Journalism needs minds who keep an eye on change

Meranda Watling ends up in the Bloglines RSS reader. You might want to keep an eye out for this young journalist. Today she writes:

I am young, but even if I weren’t, I am more than willing to admit I do not know everything. I don’t, and I never will. Too many people, young and old, walk around thinking they know what’s best. They don’t. They think that because they know how to cover city council and read a building permit, that because they’ve sat through a murder trial or broke the story about a senator’s scandal they are somehow above the turmoil in the industry today. They aren’t.

As this quote says, the people who know everything are the ones who will be left in the dust by those who keep acquiring knowledge. Whether that knowledge is shooting video or editing Flash, or whether it’s simply acquiring a different mindset when approaching a story is irrelevent. The point is, they never settle. And too many editors and reporters in this business have settled. They’re just biding their time until they can retire and reminisce about that “world that no longer exists.”

That’s about the right attitude to have, and a very mature one at that. But it’s difficult to hold onto that humility (that’s a good word). Perhaps it’s going to be easier to hold onto in the newsroom of the future, since the outside environment is changing so drastically.

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