Journalism School May Be The Future Backbone of Democracy

While many saying that journalism is a dying profession, others will argue against this until the end. Students at University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism will especially tell you they don't believe this at all.

This article shares why some think that journalism will strive and is a necessity for our society.

Some students are avoiding journalism majors because of the predicted future of the media. Orion de Nevers, a freshman at USC shared, "Information will just all be basically free, so there's no money to be mae in journalism. As much as I would like to pursue my love and all that, I like food, too. And I just don't want to sacrifice it all."

Many of the students here, not to mention all over the world, have been stared at skeptically when they say they're majoring in journalism. People have told them journalism is dead and there's no money to be made in it, but they remain hopeful and confident.

It's easy to guess where the gloomy predictions are coming from. Recently many newspaper companies have been forced to seek bankruptcy protections and are having to see their productions and let go of a good portion of their staff. This demonstrates why some believe that journalism is on it's last path.

USC costs nearly $55,000 a year with all charges included, which is a lot of money to invest in a major in a profession that's falling rapidly downhill. However, Ernest Wilson, Annenberg's Dean argues that this major is still successful and is linked with good citizenship.

Wilson said, "I am concerned, as the dean, at the costs and debt burdens these students take on, but I'm also concerned about training the next generation of people who are doing to provide the backbone of democracy."

He says that the independent press and availability for anyone to use it helps maintain our country's democracy, that this way people will be provided with more information and that although anyone can be a journalist by using the web now, those with degrees in communications will do better in job searches.

Students at the university also claim that they will find success in this field. They know it is different, but still want to learn the new methods of the media.

A professor at Annenberg, Robert Hernandez put it this way, "These students have signed up for journalism school knowing that's the climate they're facing, and they're not thinking 'gloom and doom'. There's something exciting happening in our industry. These folks want to become a part of that."

With flip cameras, cell phones, blog and vlogs, and social networks, journalism may be changing but it's not dying. The director of journalism at Annenberg shares that journalism is not simply cracking up, but realigning.

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Journalists in Juárez, Mexico

Last week I blogged about how reporting can be dangerous, especially in war-torn countries. This week, I wish to expand upon what some American reporters believe should be reported on the happenings in Juárez, Mexico.

Chris Lopez with the El Paso Times wrote an article about how it is the reporters' job to inform the world of what they see going on. Lopez focused on how it is a necessity to report about what is going on near the border, and just over it. He does not, however, see it was a bad thing to be reporting on (as the gangs in Juárez think it is), but rather just doing their job. Lopez argues that if this were happening in the United States, then the reporting would be just the same.

These are clearly people who have no fear in going out and getting the story they want. News sources from as far away as the BBC have traveled to Mexico to report on the violence. Or if they do have fears about anything, they are still willing to go get the story.

It is interesting to me that thus far, most accounts of reporters that have been murdered have all been Mexican citizens, and not so many of other nationalities. Surely the gangs know that there are other people reporting on what they are doing, yet a reaction has not been seen.

Is it up to other countries to report about issues that go on elsewhere? Or should this all be left to the natives? For the situation in Mexico, I think that it is important for other nations to keep everyone up to date, because those in Mexico are being scared into silence.

As a world, we need to keep each other informed, so that help may come to those who need it. It is refreshing to see that there are people that are willing to go get the story, and not worry about what will be said. They are seeking to tell the truth.

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Is Journalism Dangerous to Your Health?

How many of us want to travel (outside of our own state) to cover news stories? The chance to go to a different country would seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and many of us would probably jump at it. However, have we stopped to think of the consequences?

If you've looked at the news lately, you've probably noticed that reporters in Mexico are have been "disappearing" or are being murdered. This has been ongoing since 2006, when their new president came to office, Felipe Calderon. A South Carolina newspaper recently ran an article about how reporters in Mexico are being urged to use extra caution. What are they being murdered for?

Reporting on the drug trafficking problems. Since 2000, at least 65 reporters (in various fields) have been murdered, sometimes seemingly at random. This makes Mexico the deadliest country in the world for news people, according to a report from a Utah news station.

To us (or so I'm assuming), reporting on something such as drug trafficking doesn't seem like that big of an issue, but we are sitting a couple thousand miles away from the problem.

So why are journalists being killed for doing their jobs?

This is nothing new, and people have been persecuted over this for years. Do you remember Daniel Pearl who was beheaded over his investigation into Al-Qaeda a few years back? He had traveled to a war-torn country, tried to do his job, and was subsequently killed for doing so.

Would you be willing to travel to a foreign country, is you knew there was a chance you wouldn't be coming back? Do these kind of reports scare you, as a potential reporter, about what could happen? Or does it make you want it that much more? Just because the United States embraces journalists (for the most part), does not necessarily mean that the rest of the world does.

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Good night, and good luck

Journalist, Public Commentator, and Broadcasting Legend Bill Moyers signed off from his weekly PBS series for the last time Friday night. Moyer's departure was unsurprising, but Craig Aaron, Managing Director for Free Press, stated that his absence marks a turning point for journalism in America.

For the EWG Students in BNR this term, the topic of Aaron's blog post echos sentiments we heard in a speech by Free Press founders John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney. The media is in crisis; thousands of journalists are losing their jobs and local newspapers are becoming a thing of the past. Big media companies that overtook smaller media outlets are now drowning in debt and taking the public's access to local stories and media down with them. Eight weeks ago, I would have considered the word using the word "crisis" to describe this situation a bit of a misnomer. But, as I have become more aware of the news around me and the effect it has on my opinions and my responsibility as a citizen, I now think the term is accurate.

Aaron's article explains that America, which is considered by many the greatest democracy in th eworld, only spends $1.43 on it's media sources. Those media sources are our link to each other, to citizens in other towns across the state, to our capital and to the world. $1.43 will buy you a small french fry or a hamburger at McDonalds. $1.43 is all the public money available to fund a public media. In comparison, each U.S. taxpayer spent $565 to bail out AIG. I'm not sure about you, but something seems off here. There is more money available to bail out a bunch of CEO's whose bonus' equal more money than I will see in my lifetime than there is to pay someone to go out and investigate the truth for me?

It's hard in an economic downturn to think of funding something as small as journalism. But if I've learned anything in BNR this term, it's that journalism isn't small. It's size depends on where we can send it, where we can make it reach; be it the far corners of the Earth or just down the street, I've realized that there journalism offers us a chance to reconnect to each other in a world where we've completely disconnected.

Aaron provides details in the blog on his testimony to the FCC, in which he gave several possible solutions to the crisis in journalism. Though he cited a few kind words spoken by FCC representatives and others regarding Moyers' retirement, he stated that finding a way to get journalism back on it's feet to help America build a stronger democracy would be the best tribute we could all give him.

And I think that after over 50 years of service to us, a tribute is in order.

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