remember going to junior high schools in Augusta, GA, where I worked, and explaining to the youngsters not much older than I how our government almost collapsed due to the corruption of a few individuals.

Fast forward to today, and I'm interviewing candidates for our Social Media Manager position. It's fascinating to witness the transition from traditional 'third estate' journalism to today's mom and dad bloggers, who are basically trying to live off their words through their websites, blogs, Twitter and Facebook accounts. Not an easy task.

I had been enjoying The Daily on my iPad until my free subscription ran out last week. Unfortunately, the content was less than compelling and available through other sources, although it was packaged in a very entertaining way. Although I chose not to subscribe, I hope this business model works. We need citizen journalists, but we also need professional reporters and editors who don't have to worry about where their next paycheck is coming from.