I Never Liked the Word Journalist
I always thought journalist sounded goofy. ’I write in my journal,’ sounds like a 12-year-old documenting their schoolyard tribulations. Maybe that’s why it took me so long to launch my writing career. I tell people I’m a writer and the vagueness of that word always gets people to stop asking about my work. Not that I don’t like talking about it, but most people hate the news anyway. So if I tell them I’m a reporter or journalist, they have all these preconceptions about what that means. Besides if I say writer then they think I’m a novelist or really smart or something and they suddenly feel like, ‘wow, maybe I should get started on my book.’
In other words, I don’t know who is a journalist because I don’t consider myself a journalist. There it is. I’m not one of you. Seriously, it’s a loaded word and I agree with Salon’s Dan Gilmor that it’s more important that people do the work of a journalist. As long as people ask the tough questions and think critically about the world, we’re on the right path.
Digital media is the next step to all of us having a chip implanted. We’re gonna be cyborgs ya’ll. I kid, but as microchips become smaller and more powerful, the future looks more and more like the present. When your mobile device is the thickness of your school ID, then I will officially be excited about said mobile devices. What these devices mean for the definition of journalism is that information will disseminate faster than ever. WikiLeaks is my joint! It’s great idea and our government especially needs to be more open about what they spend our money on.
