Matthew Harris Writing Sample 1

Posted on Fan’s Eye View blog, January 2010

As the end of the decade comes bearing down on us, and we take time to look back at the past, I have to feel that for all those who work (or would like to work) in journalism, this has been a year of unprecedented change. We are entering a new era of reporting, and it is one that has taken this field by storm.

The influx of more and more true reporters into cyberspace has began to steer this new and mostly unexplored realm of journalism toward the traditional teachings of the field. When, for example, an on‐air personality from ESPN reports on a story via his or her Twitter page, for me that report carries more weight and credibility than one posted by somebody without the same name recognition or credentials. I’m not sure if that’s necessarily a good thing all of the time, because there are very good journalists and reporters out there that just haven’t made the leap into the mainstream, but that doesn’t mean they are any less talented or have stories that carry any less weight. It just means that in a world where discrimination is the name of the game when it comes to how much impact a story holds, these knee‐jerk judgments can sometimes unfairly discount somebody.

But that’s where it is in the hands of the new age of journalists to take this road block and tear it down with talent and hard work. The web isn’t a place where good reporters go to die, it’s a place where everyone who has a passion for the field can kick‐start a career, satisfy a craving for the news and for writing, or just let their opinions be heard. It’s a place where you don’t need 20 years of experience to prove that you’re talented, but that if you put your information out there in the right way, then that talent will be shown in its full light.

Despite what some believe, I don’t feel as if journalism as a profession is dying off. I don’t think that the idealistic and romantic field that many of us fell in love with as children is becoming a rarity. Yes, the newspaper industry is going through a rough patch; but I challenge you to find an industry that is immune to the ups and downs of the nation’s economic situation. If the money isn’t flowing like it used to, then changes are going to have to be made in order to survive. While I am not a fan at all of the cutting back that has been forced into happening, nor am I a fan of opening up a two‐page sports section in my local paper, I do not see the field as a singular entity. Newspapers are not the end‐ all be‐all of the journalism world. They are merely the foundation on which all future innovations are built upon.

Although the foundation has been shaky, the bulk of the journalistic world has moved with the times and embraced the new frontiers. Cyberspace, around‐the‐clock deadlines and 24/7 news cycles have replaced the paper boy and afternoon editions as the way to spread your wings as a journalist. Gone are the days when you had to wait until the next day to “read all about it”; now, if you haven’t done your reporting within hours (and sometimes less) of a story breaking, then you’re behind the eight ball with little hope of recovering.

That is why I think that today’s journalists and those who are looking to enter the field must begin to prepare themselves for what the field has become, and what the future will bring. Because right now, I think we’re in the prime of a new age in journalism, one that we will look back on someday as the beginning of something big, something revolutionary, something that will take our field of work and turn it into something greater than we knew it could be.