Blog #1: What is journalism?

Due date: Friday, February 20
Minimum Word Count: 450
Minimum Links: 2

If you're like me, it's been a long time since you've gotten most of the news about your world from a print newspaper (besides The Hoofprint, of course) or traditional television news broadcast. Subscription numbers and revenue is starting to drop for traditional media outlets. Chances are, you've been getting your news from websites - even sites like Facebook and Twitter - your cell phone, YouTube, or other non-traditional media. More and more, Blogs are becoming news sources, and phrase Citizen Journalist and Participatory Journalism are becoming part of our common vocabularies.

This brings us to two important questions for the modern journalist:

1. How does journalism survive when digital devices have made centralized printing presses and TV stations all but obsolete?


2. What is journalism, anyway, in a time when citizens with a cell phone and laptop can tell stories, take photos and be journalists for a day anytime they want?

Tackle one or both (or neither) of these questions in your blog. Remember to make these posts your own. Link to and quote from other sources, including your classmates' blog. Proofread your blog after you post and feel free to make changes to it after you've proofread it or read more of your classmates' work.

Gentle reminders:

• Please use paragraphs.
• You need to include links to outside sources in this blog. Don't just say "Here is a link I found about this". Include a sentence or two that relates what you've found to your point. Use them as evidence.

Our classroom discussions and notes may help you as you consider this topic.