Original article by Jamie McIntyre published in 21st Century News.

Has anyone ever wondered how and why is it that generally low-paid people in society such as journalists (no offence to quality journalists) can wield so much power via the media to make or break companies or individuals and/or shape, filter and frame the way we see the world?

I mean in any other profession you have to earn the power to do so, yet somehow journalists have become powerful beyond their means regardless of whether they actually know much about life in general or have any real life experience or results on the board.

What really qualifies as journalism?

It is a task that can pretty much be done by anyone and in the future, thanks to the internet and social media, it will be.

Thus their power is about to vanish rapidly and perhaps forever leaving some arrogant journalists out of a job and brought back to reality and the real world in contrast to the artificial ivory towers they have been currently living in.

Journalists were largely glorified classified ad sales people. Of course, they never saw themselves that way.

Many of them still think that they are somewhat above the ordinary folk in society and that they should be a protected species.

You see, journalists were hired to create content in order to attract readers to read newspapers and the end goal in mind was to sell classified ad sections i.e. the rivers of gold.

This kept journalists in powerful jobs for almost a century. But then came along the internet.

Instead of buying the newspaper to read and perhaps glance at the classifieds, we discovered that we could directly go to www.realestate.com.au to look for houses for sale or rent. We could simply go to www.carsales.com.au to look for cars to buy or www.seek.com.au to look for jobs.

We no longer buy the paper for the above purposes and to my knowledge none of these internet companies hire a single journalist.

Why?

Because readers don’t need articles or content to entice them into visiting those websites as they can simply go there for free to look up houses or cars or seek a job.

Advertisers now flock to these websites and not to newspapers.

Hence, since the growth of the internet there has been this growing disconnect between the need for journalists to write stories to attract readers to look for a car, house or a job.

Thus the rivers of gold have dried up. Let’s consider Fairfax media as an example of decline.

An arrogant and often poorly managed company, in the past it was worth almost $10billion and now they are barely worth a billion and declining.

Yet internet start-ups such as the above three are worth more than $10billion combined.

Therefore Fairfax, NewsCorp and mainstream media around the world have been laying off staff, particularly journalists in droves and it is only going to get worse.

Why?

Because as media consumers we are figuring out slowly but surely that mainstream media is not only manipulated bias but often grossly dishonest or at best a narrow view of the world generally through the eyes of those who are somewhat cynical and negative with little life experience, i.e. a typical jaded poorly paid journalist (no offence to the optimistic, honest, and transparent ones that unfortunately are rare).

Is this the best way to see the world through such a narrow, biased and cynical view?

No wonder most people become negative after consuming content from mainstream media.

Also, with the internet it means that we can now source our news online.

A level playing field means that we don’t have to go to a mainstream newspaper to source editorially controlled news. We can go to actual independent news sites-thus the rise of bloggers.

The future of media will have us access our news via a variety of online sources and mostly through diversified independent bloggers whose views and opinions we value. In the future, these bloggers will be the ones providing us with agenda-free, honest and transparent views of what is happening in the world.

Is this a good thing?

I’d say yes.

It will tear down the false ego and arrogance that many media companies and journalists have that make them think that they are somehow above the average person in society and that it is okay for them to twist and spin the truth to serve their senior editors’ agenda.

Therefore the large media owned companies that have been manipulating the public are in difficulty, especially with the rise of independent media and the rise of bloggers.

Many bloggers are happy to share their views for little or no monetary reward, which means the salary of journalists in most cases is likely to drop significantly and/or made redundant .

Passionate bloggers will write not for the money, but for the passion they have for certain issues and causes.

Many journalists wouldn’t even write if it wasn’t for money. And if they were paid market value, they wouldn’t earn a lot. The good ones would actually earn more.

And how many bloggers will there be in the future? Pretty much everyone is becoming a blogger.

If you have ever posted on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, it means that you already are a blogger.

Perhaps we cannot classify that as professional, but you are a blogger nonetheless.

The internet is continuing to disrupt industry after industry and disrupting the arrogant mainstream media and their not so highly paid journalists is a good thing I believe.

There will always be a demand for quality journalism, which would include writing about fact and not spin pushed by editors and those seeking to control the masses.

But it also means that many journalists won’t have a job for much longer. The smart ones will start a blog and build a following and earn what they are worth .

That’s the key to the future of media in the 21st Century.

As we all tend to post on social media, it means that we have all become media companies and bloggers. It is just that most of us don’t realise the power we have to reshape the world by blogging and sharing our views and stories.

Unfortunately most journalists don’t realise that they were largely classified ad sales people and therefore most of them are no longer needed.

Maybe it is time that some of them got a real job and perhaps it is time that individuals were taught to reclaim their power and guided on how to become professional bloggers.

Everyone has a unique gift to share with the world and blogging is how many in the 21st Century will share it and derive a living from.

The world really has never been more exciting and more abundant with more opportunity now for the average person than ever before.

My goal is to assist in the transformation of the media landscape by creating, training and assisting 100,000 people world wide into becoming professional bloggers.

As I own a media company, I will pay many of them to provide content for 21st Century Media

Visit 21st Century E-Network to learn how to become a blogger earning a six figure income.

Jamie McIntyre is the Founder of 21st Century Australia Party and the CEO of the 21st Century Education Group of Companies. He is also a major shareholder in 21st Century Media, a Publicly Unlisted Company that owns assets including 21st Century News. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Jamie McIntyre is the Founder of 21st Century Australia Party and the CEO of the 21st Century Education Group of Companies. He is also a major shareholder in 21st Century Media, a Publicly Unlisted Company that owns assets including 21st Century News. http://www.jamiemcintyre.com

Author Bio: Jamie McIntyre is the Founder of 21st Century Australia Party and the CEO of the 21st Century Education Group of Companies. He is also a major shareholder in 21st Century Media, a Publicly Unlisted Company that owns assets including 21st Century News. www.jamiemcintyre.com

Category: Writing
Keywords: bloggers,Internet,journalists,low paid profession,low-paid,profession,social media,Jamie McIntyre