Journalisms

Yes, I pluralized it. It's what I do. I'm like 'Lil Kims that way.

So, I haven't thought much about journalism, or the institution of such, since I was in college, even though the word around the water cooler is that we're in some kind of "transitional" phase. Us newspaper types. Of course, I've never really thought of myself as a journalist. I'm definitely not a reporter. I am a writer. A staff writer. I work for a media company. Newspaper is an old term, it seems.

Anyway, me and a buddy are at lunch today and we start talking about journalism and how the role of the newspaper has changed, not changing, but changed. And that being said, how do we move forward. What is the "new" newspaper, and what will it look like. What will its business model be. That's assuming of course that people still want to receive information from a "qualified" news source, which could be questionable.

And suddenly I realized how "in the box" I am. I couldn't even image what this possible "new" media might look, or feel, or read. What I think about is the Internets and social-networking sites and the like. But that's all established stuff. This "new" thing is for sure going to come out of left field. And then I realized that there are people who really do think "outside the box." There are probably a whole crew of guys and gals mulling this problem over in all sorts of ways I can't even imagine. For instance: If 10 years ago someone said MySpace was going to revolutionize the way people communicated, would anyone thought anything of it? Because someone was probably saying it and a bunch of other people probably weren't listening.

I'm not sure there is a point here other than to question my deficency as a unique and independent thinking human. And my awe at those who are can through current issues toward the possibilites of the future. Like the science-fiction guys writing about 2012. Those dudes were smart.