According to Nordenson’s article Overload! Journalism’s Battle for Relevance in an Age of Too Much Information, journalists aren’t going anywhere. This is good news for me because journalism may be in my future. This is good news to others because that’s the only way to get information on the latest celebrity comings and goings. But it’s good news for everyone because that is truly the only way to discover what is going on in the world.
I don’t know about you, but I have absolutely no desire to wade through thousands of press releases in my inbox every morning to scan through some news, and read some of the stuff that seems a little bit important. Nor do I have a desire to run down to the corner Bank of America to get the latest hot details on a robbery gone wrong, when I could click on a link from the comfort of my home. This may come as a surprise, but I really don’t want to travel overseas to find out what is going on in the most rural or dangerous parts of the world. I just don’t, okay?
That’s why I love journalism, and why it isn’t going anywhere. We all need information; no one likes feeling like they’re out of the loop. We need it, but we can’t get it without some help. I love the line in Nordenson’s article that states, “Most of us lack the skills – not to mention the time, attention, and motivation – to make sense of an unrelenting torrent of information.” We can’t sort through it all on our own.
We rely on the media… our go-to free news website, an online subscription newspaper, magazines, and good, old-fashioned print to decide for us what is important and what we need to know. Sure, we have a lot of information circulating out there, but at least we have some help deciding what to look at first.