Cold Media Storm

Now, I don’t pretend to be an expert in media commentary. However, I am a media student and on the coal front of tutors and experts who do know what they’re talking about. (Coincidentally, I’m currently studying a unit called Communications in New Media).

Newspapers have been on the decline for about a decade now as people choose to get their news from the internet and now, portable devices. It’s much easier to log on to a news site on the train than it is to buy a paper, take up most of the space and annoy the bloke next to you when you’re reading a broadsheet.So it’s not surprising that newspapers are going the way of the dodo. (As an aside, remember when you bought a newspaper the day your child was born? Now you’ll have to take a screenshot with your iPad).

We’re on the brink of a journalism revolution. Exactly what will happen is anyone’s guess. Putting news online only leaves journalists open to a range of possibilities. It opens the door for the Everyman Journo to post news (more than they do currently). It allows journalists extra flexibility because they can submit work from anywhere. It could dissolve the duopoly of Australian media by allowing anyone to own a news site. Social media could become even more important as people spread stories written by their mate who is a budding journo. Unfortunately, the pay isn’t good for these scenarios, unless you work hard and are accepted into writing for a big news site. But hey, Perez Hilton started as a blogger and look where he is.

Everyone has something to say on the current situation. Lots of my friends studying journalism are worried. It’s a case, I believe, of venturing into new territory, a natural evolution of media.

Learning Your Art

If you wanted to be an artist, you’d learn how to use the paint. If you wanted to build houses, you’d learn how to use the tools to do so. The same goes for writing. To write well, you also need to learn the tools; spelling, grammar and the flow of sentences and paragraphs.

I’m constantly dismayed at the level of literacy in the Western world. I was talking to a friend and she said she was too lazy to write things correctly, even though she knew the difference. (Actually, she said she new the difference…) Now, she’s not a writer nor wishes to be, yet I do know others who consider themselves writers and cannot grasp the fundamental tools to string a sentence together. Frankly, it shits me. It shows laziness, that you don’t care enough about your art to learn how to do it properly. Not everyone who does use language correctly is a writer, but writers who do not know language are doing themselves a disservice. Learn the basics first, build on that foundation in order to get your story heard.  I don’t care about learning new words or using “plethora” in a sentence, just learn the difference between your/you’re.

And there’s my rant for the day.