Like blogger RosietheThird and others from my class, we didn’t know that we had to write a blog entry about  “We the Media“… so better late than never :)

Blogs, laptops, cell phone cameras and Blackberrys have all revolutionized journalism. I remember my first days as a tv reporter, dragging along a 3/4″ tape deck, a gear bag, a large 3/4″ video camera and tripod. It was slow and arduous. And then, we’d have to edit our video tape-to-tape. If you messed up, you had to just start all over! It was not user-friendly and it took a lot of money to buy the necessary equipment.

Today, I could go out with a consumer-quality video camera, edit on my Mac and post it on YouTube as fast as I could move my mouse. Cell phones shoot photos and video now that have been picked up by wire services and shared around the world… just think of the images of the train stations after the London bombing or the video during the Virginia Tech shootings. It puts people right in the middle of breaking news without waiting for the reporter to show up.

These advances in journalism have been invaluable. But I still think there will always be room for a reporter, who can get the source to talk, who receives training, who has the support of a newsroom and more. I do not want to see reporters and their publications or shows die away. I know viewership has decreased for tv news and readership has declined for newspapers, but we would be lost without our news. Citizen journalists cannot take their place and I hope they never will.

I think the traditional media and the new media can coexist. They should feed off of one another and support one another. I know I will continue to subscribe to the Sunday Washington Post. I will continue to receive the daily Post and New York Times online. But I will now be more apt to supplement my reading with blogs, alternative media and other sites.

Long live journalism in all its forms… I hope it is here to stay for a very long time!