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What's worse than turning on your home television to see U.S. television newcasts report one sensationalistic crime after another? Waking up to it in Toronto. That was my experience each morning last week during my trip to the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)'s annual convention. Canada has some good newspapers - Globe and Mail is my favorite -- and it has a vibrant broadcast media ( and its own Canadian Idol contest now moving through its weekly elimination rounds), but I'd get pretty grouchy toward the US if I had to live in its shadow-- and get inundated by the Buffalo TV stations.
I was in Toronto to present some of my work, hear about others' efforts, talk about the state of news media and the profession, and think about the journalism curriculum. I attended a pretty stimulating series of talks on the blurred lines between news and entertainment. As much as we decry this shift, which actually has been a long time building, there isn't any turning back. The technological, economic, and cultural forces driving the blurring of lines are to powerful to reverse current tendencies. Nevertheless, there is a place in the sand where responsible journalists and citizens must draw a line. Alternative models are more important than ever before, in blogs, as well as forms still to emerge. It is interesting that, on this, the 30th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation, two years after the Watergate revelations, there is speculation that the next such scandal could well come from an alternative rather than mainstream source. Much good journalism still gets through the assembly line. Nevertheless, the observation about the rising need and power of alternative forms is a point requiring reflection and investigation.
In the meantime, I am still unpacking.
8:08:48 PM 
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