Everyone is a Journalist

Journalists are messengers.  They gather information, insight, opinion, and analysis fand deliver it to us through media.

Truth is, we’re all journalists.  We’re constantly gathering information, insight, opinion, and analysis from our environment, and we’re constantly sharing it with others.  We talk about it, tweet about it, write about it, and blog about it.  We love sharing what we know.

Even researchers, someone who does experiments in a lab, are journalists. Probably even more so than most. They take information gained from their experiments, synthesize it, and deliver it to the world by publishing papers, doing consulting work, or maybe teaching.  They’re the messengers of the Knowledge Space.  They’re at the front lines, just like a reporter on a war front.

If anything, you’re a journalist on the topic of your own experience.  Your experience is valuable to someone, which is a great reason why you should blog.

Due to the internet, “Everyone is a Journalist” became a literally true statement.  It gave people the necessary tools: a voice and a means of being discovered.  Consequently, more people began to focus more of their time on delivering messages to larger audiences.  You could say journalism is undergoing a process of disintermediation. This has had and will have a profound effect on Journalism.

-Kevin
3.15.2010