Ryckera Robertson

As journalist work toward the future on the industry, it’s clear the internet is where journalism must focus it’s attention. The art of the newspaper is dying, if not dead already. Joel Achenbach uses the article, “I Really Need You to Read This Article, Okay?”, to look into how this could either lead to a bright future in journalism or destroy the true motive for producing stories.

Throughout the article Achenbach describes how journalism has changed over the years. It’s true that journalism has become more about page views and less about the story itself. Though this can all seem alarming, the truth is online journalism has endless possibilities that print journalism doesn’t.

• Reader interaction
• Easily accessible
• Footage in the form of photos and video

It’s clear that if journalism will progress, the online world has to be embraced. Achenbach describes how Matt Drudge was one of the first reporters to use the internet to display new articles. Of course, when Drudge’s website, Drudge Report, was first discovered he received criticism from his peers but after awhile the website was appreciated for it’s ability to share stories all other the country and give newspapers more visibility in multiple areas.

Achenbach’s article makes it very clear that online journalism is a double-edgedsword. If used properly, online journalism has the ability to allow journalism to do something it’s never been able to before: make the reader, the writer and allow the writer to learn from the reader. The possiblities journalism now has shows how much can be done when all aspects of news work together. With the good always comes the bad. Online journalism also has the ability to destory the intigrity of a story as well as the motive of the writer.

Hopefully, the future of journalism online leads to progressive storytelling rather than a race to the top of page views.