Koon Thinks College Journalism Students Have More Answers than Questions on the Fate of the News Industry

On Thursday, head of the news department at KQED, Bruce Koon explained to students of Sally Lehrman's Digital Journalism the current divide in the news industry between digital natives and non-natives. He defined digital natives as those roughly twenty-five and younger who've been raised in a society surrounded with digital pieces of technology: digital camera and camcorders, laptops, iPhones and PDAs etc.. Non-natives, he explained, are the majority of journalists, who are struggling to figure out what role such new pieces of technology play in the industry.

This paradigm is an interesting perspective on the challenges facing the news industry. It explains the panic that has engulfed prospective journalists wishing to break through in the field. In several of my own journalism classes, I've been bombarded with lecture after lecture on how journalism is going through an era of redefining. It's discouraging, if not outright heart-breaking to sit in class and hear established journalists describe the dilemma. 

Yet Koon's simple lecture is inspiring. He places the torch in our hands - the hands of aspiring journalists raised in an era of digital breakthroughs. He lets us know that digital natives won't face the severe challenges those in the industry currently face.

His speech leads me to think, perhaps, those industry should turn more towards young readers and ask them, "What do you think?" Perhaps more Journalism professors should turn to their students and ask, "What do you think is the answer?" Chances are, we know more than anyone else.