Online journalism is a growing field, and like the oak tree that stems from the smallest of beginnings, the humble acorn, it just continues to grow and grow. An oak tree lives a long time, longer than you or I, and so will online journalism. It currently appears a young sappling, but will soon take over all of its competitors in the tree world. News websites are already huge, but are currently overshadowed by their bigger, taller, leafier siblings, the television and print worlds of news reporting. Not for long.
They are growing up, and catching up, with news websites already infringing on the popularity of their printed counterparts. Soon will come the day when your work colleagues do not read The Times or The Sun, depending on whether you work in the city or the job centre, on their train journey but instead read BBC Online at their laptops. Who knows, they might even read it on the train using tiny microchips implanted on the insides of their eyelids.
People will, of course, be sceptical at first. Some will laugh at them as they think they are sleeping, some will try to wake them at every stop as they are worried that they will miss it, but it is they who will have the last laugh. Their fingers will not be black from the dirty dirty ink of printed newspapers, nor will they have annoyed the angry tattoed baldie sitting next to them by rustling the Financial Times in their hideous faces. They will be laughing like hyenas, not outwardly for then they would appear crazy, on the inside at their technological advancement over these goons. How they will pity non-microchipped people. How they will conquer the world.
We, as journalists, need to gain the skills to exploit this technology. When microchips are implanted in eyelids, do you want to be one of the first writing for this bold new idea, or waiting for a bus looking at the local paper for stories to steal for your big ugly tabloid career? You can continue to make up stories about celebrities and print wabs on page 3 for the working class to drool over in between bites of a bacon sandwich. I'll be riding that gravy train of technology. If we were at weightwatchers, I'd be the after photo compared to your fat mess.
Jumping back to reality, just for a moment of course as I wouldn't want to get too serious on you, but online journlism really is the future. I've tasted it. Before long, most of the working population will be using the Internet as their main news source. Computers are taking over the world, and there will soon be little room for the humble newspaper in this. As a journalist, the skills to work with this technology are essential. In twenty years time, the newspapers will be struggling whilst their online equivalents thrive.
Those who cannot adapt will be left behind, make no mistake. There is no room for sentimentality in the news industry. The skills to work with online journalism are essential for the modern day reporter. The need to work with it is important for those who do not wish to drop their press hats and find a new career. Online journalism is the future. It is time for this acorn to become a tree.
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