Are journalists an endangered species? - Column

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1994 by Joe Saltzman

THEY'RE DOING IT AGAIN, the soothsayers who, with each new communications technology, predict the demise of simple, old-fashioned journalism. Their latest warning is that the newest laser technology will make print obsolete and journalists an idea of the past. They tell us we need a new breed of mass communicators who will be steeped in the technology of the 21st century. Although they pay lip service to the old-fashioned tools of reporting, writing, and editing, they're more interested in interfacing, interacting, and intercommunication.

None of this would matter except a lot of powerful people in the media are buying the latest doomsday scenario: printed newspapers and magazines are dead; no one will read them anymore unless they are in an electronic database. Journalists aren't necessary, just information-processors who know the latest computer and CD-ROM technology. Throw all the information into the electronic hopper under various subject headings and the brave new world is here.

They forget that someone must wade through the billions of pieces of information stored in up-to-the-minute electronic and print databases. Someone has to sort all of this out and present it in a clear, concise, and accurate way. And that person is now and always will be the journalist. Ask anyone who has waded through the murk of electronic bulletin boards, weather-information retrieval systems, and medical or legal databases. Without a guide, it's a hopeless morass. What is needed is the old-fashioned journalist steeped in the skills of reporting and writing to ferret out what is important, sum up the essential information, and give people a sense of what is happening today and tomorrow.

The public's needs

What must be remembered is that people haven't changed. They still have a finite amount of time each day and they always will want what a newspaper or newscast ideally offers them on a daily basis: a fair and accurate account of what is going on in the world; a clarification of the public issues affecting their lives and pocketbooks; a look at the injustices and inconsistencies in society; a constant check on government, military, and police; a chance to learn something more about the people in their community; a look at the unusual, the bizarre, and the unexpected.

Sure, it's neat to be able to go into electronic databases and access every court record in Los Angeles County or everything written on breast cancer or weather patterns for Southern California for the last century. But who has the time or the will power to do that on a regular basis? Everyone needs a guide. And that guide is not an electronic wizard or a mass communicator or a TV talk-show host or late-night comedian. That guide still is the journalist.

By all means, teach today's journalists how to use the new electronic databases and laser technologies. It will help them get the story quicker and more accurately and this is all to the good. But don't give undue emphasis to any new technology. In the end, it's not any different whether the journalist uses a pen, typewriter, tape recorder, computer, radio, or television set. Each tool has revolutionized the way the journalist gets information and covers the story. But in the end, the process is still the same. The future of any country depends on its free and independent press peopled by reporters, writers, and editors who can make some sense out of all of this information and present it quickly, accurately, and fairly to the general public.

Entering the new electronic age

If frightened newspaper and magazine editors want to enter the new electronic age, here are some reasonable ways to go about doing it:

Create an audio equivalent that arrives with the daily newspaper or weekly magazine. Deliver it with the printed copy to give commuters a valuable way to hear the daily or weekly news and features. Some publications already make audio cassettes of their publications available. To make this a part of the daily and weekly distribution system would be a valuable reader service and one that is bound to increase circulation among America's busy populations.

Then get going on creating CD-ROM discs to supplement those audio cassettes and printed copies. A newspaper or magazine laser equivalent would provide a valuable addendum to almost any newspaper or magazine. The technology already is in place. The manufacturing and distribution problems still are to be worked out, but imagine reading or listening to your daily newspaper, then wanting more background information on the location or individuals involved. Press a button and that material (in electronic, audio, and printed form) becomes instantly available. The subscriber also might be able to order up larger versions of printed stories, perhaps a file of original documents and records, or even the reporter's actual interviews. Another feature might define words that the reader does not understand, or translate the information into a foreign language. All of this is possible, but to gather this kind of material and put it on laser disc, even more reporters, writers, and editors will be needed.