The changing Newsroom

http://www.journalism.org/node/11961

The article raised a number of questions regarding the change taking place in the way news works, and the way reporters and editors work. Based on the results of a series of interviews and elaborate surveys completed by senior newsroom executives, the article states that todays reporters have "less knowledge of their community." This forced me to wonder how important it is for reporters and thus the news that they report to the community to be personal, to be connected to those they have delivering the news to. Many could argue that the job of a reporter is to connect with society, to know what they want to hear and what they are all about. But now that reporting itself and the interests of society seem to be changing, at times even conflicting, how important is it? Very little about the media remains intimate with the public anymore because the public no longer seems terribly concerned by it. Everything moves so fast these days, and the public seems to be more concerned with receiving news as fast as possible than receiving news that reflects a reporter who has truly taken the time to know the community or the issue at hand. This raises another issue. With the internet offering immediate news, and immediate responses to questions, how can reporters in the newsroom compete? Obviously much of the news on the web is not created not by professional reporters but self-made newswriters, and much of the information is not checked for corrections, so true reporters need to get the right information out there as fast as they can. But when news is delivered immediately via web, how can reporters take the necessary time to fact check and be as detailed as possible in their articles while still competing to deliver news as fast or nearly as fast. And how can editors make the necessary time to edit and fact check? As the article demands of readers at the end, with todays new types and expectations of news, "what is being gained, and what is being lost?"