Journalism: an Endangered Species, or What Forecasts Say

10/03/202004/04/2023 Tammy HardestyPosted in Blog

What does a journalist do? What makes a good journalist different? What threatens journalism and should today’s graduates choose it?

Intriguing, isn’t it? Will journalists become unclaimed? And what to do if you do feel called to journalism? Let’s talk about the requirements to the journalist profession, allied professions, salary level and demand for journalists today.

The profession of journalist

A journalist is a person who creates news. Journalists shape the information field in which you and I live: we listen to morning shows on the radio, read articles and watch videos in the daytime on our smartphones, and watch news programs on TV in the evening.

Thanks to the work of a journalist we learn information beyond our circle of communication – what the weather forecast for tomorrow is, whether we should buy a new gadget, what happens in the hot spots of the world, who became president in our or neighboring country. So there would definitely be great silence and general ignorance in the world without the journalist’s labor.

Journalism as a profession has been known since antiquity. And the attitude towards it in society is still very ambiguous. On the one hand, a free press denounces the problems of society. “A journalist is a street cleaner working with a pen,” Napoleon said. “I am deeply convinced that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is the most effective and swift weapon for doing so,” believed Tom Spoppard, the British playwright. On the other hand, the press is never completely free. If we do not talk about direct censorship, publications and TV channels cannot remain independent anyway. They are influenced by the opinion of the client who finances the media, or the opinion of the editor who forms the issue. “Newspaper columnists are frustrated petty haberdashery merchants. Their parents forced them into a more intelligent profession, but their innate talent still makes its way,” says Karl Kraus (an Austrian writer and publicist) sarcastically.

What journalists are and what they do

Journalist is the common name for dozens of different professions. An entire team works to create news in magazines and on television:

A correspondent/reporter works on the front lines: gathering information, interviewing, receiving and processing primary information.
The columnist/analyst creates and prepares reviews, articles, investigations, commentaries, analytical interviews, etc.
The proofreader is a technical specialist who eliminates errors in texts.
Editor / Editor-in-Chief / Issue Editor – a specialist who is responsible for the overall concept of the issue.
Broadcaster – presents the news and anchors the programs on air.

When producing news, journalists cannot do without representatives of other creative professions: photojournalist, designer, typesetter, cameraman, sound engineer.

A journalist may specialize in a certain genre: informational, analytical, or creative journalism. Or you can work in a specific subject: politics, economics and business, sports, glossy (fashion and style), science and technology. To imagine the diversity of topics, remember that many Russian companies produce their own corporate newspapers and magazines. So you can write about food, travel or movie novelties, or you can write about oilmen, lending, paper production or trucks.

What threatens journalism

As you understand, it is far from being threatened by robotization, because only humans can write a good, emotionally evoking text for humans. Traditional print journalism is being attacked by the Internet and social media. An eyewitness post on Instagram, not a newspaper article, will tell the reader about a flood or a flash mob. Reporters are traveling less and less on business trips because you can just watch a live youtube broadcast by eyewitnesses to the incident. Popular people can talk about themselves not only in an interview with a TV station, but also just on their Instagram. The journalist turns out to be only an intermediary in relaying the information.

Now almost anyone can become a journalist on their social networks. Therefore, the freest press has become personal blogs, which readers trust more than an authoritative traditional publication.

What should professional journalists do in such an environment? Change and keep up with the times. Run their blogs, only better and more emotionally than non-professional authors do. At the same time remain honest and unbiased. Videos and publications of modern online media professionals call the fancy word “content”. So, a professional journalist can create the highest quality content, and people will reach out to him.

Not surprisingly, a man who loves a cause will always find opportunities for self-fulfillment. Steve Watson is a journalist and publicist who has created in-flight magazines for various airlines and loves print media with all his soul. Steve started Stack, a service that sends subscribers a new unknown magazine every month. Steve selects each magazine himself by traveling the world. He enjoys exploring the magazines himself and gives joy to print fans like him. “I sometimes forget that things in the print magazine industry as a whole are, to put it bluntly, not going well,” Steve laughs, “in my cozy independent corner, everything is blooming and smelling.

Related Professions

The rise of the Internet and social media has spawned new professions related to journalism. Companies are realizing that information is a good way to promote their products and services, which means they need professional writers who know how to speak the same language to their audiences. Journalists easily master such professions as:

Copywriter – a specialist who writes texts for advertising and articles for the company’s website.
Content manager – a specialist who thinks through a strategy to communicate with the audience through different communication channels (website, social networks, magazine, youtube, etc.).
PR-manager – a specialist in advertising and public relations.
Internal communications specialist – an employee who conducts corporate events, maintains internal social networks and produces a magazine.
SMM-manager – a specialist who shapes the company’s image in the global information space by creating content in social networks.
Copywriter – a specialist who adapts the finished text for the site or social networks.
Blogger – a “journalist in his own right”.

If you’re thinking about a fundamental education in journalism, take a closer look at these professions as well.