The Future of Journalism

I think in the next 10-15 years the majority of people will be receiving information from the internet or television. The baby boomers will still prefer reading the newspaper in the morning or evening but I think that the internet will be the main source of information for most people. The area of journalism that I'm majoring in is newspaper/magazine. I definitely feel that the newspaper industry will be suffering in 10-15 years but I don't think that magazines will feel the pinch that the newspaper industry has over the past few years. Magazines have a target audience that they cater to so I think that magazines will still be in good shape. As far as the new business models that will be emerging I have no idea what will happen. I can honestly say that I've noticed that the classifieds have gotten smaller and smaller over the past few months. I don't know what tactics advertising will take to improve but someone has to come up with some idea fast. You have to learn to adapt to change is not you will fall by the side. In order to keep up with the times newspapers are adapting and so must the advertising industry as well as other business models in order to stay on top.

The hard news lead in the Commercial Appeal for February 9, 2009 is Suspect charged in lot shooting. What I liked about this lead is that it is straight to the point. I prefer my news to get straight to the point. Leave the drawing me in effect for novels. The editor/reporter thought that the most important aspect of this story is that someone was charged for the crime that was committed. In the first two paragraphs of the story it not only explains what actually happened but it also mentions that the children of the man that was killed are now orphans. Their mother died in 2004 and now recently their father died. Mentioning that fact that this man's children are now orphans makes the title more effective. It makes the reader feel like justice has been served.

The soft news lead in the Commercial Appeal of the same date as mentioned above is First year passed with relative quiet. I didn't really like this lead. If it wasn't for the fact that I was already familiar with the subject of the Memphis State Eight I wouldn't have given this article a second glance past reading the lead. I think the editor/reporter thought the most important aspect of the story was to mention that although there was racial tension during this time and that the Memphis State Eight were newly intergrating the college it didn't make for an overly hostile situation.