"What Will We Know?"

For this blog entry, I’m going to try something new. The entry will be written using the newspaper writing style. I feel it’s appropriate for this post. **If I quoted from your blog, sorry**

Professor Bob Wigginton was the guest speaker for the Survey of Professional Media course on Friday, February 27. He spoke about the decline of newspapers and the new direction print journalists are looking towards in the near future.

“In the last two years, about 6,000 journalists have lost their jobs…most in major newspapers,” said Wigginton.

Newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Chicago Tribune are slashing jobs out of necessity. News stories covering international events will have to be limited because of the cuts in overseas bureaus.

Due to these cuts in newspaper staff, backpack journalism is becoming a widespread practice. This method of journalism is where one reporter both writes the story and records the video.

Wigginton touched on the reasons for which this rapid decline in newspaper is occurring. “These newspapers are not losing money. They’re simply not making as much as their shareholders want them to make…and their solution is to slash jobs,” said Wigginton.

Newspapers are in danger of extinction because they are pressured by Wall Street companies to make a certain amount of money to show a large profit. These Wall Street corporations and CEO’s care more about money than newspaper survival and are taking over Wigginton stated.

Because of this control, stories are now viewed as advertising tools. Journalists are steering away from touching and investigative stories and moving towards “fluff.”

The influx of the Internet also adds to the decline of newspaper journalism. “Younger generations prefer to get their news from websites such as Google or Yahoo than run to the nearest vending machine for a newspaper,” wrote a student after listening to Wigginton’s presentation.

Wigginton used a video presenting the reality of the newspaper industry to provide background for his lecture. He also introduced the audience to Poynter Online. It’s mission statement is to “[teach] and [inspire] journalists and media leaders…to [inform] citizens and [enlighten] public discourse.”

A student from the lecture describes Wigginton as a journalist that “seems to know his profession like the back of his hand and could probably speak about it for hours, never repeating himself in the knowledge he could provide to someone. And he would mean every word of it, and dare you to prove him wrong.”

Wigginton worked as a journalist for the past 25 years. He currently teaches print media courses at Lindenwood Unviversity, including Writing for Publication. His work includes a piece in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette entitled “The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Afghanistan.”

**Once again, if I used your words it’s because I liked what you had to say about the presentation, but if you have any problem with it, let me and I can edit my post.**