It seems like we just can't adjust and get used to how fast things are moving. The internet has brought a lot of good and changed the way we live and exchange information, but it has also burdened our minds with more information than we can possibly process. This is why we tend to ignore, regroup, and reorganize information so it fits our own personal points of view and preconceived notions. Instead of dissecting, analyzing, and trying to understand what's happening around us, we just reinforce preexisting beliefs through the information that we consume.
What about journalism?
Enough about the consumer side of things. What about Journalism? How can journalists determine what to report on, what to write about, from which angle, and using what sources? What's a credible source nowadays? How can one even differentiate between real and fake news, without spending hours upon hours analyzing every fiber of a single, banal news story?
It is the job of a journalist to dig through Fake News and propaganda in order to locate a grain of truth. And once you find something, follow it, attack it with brute force, and extract as much information out of it as possible. And what then? Hope someone reads it.
Thanks to the world wide web, looking for information is easier than ever, but finding the right information is more difficult than ever.
Why? Because there's simply too much info out there. Journalists in this Digital Age have to be more than just journalists. You have to be a researcher, a keen observer, an intuitive analyst, and, above all, a social media influencer. After all, you need to reach out to your readership, don't you?
Irresponsibility
What a lot of journalists, who publish primarily online, often do can be summed up in a single word: irresponsibility.
They are, to an extent, forced to be irresponsible with the information that they share and the stories that they construct. Why? Because your news need to be read or else you won't survive. This is, in part, why journalism in the digital space has been reduced to clickbait titles and sensationalist information.
Perhaps this is why Donald Trump has become everyone's favorite topic?
He is a very easy target, and the people, no matter who they are, love reading about him. Granted, there are many exceptions and there are journalists whose stories all of us read with pleasure -- some of them write for Blasting News -- but they are far and few in between.
