Journalism?

Dictionary.com defines journalism as: ‘the occupation of reporting, writing, editing, photographing or broadcasting news or of conducting any news organisation as a business’.

Throughout googling this definition, I found that most definitions focused purely on journalism as print. However, I now find myself looking online for news, be that through news websites such as the BBC, or going through my Facebook or Twitter feed for ‘trending’ news stories. I can actually say I haven’t bought a newspaper for at least a year. 

Journalism is a possible career that I wish to explore, increasing my knowledge and skills of collecting and analysing news. With that cliché of a love for writing and expressing my opinions; studying journalism as a unit with my English course may be a starting point to finding out what I want to do with regards to my potential future profession. I will put my hands up and admit, I am not the strongest writer - yet I hope that practice does make perfect. Learning the skills needed to become a journalist is something that has always appealed to me. But being honest, I still have yet to decide what I actually want to do with my life. The unit I'm studying, 'News and Journalism', has started to make me really think about journalism as a whole, and the way in which it has linked with social media to become an ongoing revelation. 

Journalism is constantly evolving. With print media becoming less popular, social media platforms such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook are so easily accessible. Everyone can write and express their own opinions on whatever topic they wish. This creates discussion, publicity but also backlash. 

The power of the media in the internet can be shown through the recent ‘#nomakeupselfie’ which circulated Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. It raised over £8 million for Cancer Research; and created its own awareness through this scheme.

No-makeup selfies raise £8m for Cancer Research UK in six days

With my English degree mainly focusing on media, I hope this will give me the upper-hand to being able to get to grips on how journalism is constantly trying to adapt to various social media platforms. With this being said, I also hope by exploring this medium, I will finally have some idea of what I what kind of career path I am going to 'travel down', as they say. Yet it looks as if now, is a prime time to join the world of journalism.