What is Journalism?

Journalism is described by the Oxford dictionary as "the activity or profession of writing for newspapers or magazines or of broadcasting news on radio or television."

That may have been accurate 25 years ago, but with today's modern technologies journalism has grown to be so much more.

The first point of news used to be radio - where you found out first. Radio newscasts happened throughout the day and short, detail free stories were announced there. Next, a longer version of what happened was presented on the television news. And finally, you'd get the full story with the next morning's newspaper article. Now, with social media and the internet, the full story happens a lot faster.

In my personal experience, I find out first on Twitter. By following all the news sources, and through word of mouth - news spreads fast on Twitter. For example, when Amy Winehouse died - I found out the news hours before any coverage was present on tv radio or print. The short 140 character description can tell it all or be accompanied by a link, which will take you to the news source's website where you can find either a shorter version of the story, or the later updated version.

The need for immediacy has taken over the world of news journalism. People want to know what happened and they want to know now. Because of outlets like Twitter, Facebook, websites and Apps, the job of journalists is changing.

Crime journalist for the Winnipeg Free Press, Mike McIntyre, said last year to a group of CreComm students that he now has to do twice as much work and twice as fast. He has to write a story right away for web, and another full story for the next day's print version of the paper.

Journalism is being changed by technology, and by what people want from their news. In Winnipeg for example, it seems as though crime rates are rocketing through the roof when they're actually going down. Why do we think they're getting higher? Because the sad reality is people want to know about crimes that are happening, so that's what the journalists in the city choose to cover over other stories.

Journalism is moving away from New York Times and magazine style long articles, and becoming more condensed. Consumers are getting more stories, with less information. So it's becoming a less is more kind of industry.