Thursday, March 3, 2011

Fighting for the future in Chico

The argument could be made that if you need to be drunk for a situation to feel right you shouldn't be there. Case in point, Mardi Gras and Friday night in downtown Chico.
Great times if you're up to speed, but troubling if sobriety persists.
I'm save you some anxiety. I did not hookup with anyone. I was actually in town to talk to journalism students about the troubling future of the industry. But with the program starting at 8 a.m. it made sense to stay in town rather than having to make the nearly two hour drive in the morning.
Call it field observations. Dave Waddell from CSU Chico State had emailed me a few months back asking me to speak about diversity. But as layoffs loomed, I wondered whether they should be majoring in journalism in the first place. Graciously, Dave agreed.
The blurb: "Does your mama know you're here? Journalism in the age of the free Internet."
I didn't want to crush their dreams (they are "Journalism Day") but I feel for all the youngsters trying to find jobs as newspapers shred jobs.
Rather than just offer my own thoughts, in empanelled a panel of Sacramento journalists to talk about the state of the industry.



I hated being such buzz kill but I wanted to have an honest conversation with them about the state of the journalism industry. I did try to offer some hope. If you don't care about money and have a burning passion for the job then journalism is still you for.

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