The End of Journalism

There have always been reporters, but will there always be pro­fes­sion­als? George Brock in his review of Robert Fox’s Eye­wit­ness to His­tory:

The idea and ideal of jour­nal­ism has been smudged and blurred by wor­ries about eco­nom­ics and the means of deliv­ery. The vehi­cles for report­ing have to adapt. The rivalry between print and the screen may evap­o­rate as screens become thin­ner, more flex­i­ble and more portable. The tra­di­tional bun­dle that is the news­pa­per, mag­a­zine or news bul­letin may morph into many dif­fer­ent ver­sions. But dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tions have not dam­aged lan­guage or its power. On the con­trary, screens and key­boards have allowed words to be pro­duced and con­sumed more widely and in greater quan­ti­ties than ever before. Ama­teurs and pro­fes­sional wit­nesses to events may com­pete, but together they enrich the writ­ten record. Per­haps Eye­wit­ness to His­tory stops at the dawn of a golden age of writing.“