Throughout history, climbing the journalistic ladder from copy editor to reporter/writer to editor was the just the "way it was done." No one questioned it and journalists accepted that they would have to work their way up in order to become somebody. Flash forward to the time of bloggers and citizen journalism, and you have yourself a whole new ball game. No longer do journalists have to pay their dues and bide their time in order to be a recognized reporter. They simply set up a blog, publish their opinion and wait for the moment when they will blow up on the independent journalism scene.
Once they do, tensions rise and the competition between old media and new media flares up again.
A perfect example of this "citizen journalism over takes old media" phenomenon is the story of Tavi Gevinson, the 13-year-old author of the blog Style Rookie. In true rags-to-riches style, this little blogger has exploded on the fashion journalism scene, and ruffling a few feathers along the way. Given front row seats at the fashion shows of Marc Jacobs, Rodarte, and many others, Gevinson is not making many friends in the traditional media. For those who have work 20-plus years to secure those seats, the fact that this little girl has leap frogged her way into their position does not sit well.
For those of us who are looking towards independent media as an outlet for our journalistic talents, this is just the pick-me-up we need. For all those times that we are told there is no future in traditional media, there are ten times as many opportunities to create our own media. We simply have to look "up" to bloggers like Gevinson for inspiration.
Who knew that one day you would be able to leap frog your way through (and in some ways defeat) corporate journalism? What a great day.
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