REBECCA E SPITZER

I flicked past a Nieman Journalsim Lab twitter on my Facebook just now- “Number of Americans identifying themselves as journalists has (surprise!) held steady since 2004.”

My first thought, considering the reading I’ve been doing recently, was that the number of journalists should have risen. With bloggers, the internet, twitter, etc- we’re all turning into journalists. More and more people are making a living (or trying to make a living) simply through broadcasting news online, especially bloggers. When I found out that the numbers had stayed static, I was surprised.

Moving on to the actual report (a BusinessWeek blog post), it became obvious to me that the economist writing the report expected a decline in journalists. We are in a recession, after all; he was encouraged by the lack of a long-term decline. (I’d like to note that the full CPS survey isn’t published, but it seems as if people were asked to identify themselves by occupation… it’s unclear if they were asked if they were actually currently EMPLOYED as journalists or not. In my opinion, these numbers include everyone who identifies as a journalist within the work force, whether they’re employed OR looking for employment, so I’m not sure what kind of effect the recession should have unless people are changing professions en masse.)

I suppose the conclusion to be made is that journalists are probably being fired, but they’re not leaving the profession- they’re moving online, perhaps. Or they’re leaving the profession (the post cheekily suggests they’re moving into PR) and new bloggers and twitterers are filling the gaps. Anyways, it’s good to know that journalism isn’t going to disappear any time soon. I’m relieved.