BLOG: Dealing with the downfall

in Staff Blogs by Matija Koracin — April 27, 2009 at 10:32 pm | 6 comments

In today’s world, truth is no longer universal. It doesn’t belongs to any particular individual or organization. Instead we live in a fragmentary state, where we’re bombarded with constant streams of interrupted information. We pick up the pieces and make them into our own worlds. These are some of mine…

Much like the Roman Empire surrounded by the Huns and Barbarians, an Empire of Words is seeing the beginnings of its downfall at the hands of an army of invaders.

The journalistic establishment is crumbling and, much like the Roman Empire, it’s largely due to its own fault. Blogs, Twitter, and even personal Web sites, are the new Huns, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and perhaps that fat-Ukrainian farmer that smacked a Roman Centurion with a rock in the A.D.

The last modern Generals that fell: The Christian Science Monitor, The Seattle Post, and The Seattle Post Intelligencer. Some Generals on the losing side of the battle, according to http://www.newspaperdeathwatch.com/:

The Philadelphia Daily News
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Miami Herald
The Detroit News
The Boston Globe
The San Francisco Chronicle
The Chicago Sun-Times
The New York Daily News
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The Cleveland Plain Dealer

It’s sad I suppose. But newspapers have been declining for years and, much like the auto industry, they failed to produce a modern, sleek and cheap product that fit people’s new needs. They are stuck with a cumbersome, cantankerous formula which started looking obsolete way before it was challenged by anyone. As early as the ’60s doomsayers like Hunter S. Thompson were saying print journalism has attempted objectivity and style not longer fit for modern needs. Few heeded the warnings.

As with most people on sinking ships, however, there is optimism. Much like being on the verge of being dumped by your significant other, the mass media is now making the “I can change” or “I’ll be better for you” speech to the general public and aspiring journalists. It might be true, but a fact is often overlooked. If all those newspapers fold, or cut staff for online work, that will be a lot of unemployed journalists. It’s going to congest the job market.

Not only that, but there’s so many smaller underground sources now, which may not do much individually, much like a single barbarian with inferior technology did little to a Roman Legion. But, as a whole, they chip away slowly at the infrastructure.

Perhaps I’m being too negative. Journalism will survive because people want to understand their world and they look to reliable sources for it. But there are dark times ahead. In the end an entirely new creature will emerge. It will be smaller in size and less cocky in swagger.

I suspect the future of journalism will be something akin to the Dark Ages, where after a dramatic fall of the giants, there’ll be many small conglomerates with smaller workforces, scrambling day-to-day to survive on the wilderness of the Web. The rules on survival will mimic that of the Internet and modern warfare; production will dominate above all. Whoever can make the most product will win because we’re bombarded with so much information.

So I’m standing here watching an empire I was hoping to be a part of, slowly crumble, before I even get a chance to get my foot in. I’m a misfit; the soldier who enlisted in Alexander’s army as the great leader fell ill. In the ensuing chaos, I’ll be scrambling with the skills I’ve been taught and the tools I’ve acquired to survived in a world remarkably different from the one the old leaders spoke of.

I think T.S. Elliot described best, the harsh coming to reality;

“We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.“

Tags: blog journalism