Story by Katie Andrus

Students Attend Forum on Political Reporting
With the creation of blogs, opinion pieces and online newspapers, Americans have constant access to the news.
On Friday Susan Tolchin, John Daley, and Matt Canham led a political forum titled “Political Reporting and the Fourth Estate: Who Watches Government?” at the Hinkley caucus Room.
An important topic covered by the panel was the use of social media by citizens to comment and report on political news and how this is affecting the world of journalism
When asked by a student about citizen involvement in journalism by using blogs and other social media Tolchin stated, that the changing of media can be dangerous as  “no one is checking facts” because as she puts it “anyone with a camera is a photojournalist.”
Contrary to Tolchin’s view Jon Daley thinks that citizen participation can be a good thing. He said, “ How quickly we can make connections (with the readers) is really fabulous.” He said he believes that technology only adds to the stories, and can provide the American citizens with live action news.
To conclude the discussion Canham stated that because of the growing involvement of citizens in news reporting that ‘‘readers need to be more media savvy … (and) it is always important to read the other side.”
“I never realized just how much new outlets of media are effecting journalism,” said Max Lennardt, a student who attended the discussion.
Katie Christensen, a student who really liked the forum added, “ They did a really good job of giving insight about how it is important as a journalist to report the right information to the readers.