The professional journalists fight back?

What's the future of "professional" media when you can blog your own newspaper, shoot your own film and record your own radio programme for the world to read, see and hear? That seems to be the main question doing the rounds post Time's Person of the Year 2006.  Nothing new I hear you say. Absolutely! This question has been bubbling for quite some time. The big difference is that when, on the front cover of Time, you read... PROFESSIONAL MEDIA IS DEAD, a lot of people sit up, listen and react. I'm sure the irony wasn't lost on Rick Stengel.

Two types of response to this seem to dominate the airwaves... the online chatter of bloggers and new media folk revelling in the glory - "we were right all along, old media is dead, long live the amateur!" - and the fightback of traditional journalists such as Marcel Berlins in the Guardian (20.12.06) defending their role in this new media landscape - "people will always want to listen to what we have to say, you can trust our reporting, opinions and reviews, the professional will never die!". Both are wrong I'm afraid.

The new landscape is here. People listen to, and more importantly, trust each other. They check feedback on hotels, restaurants and holiday destinations on the likes of TripAdvisor. They lap up the latest scoops be it news flashes, investigative reports or celebirty gossip. They sift through film reviews, music charts and book ratings. Worryingly for the professional media folk, people often trust these "amateurs" more... because they are amateurs. Readers aren't naive. They know that journalists' salaries are ultimately paid by advertisers; that companies, looking to market the latest movie, restaurant or celebrity endorsement invite them to junkets, food tastings or offer "exclusive" interviews; and that often there's a connection between that nice editorial and that big ad for the same product. How hard it must be for the average journalist or editor to remain truly objective and independent... and my hat goes off to those that do!

Berlins', and other similar fightbacks, are therefore arrogant, feeble and sadly mis-directed - arrogant because they assume that an amateur can't write a good review, feeble because they underestimate the genuine value of review services on the likes of Amazon (star rating, commentary AND a review of the reviewers), and totally mis-directed because old media is NOT dead (if it figures out what's wrong... quick).

We will continue to look to brands we trust (be they publications or individuals), in whatever format, to help us make decisions, form opinions and get information. If those brands offer value, if asked, we will be happy to either pay for that service or accept advertising in the knowledge that, whoever is writing the article, recording the programme or infront of the camera, is getting paid. Some people will chose to write the reviews for free and some will make a professional career out of it, but in either case, in a society where you can get googled at the press of a button, the question will NOT be whether they're a pro or an amateur, but whether they can be trusted.

"Professional" media is therefore not necessarily dead but needs to actually be professional.