Five journalism professionals, three editors from The Echo, and over 20 attendees gathered in room 201 of the Western Connecticut State University Student Center for an online journalism panel on Wednesday, April 13.
Professor Valerie Roth opened the event by introducing the panel of journalism professionals: James Cutie, publisher of CTMirror.org; Amanda Bloom, publisher and editor of themercurial.com; Elizabeth Bacelar-Nunes, communications director of LIVEPERSON; Mark Langlois, editor of DanburyPatch.com; and Eugene Driscoll, editor of the Valley Independent Sentinel.
Roth's introduction was followed by a few words from Dr. John Briggs, head of the WCSU journalism department and adviser of The Echo, who began pitching questions to the panel of professionals about journalism and the incorporation of social media.
Bacelar-Nunes was the first to answer, and expressed her optimism for the future of journalism and social media. She enthused how important it is for journalists and freelance writers to use social media, such as Twitter, and emphasized the importance of online journalism, which she explained is currently the "fastest growing field of journalism."
Bloom, who was also optimistic about the future of journalism, said that "journalism is not dead," and pointed out how the incorporation of social media outlets has enabled writers to publish a wider variety of stories for readers to easily access.
Cutie emphasized the significant changes in format that online journalism has introduced, and noted the importance for writers to be sensitive to readers' reading habits; and Langlois explained how he left print journalism in 2007 to work in the "fun" field of online journalism.
Driscoll, who compared online journalism to print journalism, explained how the integration of social media with journalism has provided a faster way for news to get out to the public, while still maintaining the same "old fashion method" of gathering information as print journalism. He also spoke about the new relations writers have with their readers thanks to online journalism.
"There's no difference between reporters and readers anymore," Driscoll said. "[As an online journalist,] people interact with you all the time so you get immediate feedback."
The overall consensus of the group was that social media has definitely changed the face of journalism, but in a way that has: enabled quicker delivery of news stories, enhanced writer-to-reader interaction, given writers more freedom and control over what they write and how they release it to the public, and broken down the walls of competition between news organizations.
Being an aspiring journalist myself, I found the journalism discussion very insightful. Although I have always preferred traditional print journalism a bit more than online news, the panel event has made me more optimistic about the future of journalism. I am more intrigued now than I ever have been before to see how journalism will change within the next few years, and I am even more excited to fully experience it myself.
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