A world where the journalist is no longer needed

If you are training to be a journalist,then perhaps it would be better not to carry on reading this piece.

Clay Shirky's new book,Here comes everybody-the power of organising without organisations suggests that the journalism profession has not got long to last.

Describing a scenario similar to that which happened to the scribes of the 14th century after the invention of the printing press,the freedom to publish will have the same effect on journalism.

According to Clay,

If anyone can be a publisher,then anyone can be a journalist"

The old model,he continues was filter,then publish,journalist simply act as a bottle neck that technology can remove.

Meanwhile Steve Borris writing at Pajamas Media describes the reporter as a dying breed.

We have lost perspective on what a reporter actually is — a middleman. On one side are news events. On the other are audiences who want to know about them. A reporter’s job is to move “the truth” from Point A to Point B as accurately as possible.

the Internet is eliminating the reporter as middleman by connecting audiences directly with the real sources of news — politicians’ offices, PR firms, whistleblowers, think tanks, courts, police departments, and everyone else with a news ax to grind. These entities have always been capable of writing their own stories in a usable form, but have previously needed reporters to get their stories distributed.