Being an online journalist

The Internet has been changing the face of journalism everywhere... Newspaper reporters might need to know how to shoot and edit video or television reporters might need to rewrite their stories for an online newspaper. People like me have to know some web design, Internet language, text editing skills and more just so we can put content online where people can see it. The University of Missouri School of Journalism (from which I got my degree) even created an entirely new department just to help reporters be able to cross media: Convergence Journalism.

You might ask, "What is Convergence Journalism?" I'm sure other people out there will have a slightly different idea of what it is, but for me, Convergence Journalism is taking aspects of newspaper, magazine, photography, television and radio journalism, and combining them all online.

However, there's a twist... The Internet has changed dramatically since news outlets first started posting content. It still is changing and will continue to do so. New programs, new languages, new design options, all these make it very hard to keep up. It seems that no matter what skills I learned, parts of them are outdated within months. I could probably study new online skills 24 hours a day and still not be able to keep up.

It often seems the same for computer technology. Hello! Anybody been paying attention to how many new OSs have come out in the last few years? At least businesses aren't investing in the new technology as soon as it comes out! So there I can at least continue to do my job with most of it...

This is not an easy field. It never has been. The hours are long; the mental strain sometimes overwhelms; news never stops. The Internet is just taking that further because people can connect 24/7/365. It might be an overload, and it might not. Still, as long as there is a demand, there will have to be people, like me, to fill it.

Here is something you might find interesting, even though it's a little outdated now... Epic 2015. It's a very interesting take on how technology has changed media...