Editorial Diversity and Media Literacy

Editorial Diversity and Media Literacy are the two main topics that Beckett discusses in his final chapter. He argues the fact that despite the change from old media to new media (from only professional journalists to citizen journalists as well) there still needs to be figures of authority within the media: editors. I completely agree with this point, because one of my concerns about Networked Journalism is that the amount of information being thrown out there with no filter will go out of control. However, Beckett also makes the point that editors need to learn to accommodate to this new form of news and be open to new sources and perspectives. That leads into Beckett's discussion of Media Literacy. Along with editors and journalists, Beckett argues, the entire public needs to become "media literate." I agree with this because if so many people are starting to become citizen journalists, they should be informed about the complexities of the media beforehand. However, if everyone starts becoming educated about journalism and the media, won't this eventually wipe out the need for journalists altogether?

I thought the cartoon above was funny and related to Lindsey's question about what will happen in this transition to Networked Journalism when older people haven't been caught up to speed yet.

Questions:

• Do you think that eventually citizen journalism and Media Literacy (if really implemented) will wipe out the need for professional journalists?
• I feel that some types of new media such as Wikipedia and Wikinews allow for people's opinions to get mixed in with facts and information. Do you think that that these kinds of sources are creating more bias in the media because of the ability for people to add opinion, or less bias because there are more perspectives given?