Journalism and the internet: Is it the best of times? No -- but it's not the worst of times either

Journalism and the internet: Is it the best of times? No -- but it's not the worst of times either

Having just written what I consider a defense of the internet's effect on journalism and the media industry, I didn't expect to have to do it again so soon. But just after Andrew Leonard's short-sighted piece in Salon about how the internet has crippled journalism, David Sessions wrote on the same topic in Patrol magazine, and arguably did an even worse job of describing the current state of journalism, calling it a morass of "cynical, unnecessary, mind-numbing, time-wasting content."

It's not just the over-riding pessimism of both of these pieces that bothers me. It's the failure to appreciate that the complaints they have are the same ones that have been made about journalism for decades — combined with the unrestrained longing for some mythical golden age of journalism.

http://gigaom.com/2014/08/28/journalism-and-the-internet-is-it-the-best-of-times-no-but-its-not-the-worst-of-times-either/

John A. MacArthur says the internet makes bad journalism. He has a point. - The Week - Linkis.com

John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's,thinks that online journalism is, well, not real journalism. In a profile in The New York Times, he struck all the wrong fussy notes, blaming the enthusiasm for the Web within his own organization on "a small mob of what I can't help but refer to as 'young people.'"

linkis.com/theweek.com/article/hoOAC

BBC Academy - Journalism - How to become a BBC journalist

We each give different replies to the question of how to become a BBC journalist based on our own experiences, and of course there is no definitive answer. But as an organisation the BBC can offer some basic guidance and advice.

The good news is that opportunities arise regularly because the BBC employs several thousand journalists and people are always arriving, changing jobs or leaving.

www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/getting-a-job/article/art20131121145818479

The human cost of news

The human cost of news.

For many journalists, the price of a story can be their freedom, or even their lives.

They are often the victims of authoritarian governments bent on silencing any opposition, or collateral damage in some of the globe's deadliest conflicts.

Using data collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Journalists Without Borders, News Online looks at some of the most dangerous places to be a journalist.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-13/journalists-killed-or-imprisoned/5571598