The New School

I got published in The West today. I'm doing a placement there one day a week through uni and yesterday I went off to cover the 'road-testing' of this year's show bags for the Perth Royal Show. I interviewed some kids, got some quotes from the Premier and the Commerce Minister and hey-presto, today there was my article in all it's glory, page 16. Bam.

I got a massive kick this morning, stealing the paper from my friend in my favourite cafe to race to the page my article was on (which was listed on the front page! Show bags are a big deal) and grinned hugely as I showed him. I'd already rung my mum and dad last night to tell them to read the paper and my pride grew and grew as the picture of my by-line I loaded to Facebook got more and more "likes".

I'd consider myself fairly old school I suppose in my approach to how I want to go about becoming a journalist. I'm finishing my degree, I'm applying for cadetships and I'm happy working my way up from the bottom. My heart lies in print journalism and I'm still passionate about print news and the institution that is 'the newspaper'. But I'm not naive enough to realise that I am very much in the minority when it comes these attitudes among my peers.

I read a lot of blogs from around Perth and sometimes a little further off, but the ones from Perth often get me quite frustrated. Not because of the content or anything like that, but because its dawning on me that blogging has become such an important information-sharing tool for my peers. People get their information from blogs, social networking sites, all that garbage that has become part and parcel of the Gen-Y online existence. My frustration doesn't stem from the fact that people use these avenues to get information, it stems from the fact that I'm absolutely terrible at using these avenues myself.

I call myself a journalist (albeit an unpaid, unqualified and dangerously unemployed one) and yes I have a blog, yes I have Twitter/Facebook/Google+ and yes I know how to put together a news piece, but I'm beginning to wonder if I might be getting left behind, even as a member of Gen-Y, in the fast-paced world of information sharing.

Generally speaking, I think for a journo who still wants to report the news I don't know that blogs are going to take over from institutions like the BBC or AAP or any large news organisation. It costs money to report the news and although blogging is free, one person or one blog can't tell it all. Blogs are specific and tailored and that's why people like them, which is another reason my blog frustrates me because there's no theme. It's the ramblings of an idiot! Well maybe not an idiot, but you catch my drift.

Unfortunately its now late at night and the class I have tomorrow morning is particularly nasty so I'll leave this here. Expect more though. This, I fear, is a Pandora's box I've just opened.