The death of journalism in my lifetime, and the birth of ....?

I never thought that the profession of journalism would die during my lifetime. It is really amazing to me that it has had such a quick demise. I always dreamed of being a reporter, telling the truth about what was going on in my community, my country and the world. I have two journalism degrees and when I went to school, the concept of the "fourth estate" was taken seriously. It has been 40 (!) years since Watergate, an event that inspired me, and lots of others, to imagine themselves as crusaders in the foot steps of Woodward and Bernstein. But what do we have now, 40 years later? The Internet, which I love, enables "citizen journalists," an oxymoron if I ever heard one. Anyone can write anything online and it becomes the "truth." What in the world ever happened to fact checking? No time for that I guess. Reputations are gained....and lost....in a day, an hour, a moment today. Is there hope for this, for optimism? I hope so. There is a long trajectory of learning and experience that the Internet and social media is on. It is a journey and we are at the beginning of it, really. What will be next? What will happen as the medium matures? It is fascinating and I look forward to experiencing, witnessing and participating in it!

Resuscitation Annie, NSGW, and more......

I keep seeing the phrase "high school hijinks." I believe it is because it is the end of the school year and lots of kids are graduating and hijinks are being discussed. What hijinks did you do in high school? Mine are more numerous than I can fully relate, but here is a sampling: 1) Orchestrated the kidnapping of "Resuscitation Annie," the doll we used to practice CPR on. Donna and I lured the health teacher to the office by sending in a note that an urgent phone awaited her in the office (this happened well before cell phones). One of us was in the courtyard while the other hoisted Annie out the window. We hustled her to a secure hiding place in a washroom. Oh, yes, and we left a ransom note demanding all the sex ed videos (film strips?) from York High School. Needless to say, the teacher was not amused but we somehow returned the doll without ever being caught. 2) Painting the courtyard of said York High School. Who knows if a courtyard exists there anymore? The school has been made over at least once since then. But back in 1976, the Bicentennial year, Beth, Matt and I drove my mom's Oldsmobile 98 to the scene of the crime, spilling red, white and blue paint in the trunk - but successfully entering into the courtyard and painting over the traditional York green and white with the patriotic hues of the bicentennial. What a mess but the patriotic paint lasted well into the next school year. 3) NSGW. Donna and I talked this up for weeks before its arrival. "NSGW is coming!" "NSGW is arriving" and so on. What was it, people wondered. On the infamous day, Donna and I sneaked to the front of York High School and unfurled the banner so the arriving buses would see it: "National Squirt Gun Week" had arrived. Squirt guns for all! The administrators were not amused but we had a lot of fun with it. Elton John parties, York Dukes homecoming float parties, Elves crashing sock hops - yes, we did this and more. Lots of fun, and maybe you call them hijinks.