Getting started

Welcome to my blog! I'm Sarah. I'm a senior at Earlham College, majoring in History and minoring in Journalism. For my independent study project in journalism this semester, I was inspired to look into the future of print journalism by seeing the situation some people I know are currently in. Newspapers around the country are slashing their budgets, cutting staff, hiring younger people they can pay less money to do more work-- what is left for people currently involved in delivering print news? Students like me who are interested in pursuing a life in journalism, what are we to do?

I decided to look at this subject from a "people perspective." So far, I have interviewed a woman who lost her job at a city newspaper a year ago and has yet to find a new job. I am also planning on talking to a woman who still has part-time employment at that same paper, and someone who is working at a fairly successful small weekly paper. I hope to publish my findings to this blog, adding photos and hopefully video that I have taken.

I want to look at the effects this perceived decline in print journalism has caused, and what this is doing to the people involved. What is multimedia and online journalism (and "citizen journalism") doing to professional journalists? I hope to explore this through several different voices in this blog.

My next post will be about my interview with Marti Heline, a former reporter for the South Bend Tribune and current freelance writer and editor.