PressEthic

In journalism school, we are constantly being told that we are the next generation. Blogs, mixed media, video clips on the Internet, cell phone news feeds, pod casts - you name it, it's out there. As someone who came to journalism school with the high hopes of actually writing for a magazine or newspaper and seeing my name in print seems naive now. If I am fortunate enough to land a job at a newspaper, it looks as if I'll have to film video, take pictures, and record pod-casts (I confess, I don't even really know what a pod-cast is) as well as actually writing - both for the website and the newspaper. But that's not going to be all. This is the wave of the future, and in our generation, someone very smart will grab hold of the reigns of a new form of journalism or a new way to keep readers (and circulation) going. That someone will probably be very, very rich if he or she succeeds. I'm probably not going to be that lucky guy - but an article in the New York Times caught my eye as an example of "the new New Journalism."

Arianna Huffington created HuffingtonPost.com, "a political website for celebrity bloggers," about 18 months ago. With the growing popularity of the site and major (we're talking 5 million dollars) investment from venture capitalists, Huffington has decided to take the next step.

She is focusing the blog on reporting. I have to admit, print journalists sometimes have a somewhat snobby idea of bloggers as not 'real journalists.' Huffington is working against that idea, by hiring investigative reporters and bringing on Melinda Henneberger of Newsweek to be the site's political editor. Basically, this is an example of an attempt to legitimatize the blog.

Not only will writers be doling out their own opinions, they will also be doing original reporting.

The article reads:

The site already offers a mix of opinion and breaking news from wire services and other sources, but Ms. Huffington said she wanted to produce reported pieces that were expressed with individual voices.

'That’s the combination you need online,' she said, adding that unlike bloggers, who generally file when they want to, her reporters will have deadlines and regular schedules and will travel for their articles. Also unlike bloggers, Ms. Huffington said, they will be paid."

Will HuffingtonPost.com now no longer be considered a blog, in the truest sense of the word? There will be original reporting, but it seems that the reporters will be openly inserting their own bias into their stories. Can this be called hard news? I don't think so. But unlike a column or a opinion piece, the reporters here are finding their own stories, not just commenting on other people's.

In addition, she said, the job offers her the chance to do reporting while also offering an opinion, 'but not my opinion just sitting around spinning off what somebody else wrote.'"

It's an interesting idea - but will it work? Will people trust journalists who openly include their opinion along with their reporting? Or is this exactly what we need - open bias in the news, like papers in England and Europe? I'm not sure of the answer to any of these questions, but as journalism students of the "next generation," this innovative project is something worth keeping an eye on.