Journalism pieces

After completing Bennet's "Against Long-Form Journalism" and watching theatlantic.com's video, I have a better understanding of the war against long-form journalism and how "new media" has transformed old practices of journalism.

In Bennet's article, he discusses his concerns with the topic of long-form journalism, especially the name itself. He states to his readers that the name "long-form" completely throws off anyone that is interested in reading that sort of work because it makes it sound unappealing. Bennet supports his opinion with the simple example that readers do not recommend a book, such as Moby Dick, for the reason that it is a lot of words to read. Bennet brings to light the term "New Journalism" because it would more than likely attract more of an audience as compared to the term "long-form."

"New Journalism" in a sense connects to theatlantic.com's discussion of "new media" versus "old media", in which various journalists discussed the importance of old media learning from new media to be faster, engage a more variety of voices in conversation, and to create a stronger, more professional environment. I feel as though, besides the concern that there is a lack of printing being done, journalism can be more positively impacted by new media because it presents the opportunity to journalists to include more views in their work which appeals to a wider audience. New media can also enhance old print journalism to be more accessible.

New media, however, can also bring limitations to journalism that would not have existed otherwise. When forms of journalism are more accessible by the public, this places "more responsibility on consumers in finding out who to trust." Unfortunately, writers on the Internet have power to edit, steal, and twist the truth of others to sound more appealing to readers, which ultimately means that consumers need to critically read presented information and research on their own beyond what is in front of their face. Another limitation of new journalism is that readers pick and choose what they want to read; the flipping of a newspaper page allows the reader to stumble upon new sources of information that they wouldn't otherwise find on the Internet because stories and corresponding sites are simply not structured that way.

I think it is crucial that Bennet included a part in his article that mentions the important transition from print to digital that many journalists are undergoing at this point in time. In recent past, media and technology has changed magazine printing, typing, and art in general. My parents, both magazine cover artists, lost their jobs in Manhatten to uprising computer technology and robots. Although this influence of new media on old journalism seems like a contemporary problem, it isn't. Artists have adapted to new technology, such as computer animation, which means that writers have to adapt to the new technology (Facebook and Twitter) as well. If it means jobs and the number of readers will be at risk, journalists will find a way to compromise with new media and use it to their advantage.