Facing The Future of Journalism (and liking it)

I’ve gone a bit quiet, haven’t I? Sorry about that, but I’ve been busy, holidaying and sick, but not necessarily in that order. One element of the busyness was this:

Yes, I was back in Cardiff to guest lecture to this year’s crop of postgraduate journalism students. And an interesting experience it was, too. This bunch seemed to be more aware of social media and the changes in journalism than those of a year ago. There were some good challenging questions from them about entrepreneurial journalism, and a couple of them came to talk to me afterwards about their own plans and ideas for journalism businesses.

It might not be good news for big companies, but the fact that the spirit of journalism is alive and well in the younger generation – and actively trying to create its own means of funding itself, gives me a lot of hope for the future.

And I can’t resist sharing this piece of art (right) that was created by Caroline Cook, one of the students, for her Broadsheet Boutique blog. It’s always interesting seeing how your lecture filters through into the student’s blogs. Thank The Monkey (good advice in most circumstances) sums up parts of my argument pretty well, and you’ve got to love someone who’s been inpired to turn their blog into a party. And I’m really glad this point came across loud and clear:

Without sounding cheesy, if you are not passionate, interested, or keen, about what you are blogging about, why should your readers be? If you enjoy what you are doing it will be a pleasure to update your blog 3 or 4 times a week…cough. If you are not enjoying writing your own blog, it is unlikely people will enjoy reading it, and from a business point of view, this will result in swift homelessness.

Passion? Fashion. Farming. Politics. All good stuff.