Clay Shirky's Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable: The Future of Journalism

Clay Shirky says what everyone in the field of journalism is thinking, but is scared to admit- we can’t predict the future of journalism, in “Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable”. We have an idea of where it is headed, that being technological instead of pen and paper but nobody knows for sure where the technology is going to take us because lets face it, nobody thought that we would be where we are today. We are living in the “unthinkable scenario”. So what does that mean for anxious journalism students like myself? Keep up with the pace. Not only keep up but be two steps ahead of everyone else. Traditional journalism is no more and as much as I hate to say it, traditional newspapers are looking like they’re on their last string. Online readership versus print readership has done a 180 and online readership is on the rise. Journalists need to not only be good reporters and writers but internet savvy as well. Facebook, Twitter, Wordpress etc. are all internet sites for social networking but they are becoming a large part of journalism. We need to come up with the next piece in the puzzle, and make it better. It worries me not knowing what the future holds for the career I’m pursuing but at the same time it exciting to know that I can be apart of another journalistic revolution or rather the continuation of the revolution. People will always need to the news, it’s just a matter of how we give it to them.