A journalist I admire, Bill McCloskey, former AP reporter in DC, who spoke at the recent Public Relations Society of America conference last week, urged us to join the Society of Professional Journalists, and I am going to do so. I am also planning to get behind any PRSA campaigns aimed at supporting professional journalism standards. We need to become a more media-savvy culture and support reporters who are independent, thoughtful and checking their sources and facts. Much online media content is generated by trained reporters who have simply moved from print to online, but there is much more that are simply opinions, or just plain junk. Everyone is just selecting what they want to hear or what is entertaining.
Bill said the journ schools are as popular as ever, but where will their jobs be? Are schools also producing thoughtful readers seeking a variety of references and perspectives?
