Sunday, January 18, 2009

A New Media Expert

I’m all for the future – the future of anything and everything. Technology, politics, the economy, people, it’s all interesting to me. So when we went to Columbia University to speak with a new media expert, I was excited. His name is Sreenath Sreenivasan and he’s been teaching at Columbia Journalism School for sixteen years. He had a lot of interesting things to say about the future of media, mostly in relation to how the internet is changing the industry. He stressed the importance of being technologically savvy in this age, using the phrase “tradigital journalist,” someone who has all the skills of a traditional journalist, but is knowledgeable in the digital age. All journalists need to not only have a new media skill set, but also a new media mindset. I found it interesting when he said that sometimes the audience knows more than you. On the internet, you can open up your articles for comments to start a conversation with the readers. He also said that you can learn about news from many media outlets today, not just traditional news media. Sometimes you have to use different formats to tell certain stories. There are so many tools available and the hard part is deciding which one to use and when. It’s important to keep an open mind about new technology, but also be careful and somewhat skeptical. He ended by saying that there will always be a market for print media. It’s been around for a long time and hasn’t been replaced by television or radio, so why should the internet replace it?

Personally, I am not that interested in print media. Like I said, I am all for the future. I am glad that something that’s been around for so long isn’t going anywhere any time soon. There are so many possibilities with the internet. People can market their own brands and get the word out to the public at an exponentially faster rate than ever before. The internet is convenient and is seen by the entire world. It is changing media in so many ways, though it doesn’t seem like it will replace any of the other forms of media.

Maddie Hayes

3 comments:

  1. I also noticed that many of the people we have spoken with don't seem to think print is going anywhere anytime soon. I think many of them are overly optimistic. I tend to think that the Internet is different than other mediums that have emerged, as it embraces television, radio and newspaper and converges them into one resource that the audience can navigate and explore. With the rate of newspaper layoffs and closures, I suspect that print newspapers will need to change more rapidly if they are to survive.

    -Jasmine Linabary

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  2. Digital will be the way to go. Playing around with "digital news" at the digital cafe at msnbc and going to the Digital Media wing confirms my belief. I really do think paper is going to be evolved into something more technologically forward (something like thin, foldable touch screen plates that look like newspapers). Paper has been used as the main medium for print for centuries. It's time for an upgrade.
    -Yong Kim

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  3. However, one has to bear in mind that nobody likes reading long form documentation online. It is uncomfortable and time consuming for people in our generation, who have waning attention spans. I think print will still have a home as long as newspapers do investigative reporting and feature stories, books and magazines remain players in the media market and blogs/Web sites have inconsistencies in their reliability as news outlets. Eventually, print may become obsolete, but I don't foresee that happening within the next 10-15 years.

    -Derek Casanovas

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