January 22, 2010, was an electric night for music at Mike’s Down Under in Jefferson, Georgia. Yepo headlined the show. A quartet of friends creates the rock and country sounds of Yepo. Andy, lead vocalist and guitarists describes the band as “always local”, mentioning that tonight they were a Jefferson band.
Location of Yepo
They don’t want to be classified as a sound because they play a little bit of everything. At one of their concerts, there is a list of various genres, ranging from country to rock. You really never know what you will hear at a Yepo concert.
We Play Some Songs
Is there anything they don’t play? There’s only one band that won’t make the request line.
We Don’t Play Any…
Prepping the stage for the leading band were two performances that really made us do a double take. Daniel Victorio, as a single musician, had ears perked. His mellow voice echoed to a nearly silent crowd. No one could take theirs eyes away. Also, no one went for a beer during his session.
Daniel Victorio
After Victorio, Michael+Matt+Zak+Michael took to the stage and performed a number of hits. However, from concensus of the applause level, “Cripple Creek” seems to have been the favorite from their roster.
Cripple Creek – Michael+Matt+Zak+Michael
Soon, Yepo took the stage and blew everyone away with their sound. The four friends rocked the night away with hits like “Low,” “Ring of Fire,” and “Copenhagen.” It all settled down to their long hit “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” which fades into “Psycho Killer.”
Traditional journalists have already noticed the changes in journalism, as it applies to new media and social media. Trends in communications affect the media in which a journalist would have to diversify their skills. One assistant professor at Kennesaw State University agrees the diversification of skills could produce additional opportunities for a modern journalist. Mr. Matthew J Duffy of KSU attributes the following trends to the evolution of journalists:
A push to video
More Data Analysis
Freelancing
Online Education
Non-Profit
Push to Video
Points 2 Through 5 About Digital Journalism
A traditional journalist would now have to diversify their skills, becoming a one-man band, so to speak. A hybrid-journalist, meaning they are able to create, edit and produce their own packages, has the advantage in the marketplace. This is based on the fact that hybrid journalists, also known are preditors, are capable of producing news content, acting as the writer, the editor and the publisher. In addition, they now have to act as a videographer, producing visuals to accompany their stories. Video also acts as a verification of the news package. It resembles the phrase I hear amongst younger social media users, ‘No picture. Didn’t happen.’ Mr. Duffy attributes social media to the rise in video production, as supplemental to the news package.
Another trend that stigmatizes a lot of journalists is math. The amount of data that supports a news stories doesn’t always come clean and broken down for a journalist. This is where analytical skills come into play, a skill many journalists do not have. The running joke is that students go into journalism to avoid having to do math. A Columbia Journalism Review article expounds on the stereotype that journalists are bad at math and analyzing data. Journalists are no longer able to have their team of number crunchers in the new room. They now have to be the numbers cruncher. They have to now perform data analysis, do the math and be able to explain their math to their readers/viewers. Additionally, they are accountable for the analysis they are presenting.
Being able to stay mobile, arrive to the scene, and produce a story in a timely matter provide many opportunities for freelancers. A journalist, with hybrid skills, and a passport, could make a substantial living off of freelance gigs. Freelancers are not tied down to one news desk or organization. They are versatile and can blend in with any news organization. Truly independent freelancers can make a name for themselves and have no true obligations to any one particular news source if they can use their preditor skills and mobility to continuously create quality content.
Online education has drastically increased the convenience of becoming a journalist. Traditional brick-and-mortar schools are offering more and more online courses to compete with online colleges and universities, such as University of Phoenix. In addition, these facilities, as well as UoP, are competing with even lower costs certification programs, like those of Coursera, EdX and Udemy. Those traditional journalists who learned the basic of reporting, are now able to educate themselves, obtain training, to upgrade their qualifications into hybrid journalists.
Mr. Duffy also noted a trend to quality over quantity journalism in for-profit communications organizations, as well as an increase towards non-profit organizations entering the arena of multimedia and social media for communications. He references Kaiser Permanente as an example of the progress of a for-profit going with quality. The insurance company has gained media recognition for their journalistic progress in communications. Kaiser has gained recognition in radio, television and social media platforms for their contributions to medical journalism, analyzing the data and going globally with their reports. This also brings us to a point made by Mr. Duffy about jobs that were not available or thought of in journalism prior to the evolution of social media.
He sees differences in the jobs that are around now. Certain positions didn’t exist five years ago and yet, will continue to spring up as more industries will see a need for media skills.
Jobs That Weren’t There 5 Years Ago
While Mr. Duffy doesn’t specifically know what’s in store for digital journalism, he does know he has read about it. He referred to an article he browsed on The Awl. The article pertained to wealthy California venture capitalists looking for the next big media thing. He does see more fact-checking in our future, especially when it comes to the 24-hour news channels. However, he see bloggers as a push toward the future of journalism. Also, more content management systems for journalists will be among the multitude of programs that will arise with needs from the media.
