New model army

I am not sure how I feel about Dan Kennedy’s comment is free piece on the future of journalism. Dan thinks that newspapers will simply disappear during the next decade and that online is the future. I have read a quite a few articles in the last few years that say a similar thing to Dan’s.

This type of argument certainly influenced my decision to become an online journalist. I completed a MA in online journalism at the University of Central Lancashire in 2006.

However, I am not sure whether Dan’s current article is encouraging or unnerving. Its basic premise is obviously good news for me. However, he also writes that : “that the old model is dying, and that the new model is taking its damn sweet time being born. The solution, though, is not to cling to what's dying. It's to embrace what's coming and work toward creating a new journalism that's every bit as vital as the old.” Since I am currently trying to become a NCTJ accredited journalist, I may be guilty of clinging to “what’s dying.”

One point may be that while the old model may well be dying, its demise does not necessarily mean that we should abandon everything that went with it. I think that the NCTJ accreditation I am currently taking will make me a better journalist. Surely that is a good thing.

I think that the NCTJ stand for accurate, responsible journalism, and I would have thought that the new model Dan alludes to will want to embrace some of their values.