CRASH! Another newspaper bites the dust.
POW! Another TV station slashes its budget.
BLOOEY! A radio station wipes out its news department altogether and installs all sports talk, all the time.
What’s a serious journalist with a paycheck in jeopardy to do?
“Traditional mainstream media is forever changed,” Russell Sparkman, Langley’s bellwether of new-age media, agreed Monday. “Our tradition of storytelling produced by professionals is at risk.
“People who have been working as journalists are finding it very, very difficult to find meaningful work,” he said.
“But there are glimmers of hope,” he added, “and reasons to be optimistic. We could experience a renaissance of appreciation for the visual storyteller.”
If hope springs eternal, it will flow for sure this week as Sparkman’s Langley Center for New Media presents a two-day program titled “Visual Journalism Boot Camp.”
The event, featuring experts in the latest journalistic technology and philosophy, will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, May 27 and Friday, May 28, at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts in Langley.
