Like all of us, journalists have faced unique challenges during the pandemic. From reporting in pajamas during quarantine to tackling the high velocity of significant world events coming at us in real time, they are truly navigating unchartered territory.
While browsing NeimanLab's Predictions for Journalism 2022, I stumbled across journalist and professor Robert Hernandez who teaches Journalism 323 at USC Annenberg. He wanted to know “What the Next Generation of Journalist Thinks” and allowed his class of 2022 students to respond.
In this age of cynicism with regard to the media, their responses were a breath of fresh air. His student, Annalysa Cowie, feels that the “biggest area impacted by the pandemic was the newsroom.” She explains that the shift to working at home during the pandemic left many of the Generation X journalists confounded in terms of how to navigate the new approach. This “allowed for millennials and Gen Z’s to truly shine in the newsroom and take over because of their digital presence and knowledge.” And who can better deliver the news to a busy nation of people hungry for information, and glued to their screens?
“The future of journalism doesn’t just meet the audience where they are at, it invites them in and knows them by name,” says Julia Lin, class of 2023. Maggie Morris, class of 2021, feels that “the journalism industry is going to make a noticeable shift toward casual reporting to engage younger audiences." Pauline Woodley, class of 2022, dreams of a perfect newsroom, which “is run on compassion and care for all involved. It is fair and unafraid to do what is right. It is perfect in its imperfections, in the fact that we are going to get it wrong and we are going to admit our humanity when we do.”
Why should all of this matter to us as consumers of media? Generation Z is inheriting the world of journalism. They will be our news source in the immediate future, and who they are matters. They are thoughtful and compassionate. They are open minded. They are tremendously concerned with the direction that our country is taking. They are perhaps the most skilled among us at navigating the electronic delivery of our information. All of these facts combine into one undeniable truth: the formulation and delivery of our media is changing. And I think it’s safe to say that we can be optimistic about these changes. Reporting in pajamas has taken us in a new direction, and I don’t think it’s a bad one.
[1 image, 2 links, 5 quotations, 430 words]
Comments