A Virtual Revolution of a Costly Kind
We’re all competing for jobs within the media industry. But as Adrian so kindly pointed out… What will they be? The potential careers we have in mind are not promised to last. A bummer. Yet the rapid growth has also meant that new positions are arising as need sees fit. And that’s great. Positive. Uplifting.
I find myself all too concerned, however, with the idea that my dream job (however undetermined it may be currently), may just not be there anymore. This became a very confronting thought after two occasions:
- Adrian’s point in the lecture, but probably more so
- As an RMIT lecturer was talking on ABC radio about investigative journalism and the very dire future it’s facing.
So here’s the deal…. Newspapers are dying out. We all know it, and in the last few months there seems to be some growing acceptance of the fact. Things are changing and we can’t help that. But who is it that funds the big projects? Funds the inquisitive minds, allows them to travel overseas, enter war zones, report, stay for years, collects facts, resources, experiences? The major papers of course… And what happens when they go? What’s going to happen to all the major stories that take years to uncover?
As wonderful as it would be for those intensely inquisitive, mistrusting (and often equally brave) individuals to be able to go throwing themselves, their lives into investigative work, entirely on their own accord, it’s just not a viable option. It takes money, and endless support.
Something has got to give. Either the people who have the ability (the money, whether its ‘Daddy’s’ or not) and the tenacity to throw themselves into such work are going to dominate the field. And often, the people with money have very different opinions and reasoning to those without. Or alternately, and sadly quite likely, there just won’t be these major efforts to uncover what takes time and countless resources.
I do have some hope that maybe a new player to the game will emerge, in not so distant a future. A funder, an employer, an entrepreneur of fact, discovery and public sharing, but it’s not the brightest light at the end of the tunnel – yet.
With this in mind, I’m left a little more than on edge about what it is the future holds for media. I don’t want to lose the print industry, I find it far too much of a comfort. (Please don’t take this as a personal disliking of online media – I enjoy that too. Only with far less of a nostalgic attachment.) There’s a mixture of emotion swirling inside me regarding the Media Industry. Fear. Excitement. Uncertainty. Hope. Hazardous growth. Absolute potential…. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.
A revolution of a virtual kind.
This tale however, is just beginning.