These two pieces on journalism were very interesting in the way that they discussed how journalism is changing as media is evolving. In the article, Bennet discusses the idea that the length of a piece should not matter, but the quality of the writing/material is what is important. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. If a work is attention grabbing and can keep me intrigued for its entire duration, I’m a happy consumer. Some short pieces may not be written well enough to keep a reader’s attention, and longer pieces may become boring and uninteresting. I also think it is important to note that short pieces may not express the entire idea that a writer wants to get across. Bennet tells of when his editors would get rid of the “color” in his pieces in order to make it fit the length requirement, and realized the “color” wasn’t exactly necessary for his stories to be good. Either way, the pieces need to be written well regardless of how many words make up the work.

The video, to me, seemed like the exact opposite of long form journalism. However, with the brevity of the piece, I felt as though I only received a portion of their argument on social media and the way it is changing journalism. I liked the idea from the video that “if something does not succeed on Facebook, it does not succeed.” Facebook, though it is not my favorite venue of social media, is one site where something that users see often are articles that have been shared and reposted. This is the one place that I’m likely to read a random article simply because one of my friends enjoyed it enough to share. You don’t typically see readers of magazines physically carrying around articles to share with their friends. Social media benefits journalism because many readers would not even be exposed to these articles.

The digital age allows writers more freedom to write “long-form,” by getting rid of the constraints of printing pages and available slots in a magazine. But having longer articles and things available to readers online means that the quality has to be high in order for consumers to enjoy what they are reading. This puts more pressure on writers to succeed in the digital world. Social media is a great place for an explosion of interest in terms of journalism, stories, and articles, but if it is not done well may have a rather negative impact. Writers who intend on using the internet to spread their work need to ensure they are writing things that people are interested in reading about as well as be aware of the power that social media holds. If a writer puts their work on the internet and it doesn’t spread the way it was intended to, it is a failed piece. Or, if the piece does circulate successfully, there is the possibility of negative attitudes toward the piece, which are typically openly displayed, allowing other readers to view the comments and make a decision before they form an opinion on the piece for themselves.