Citizens...Not Customers

But according to Trevor Cook of the Australian Broadcast Corporation, the medium makes a difference. In his 2008 article The Death of Quality Journalism (http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/37220.html), Cook expressed that because many news consumers do so on the internet, journalists now have to make sure their stories are "Search Friendly." I mean what would your article be worth if it didn't come up on the first page of a Google search? I know that If what I'm looking for isn't on the first page of my search, I'd rather refine it than scroll through another page; and my guess is that I'm not the only one. For this reason, journalists may have to structure their articles to include key phrases that would most likely be searched. This, Cook argues, is leading to a lower quality in our Journalists.

I must say this is not something that I have noticed myself, but it makes a great deal of sense. Today's journalists are still working for us, the consumers, so they have to present their work in a consumer friendly way. The most consumer friendly way to present anything these days is on the internet. I definitely don't think it is as black and white as this article made it seem, but its definitely something to think about. Not every news corporation is like the New York Times, they all cannot afford to give up advertising space for important stories. I'm sure every news corporation would like to, but it all comes down to dollars and cents.

Journalists have a duty to present us with news. In the past that was via newspaper or television, but today we have to add in the internet. Just as a newspaper article presents their information differently than a news broadcaster would report it, I guess there is room for a different standard in the internet as well. Journalists are doing their job, as hard as we make it for them.

Former newscaster Nick Clooney said, "If it comes down to a question of loyalty, my loyalty will be to the person who turns on the television set..." I guess today it belongs to the person who logs on to the website.