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Journalism is dead. Or at least, in the traditional sense.
For a career in media to be viable in the future, budding journalists need to be able to adapt to the digital era—and fast! This means staying in the loop about new and emerging digital technologies, keeping content fresh and relevant, and perhaps just as importantly, remaining humble.
So that journalism can stay alive, it must continue changing, evolving, and adapting to the times. And as a modern-day journalist, you must never be too proud to admit that you don’t know it all, and embrace the fact that there will be more to learn.
Of course, an online Masters of Journalism is still a very relevant qualification to attain today, and is, in many ways, a prerequisite to a media-focused career path.
Here’s how to use your journalism degree to your advantage in the age of digital technology.
Journalism in the Digital Age: Navigating The Modern Media Space
Is journalism still relevant in the era of digital? If we’re talking about print media, perhaps not. In fairness, unless you’re a baby boomer, when was the last time you devoured the morning paper alongside your coffee and eggs? To be frank, newspapers are fast becoming obsolete. It’s sad to see, considering what used to be our dominant information source is now being relegated to being used as nothing more than wrapping paper for cheap fried fish.
Indeed, newspaper subscriptions are rapidly declining—in the US, statistics have shown that circulation of daily newspapers has declined by as much as 10% in just the last few years—since 2021, to be precise. So, with the impending death of the newspaper, this particular traditional print news outlet is being replaced by more modern media sources. Cue, digital media. But, what does digital media refer to, exactly? Today, our electronic media resources come in several different digital formats, such as:
- Digital audio and video media, such as digital radio and television.
- Social media channels, platforms, and Social Media Marketing (SMM).
- Digital marketing and advertising, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO) content.
- News media websites, purpose-built smartphone and tablet news applications, and digital news subscription services.
Most importantly, for a journalist to remain relevant today, they need to be completely across each of these modern-day digital media outlets. Here’s how to do it.
Modern Journalism How-to: Staying Relevant as Part of a ‘Dying’ Industry
So, how to be a successful and relevant journalist in our hyper-digitalized day and age?
Here are our top tips:
Tip #1: Stay In the Loop: Embracing All the Exciting, New, and Emerging Digital Media Formats and Technologies
If you want to stay up-to-date as a modern journalist, you need to keep yourself informed about how your craft is continually evolving to keep up with these internet-driven times. This means educating yourself on the different types of digital media outlets that exist today, and ensuring that you’re aware of how to use them. Adapting your existing skills to emerging technologies as a journalist in the age of digital technology is critical.
Tip #2: Stay Fresh: Creating Engaging, Relatable, and Relevant Media Content that Speaks to Modern Audiences
To ensure your content is always fresh and relevant, you need to scope out the scene. What’s trending? What is, as they say, ‘viral’? And just as importantly, has the way your audience uses language changed? For your content to resonate with your audience, you need to, quite literally, speak their language. This doesn’t mean you always need to use trendy slang and jargon. However, it doesn’t hurt!
Tip #3: Stay Humble: Adapting to Change and Admitting that There Is Always More To Learn
And finally, never allow yourself to feel like you know it all. There’s always more to learn, regardless of how much you think you already know. Modern journalism is constantly changing and evolving; it’s the nature of the beast when working in a field that is quite literally on the verge of extinction. So, to stay abreast of everything that’s happening in your industry, you need to be adaptable and flexible, and you also need to ensure that you keep up with the rapid transformations and advancements that are constantly occurring in the modern media landscape today.
