Are Traditional Journalists Dead?

Once upon a time, in a land not far away, reporters got the scoop. They received phone tips or faxes on hot stories. They drove to locations to interview people about these stories.

Flash forward to today. Stories come in via Twitter, Facebook and AP RSS feeds. Journalists are now hybrid reporters/bloggers. Their content is more important online than it is in print. Newspapers themselves are forced to adapt to how technology has changed its format…or shut its doors, the way so many have.

Good journalists know they have to open the doors to the masses via social media tools. They need to be accessible, even if that means a constant stream of pitches. They have to, because their jobs are about communicating. And that’s what social media does.

And yet, I’m amazed at how few newspaper websites list journalist and editor Twitter IDs.  Back in Orlando, the Orlando Sentinel has a page with all the journalists’ Twitter IDs. MuckRack is a gathering of journalists who can be found on Twitter. Why, then, don’t more journalists embrace the inevitable and use social media to get their jobs done?

Maybe because they’re resistant to change. Maybe because like so many large corporations, they fear what social media will bring.

I say, bring it on.