Content Sharing or Slave Labor??
Content Sharing or Slave Labor?
It is an interesting initiative from a multi-media perspective (just not enough journo schools getting in the game and offering courses in this area) and a fantastic opportunity for students to get real experience and bylines.
But this sentence truly disturbs me:
"This is going to be much more than an internship," Richards said. "For the students, it will provide not only a whole new level of education, but a whole new level of experience in journalism." And with all of South Florida's newsrooms hit by layoffs, he added, "It not only supplements what the newspaper needs -- it's a great practicum for the students."
OKAY that is giving unpaid jobs with awesome access to real news experience to students BUT they are replacing PAID journalists that have been laid off.
So what PAYING gigs at the Florida papers will there be when they graduate?
Plus newspapers will probably be paperless (oxymoron, huh) in 10 years anyway. So really these students are setup to go forth and prosper on the Internet, web journalism. And that is another part of the story that I think the reporter missed.
Why is everyone so scared to come out and say it...we have entered the end of the newspaper as we know it and given the economy...perhaps the demise of print will be sooner than later.
Citizen journalists, student journalists, free labor with some glitz and 15 minutes of fame????
It will be interesting to see who benefits most from this. I hope it is the consumer since it obviously doesn't create much hope for working journalists.
1 comments:
The thing about Citizen Journalism is you can do it part time and make a couple hundred bucks a month. If you are really good you can make some serious dojo.
On the other hand, if you are really good you can probably get a job at the Huffington Post. Take a share of the VIG.
Now if you are a Citizen Journalist down here in Florida you can also make 18 bucks an hour doing some caregiving work. Ten hour day, five days, that is a bit more than $45 G a year. Add in the meager citizen journalism pay and you are getting near $50 G.
Down here in South Florida you can buy a nice 3 bedroom townhouse with a garage in the neighborhood of $125 G.
Anyway, here is my question. How many journalist in this day and age make $50 G and get all the tax benefits of a sole proprietor?
Not to mention, once you get good at caregiving you hire other caregivers and take a piece of their action. Next thing you know you are making $125 G.
We live in America. You can think about all the people losing their jobs and wait until you lose your own. Or, you can become an entrepreneur. Once you learn a business you get to say these magic words--take that job and shove it.
Bobby D
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