The Future of Journalism has been tainted by the Digital Age

“F**K they’ve done it again,” says every journalist ever. The social media fiends have beaten me to it. A journalist who thought they had a groundbreaking story on conspiracy and hypocrisy was well thought through and fantastically articulated. Waiting for the hook to become clear enough to hit publish.

Only to discover that a political activist on TikTok has made a minute-long, half-arsed video that has already gone viral. The journalists now look as though they have jumped on the social media bandwagon.

Travesty turned miracle, a story each elderly journalist remembers. The miracle on the Hudson, a plane crash announced via Twitter by Janis Krums in 2009. As journalists, all we can do is measly “Hello Janis, hope you are well. Could I use this picture for the news, please?” How are we expected to go out of our way to create a story that leaves people’s jaws on the wooden laminate flooring of their living rooms, directly in front of their 64inch flatscreen TV, when they have a miniature 6inch version smartphone in their hands showing them what we want yet better.

Understandably, most people are fed up with social media. The Guardian published an article about a diary kept by an educated boy moaning about the lack of diverse news on his mobile phone. The student claims he is “not sure what to trust”, but realistically, social media poses that question to anyone with a brain. The poor boy saw a picture of a dead toddler. You cannot deny that this is as real as it gets. If you want an honest, vivid, vicious, and colourful story, you must give up on broadcast news and head straight to X.

 Cancel Culture was practically birthed during the pandemic; people had virtually nothing better to do other than become mindless scrolling zombies. Even though it has been around for decades, it peaked in COVID-19 due to the chronic online keyboard warriors. Writer and multibillionaire J.K Rowling a victim or rightfully served? Not to get into the nooks and crannies of the situation or whether she deserved it, but the life-damning cancellation did not last long. The telegraph discovered that the franchise soared during this period, and the witch kept getting wi-cher.

Allison Pearson is also one to note. Her feature is about the’ clueless’ men in blue rocking up to her house on Remembrance Day. Indeed, it is a day for her to remember in the coming years. This feature was a result of an attempted cancellation caused by a previous tweet recalled by a woke Twitter addict. Hence, an investigation was launched for an NCHI. A non-crime hate incident. The BBC uncovered the deleted tweet; according to Pearson, the Metropolitan police were posing with “Jew-haters”- surprisingly, the award-winning journalist got it wrong.

There are a few British journalists who are grabbing social media by the balls. The selection is limited, but it does exist. Sophia Smith Galer is the only journalist in touch with Gen Z and making it work. It is common knowledge that this generation could not give a flying toss about real factual news. Some are politically woke fanatics, and others seem to be brain-rot manics consumed by some form of ‘skibidi toilet’. The only thing that brings these two divisions together is TikTok. It’s the only app with an auto-scroll setting for those too bone idle to use their fingers to swipe up. Award winner Sophia, who has over half a million followers, has curated a grid that appeals to and informs the digital generation. Some say the only journalist capable of doing this to date.

The depressing reality is that journalism is going out of fashion- influencers are in. Journalists are a dying breed; we are like the media industry’s red pandas- everyone knows about us, but we are instantaneously falling off the grid. The public will realistically be left with the likes of the ‘News Daddy’- supposedly the top news account on TikTok. Dylan Page- the man with bright ideas who resides in his bedroom plastered in even brighter LED lights and the fake ivy plants you can get in Ikea for a fiver. As a society, we have reached a point where the leading news source on the most prominent platform calls itself the ‘News Daddy’. The British Broadcasting Corporation, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times and The News Daddy.

And lest we forget, those who attempt a career in journalism on social media typically find a job in marketing, PR, or, God forbid, influencing. If you do manage to find a career in this industry that isn’t going to cease to exist in a matter of years, you will be earning an average salary of £30,000 per year. That is the amount the BBC pays their social media journalists currently.

In order to succeed in this age of journalism, you must make social media your bi**h. You must adapt, overcome and swallow your pride. Accept the fact that you will be the jester of the media industry, doing unimaginable things just so you can catch the attention of the quite possibly most uninterested generation.  You will see yourself in a Father Christmas costume reporting on your local Christmas park run or painting yourself in green to report on the musical adaptation of Wicked. Being a journalist in the age of social media means you will be humbling yourself, no matter the occasion, just to catch the eye of someone for a millisecond. Acceptance of this is key.

Anything once reputable about journalism is well and truly in the dirt. A once respectable occupation turned into a role anybody can obtain by simply whipping out their phones and filming a 60-second video formatted with some claptrap clickbait. In the age of social media, it is up to journalists to dictate whether they can reclaim their reputation as trusted storytellers or sit back and watch their breed die out.