Journalism Today

For this week’s blog entry I read The Quality-Control Quandary by Carl Sessions Stepp. It can be found here.

I think that this article was very interesting. It was about the news industry and how it is currently changing. Because of the economy and the changes in how news is being handed there have been many cutbacks in editors. However, because editors are being lost, the quality of some of the work is diminishing.

I think that although this is very true, I think that it is very unfortunate. I know that the journalism industry is changing, but I do not think that they have learned how to change with it. I think that when they figure out how to make money off the internet and how to work with the cutbacks, the industry will survive.

But currently, I think that it is going to be really hard for editors to do what they need to do when there is less time and less of them. With fewer eyes looking at each article, it is going to be easier for mistakes to get past them. In addition, the fact that the news is going online and being part of the 24-7 news cycle it is hard to deal with. Because news needs to be immediate and online first it is harder to check and double check every copy thoroughly. I think that this pressure is really getting to the editors. The reporters are still doing the same work that they always have and even though they do not want to make mistakes they are, and because of that they are still letting mistakes get by them that they think the editors or going to catch. But since the editors have less time and less manpower they assume that the reporters are going to catch the effort, so the mistakes are still going to get into the news.

I think that the saying “accuracy, accuracy, accuracy” and "Get it first, but first get it right” are very good mottos for editors to live by. Because regardless of how much time they have, it really is not an excuse to not be accurate. Furthermore, I think that I know that people want to get their news immediately and at any time of the day, I think that editors and reporters need to write their stories well and proofread them thoroughly. I think that this is the only way to guarantee that everything is correct in the articles.

This article was very well written I thought because it is very accurate regarding what is happening in today’s world. But I believe that once the news media learn how to change with the times then everything will be just fine.