Still, Jeff is calling for journalism to adapt, just like it had to do when radios entered consumer homes, and later television. These things were supposed to kill newspapers – they didn’t. I’m not claiming that print will survive its latest competitor, but regardless of the punches, journalism has found a way to roll and survive.

On that note, as a graduating journalism student myself, I’m one of those people that will be studying abroad and building my portfolio until the dust settles. I can only hope that the summer season will bolster the economy just a bit, even if families won’t be vacationing the same way as they did years before.

Question: Given that we talking about local news and info, do we keep away from the bigger topics of religion and national politics so things don’t degrade into a faith/partisan mud slinging feast?

We are headed to a great reappraisal of value in the world, and one perspective on the collapse of print media is that it has inherently less value in the markets that exist, or, as people continue to reject the mass identity that mass media demands.

But I wonder if this cadre will dream up a new media that supports social identity? That is based on scalar freedoms? Or are they too tied up with large scale, centrally controlled social discourse?

Sure, I don’t want to get laid off so a college student who knows much less than I gets a job. But I do think that news organizations for too long have become islands unto themselves. Let’s not kill the idea of collaboration just because it could be done poorly. Any good idea — or bad one — can be done poorly.

As far as the lack of competition … The fact is competition died in most markets long ago. Not glad to see that. I think competition has value. But let’s not pretend most daily newspaper journalists have real competition from another media organization anymore.

This is intriguing, Jeff; imagine if it were combined with the marketplace David Cohn is creating with his Spot.us project … could be interesting, eh?

Yeah, High School kids out reporting–that’s a brilliant idea. No doubt there’s an endless supply of the likes of Ryan McPherson all too willing to participate. You need to go back to the drawing board on this one my man.

I’m not shedding any tears over the demise of mainstream media, mind you, but your ideas are wacky. This so called “ecosystem” you describe will become the ecosystem of the leisure class, where only the privileged few can afford to participate–students, trustifarians, and tenured professors.

Emma

I agree that news outfits are moribund, but jeff, think this through.