Story by Lyndsay Frehner

There are many outlets that let people share their views and thoughts about subjects.  According to Matthew LaPlante, “The audience is becoming the journalist.” The world is evolving into a media synched society and that is how most people are reporting the news.
Matthew Ingram, Holly Mullen, Matthew LePlante and Holly Richardson came together for a radio broadcast on Oct. 27, 2011, at the Hinckley Institute of Politics, to discuss their views on the future of journalism.
Members of society are being bombarded with information from news sources.  In order to decipher the meaningless and sometimes redundant information, citizens must report the facts back in their own opinions.  This is fast becoming a popular trend because many people are becoming their own, self employed, reporters.  Others actually turn to them for the latest facts and even gossip on even the most controversial subjects.
For many, blogging is an activity that let opinions and viewpoints be stated without any fear of judgment.   Blogging is a form of journalism for the “new age social journalist,” said Richardson.  Richardson is a blogger who talks about the conservative view of politics.  She said, “Opinions make it more interesting.”
In many instances, the people are getting the first whiff of a new story and will “tweet, post or text: the information to real journalists.
These stories don’t just appear out of nowhere though.  There will always be a beginning, middle and end.  Ingram said, “News stories evolve; not just start and end.”  There will always be events that incite crowds to be receptive and open to interaction.  When the crowds appear, journalists or new reporters know that they will have something to report on.  This is proof that stories evolve.  They don’t just appear out of thin air.
Journalists have been deemed to report only the facts.  The only problem is that journalists are becoming more accustomed to the worldly standards of not verifying the information they report.  News reporters of this day aren’t taught or educated in the proper ways of writing.  “Education is good,” said Ingram.  Unfortunately there aren’t many schools or institutions that offer proper training in the ways of journalistic writing.
Richardson said, “Traditional journalism doesn’t require training, but practice.”  There is only one sure way to accomplish the goals of writing properly; write everyday.
Meg Sanders, a blogger columnist for the Standard Examiner, said, “Writing everyday is very important.”
Keeping up the skills of writing proficiently is extremely important if one is to help the journalistic society.  Probably the most important thing to learn is how to report the sources correctly and accurately attribute everything.  Mullen inspired journalists to do such because of “libel and privacy” issues.  People will recognize the words they say and if they are attributed to a different person.
People have changed the ways of how news is reported.  It used to be just the journalists who were the reporters.  Now, anyone can be a journalist.  “The audience is becoming the journalist,” said LaPlante.