Connor Letourneau, Assignment #1

When I originally decided to major in print Journalism during the spring of my senior year in high school, many of my friends and family members were concerned. “Wait, but aren’t newspapers dying?” they said.

Honestly, there was some credibility in their concerns. It’s impossible to deny that dozens of newspaper organizations have gone bankrupt within the past decade, and that newspapers are putting out increasingly smaller products. But despite these harsh realities, I’m not too worried.

Nothing is completely static—everything goes through changes. Journalism is no different. Although newspapers won’t likely be a major news product in the coming years, that doesn’t mean there will be any less of a demand for qualified journalists.

Instead of following that “traditional” newspaper career pioneered by such greats as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, graduates of today’s J-schools are on the brink of a new era of journalism. I don’t fully know what new era entails, but I’m excited about it. I feel that if I do everything I need to do, I should have no problems establishing a journalism career despite the obstacles currently facing the field.

I can best prepare myself for the future by spending the remainder of my college years making myself into a well-rounded journalist. Thousands of aspiring journalists can write a solid news story, but not everyone can do everything. I want to be that guy. When an editor needs to have a multimedia journalism piece uploaded to the paper’s website on deadline, I want him to feel comfortable putting me on the job.

That’s why I’m trying to become proficient in a number of different technologies. By expanding my knowledge of various programs—such as Audacity, Photoshop and Final Cut—I’ll not only have an edge over my competition, I’ll have the tools necessary to satisfy consumers’ changing demands.

So even though journalism’s changing landscape might require a little more work on my part, it’s work that I don’t mind doing. Because at the end of the day, I want to be a journalist and I’ll do what it takes to make that a reality.