New technology makes real-time reporting possible

I suspect the Bob Dylan we will see on Sunday will be quite different than this  young man.



“Print journalism is dead.” That has been the prevailing attitude of media critics over the course of the last few years. While I don’t completely agree with that statement it is certainly true that journalism has to evolve to address the new technology that has developed and is literally sitting in our pocket or in our purse. I currently teach the New-Media Journalism class at Slippery Rock University and in that class we try to address the evolution of journalism.

One point I continually emphasize in class is that the public’s desire for information remains undiminished. In fact it has grown. The difference is that no one is willing to wait until the 6pm newscast or until tomorrow morning’s newspaper to get the news. The accessibility of the internet has made “instant” news a fact of life. In the last few years social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have only upped the stakes. The modern news consumer expects to be updated second-to-second and not necessarily by professional journalists.

This blog is an attempt at the kind of  “backpack journalism” that I emphasize in class. The tools will primarily be smart phones for photos and video for immediate updates and a flip camera for some additional video added later. The reporting will be in real-time. Will it be perfect? Probably not but hopefully it will be interesting and certainly timely. mz