Can Journalism and Social Media Coexist?

Since I have been at the Cronkite school, I can’t help but feel like I don’t belong in the j-school. Some say that public relations has no place in journalism. However, I came across a new site that says news, social media and advertising can all coexist. True/Slant’s moto is “News is more than what happens.” True/Slant is a company that combines news, social media and advertising.

True/Slant allows contributers to add stories to their site, and then consumers can create dialogue with those contributers. Advertising also occurs on the site. However, it is placed in such a way that is very transparent and readers know what they are getting. True/Slant says their goal is to get consumers to be just as interested as they are in the news.

I am interested to see if a site like this actually makes it. I have been told that journalism, advertising and PR are completely separate and that PR doesn’t belong in journalism. However, I think that the direction we are headed is very different. I see a future where all three of these entities coexist and work together.

What do you think? Do you think that social media has a place in journalism? Can advertising, journalism and PR coexist?

More “good” presentations

Here’s another potential source of inspiration for your final project pitches: the latest post at Presentation Zen shows some examples of visuals from Good Magazine. As Gar Reynolds points out, these are probably not great for full presentations, but they do combine high-impact images and text (such as a short phrase in white text on a black background, or a quick movie montage) that could greatly enhance a slide show and oral narration.

My favorite is the last one, but they all have some good ideas in them.