I know this is late, but I’ve been severely hesitant to start up a blog again because the last blog I ever did was on Myspace, and we all know how that site works. Additionally, my C & C instructor was not quite fond of my informal writing style, and has docked me multiple times for how conversational I am. Regardless, I am overcoming fear and attempting to get back into blogging for the sake of my grade point average. Additionally, I need to ramble online again, because my words have been leaking into my everyday conversations and I start kicking myself for talking too much… I don’t really use social media for what it’s meant to be used for.

Speaking of social media (see how I segued there?), it’s starting to be used as its own form of journalism lately. In fact, I get most of my news from researching what people are posting about on Facebook. I have limits though, I can only take so much complaints about Miley Cyrus and the people who complain about her (seriously, I’m seeing complaints about the complainers). But pressing issues such as the missile crisis in Syria is something that I look into when I see it mentioned on Facebook or Twitter.

One site (that’s not quite social media) that was mentioned in the article was Reddit. Now, that can be a good source for reliable and relevant news, but, it can also lead you wrong, depending on which parts of Reddit you’re surfing. As Redditor myself, I can vouch that there are people who will intentionally fabricate news for the sake of comedy, and that there are way too gullible people out there.
But as I had mentioned, it all depends on which part of the site that you are on. /r/worldnews is a good source to news sites that post articles about things going on in the world. People that post comments on those subreddits tend to be more serious in demeanor (unless, of course, the news is light enough for people to joke about). /r/pics might be helpful too, depending on what is going on in the world. On the other hand, if one were to visit /r/funny, reliable news is not likely, as people have a tendency to exemplify, rehash, and photoshop things to take on a more comical effect. It’s never to a terrible degree, since the things that show up are based off of a general consensus of approval via “upvotes’ and “downvotes”. You would not likely find something overly offensive unless you were surfing /r/imgoingtohellforthis. Then it would have to be offensive.

You know what? I’m going too far into detail about this site. Social media and internet have been figuratively labeled as murderers of the news, but in all reality, it’s just a reshaping, if not modification, of modern news. People still broadcast on the news. It may not get as much attention from the general population as it used to, but news is still being broadcasted, and as far as I can tell (which is an unreliable viewpoint), it’s not declining. In face, many news stations are now asking people to “like” them on Facebook and “follow” them on Twitter. They can still broadcast (since it’s technically a broad cast) news and other information to a general audience, it’s just not in the same format through the same medium.

In all reality, news and journalism are never going to die. As far as I can tell, it’s like energy and mass: it can’t be destroyed, but it can be converted into a state that is not quite as recognizable and deceptively similar to destruction. Even if journalism dies out on television and radio, it will still be alive in its clone on the internet. Jobs may deplete, but that’s just conversion of journalism from a job you get paid for into something like driving a car (most people do it, and those who don’t tend to be socially outcasted to a certain degree). Similar to how musicianship started out as a communal thing, turned into a professional thing, and then turned into a corporate thing with communal and professional things of it still going on. Not the best analogy, but I think I’ve made my point.

If my point has not come across clearly, I legitimately apologize. There is a reason that this site is called “Ramblings”. Don’t say that I didn’t try to warn you through subliminal messages. I am fully open to personally speaking about this issue (be it be the current state of journalism or my blog). Thank you for reading all the way through this; Give yourself a pat on the back.