Millennials face fast-paced, digital-savvy generation of journalism

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Everyone has a story. It’s the thing University of South Florida student, Samantha Bryant, loves the most about reporting the news. She looks at journalism in the purest way.

“You’re trying to get to the emotion of the story, the person, the human part," she explained to FOX 13.

Bryant is just getting her start in this unprecedented era of journalistic voices and multiple social platforms. The world of reporting is changing, to be sure. Newsroom leaders are working hard to not just keep up with the trends, but stay ahead of them, and there is a new generation of savvy news consumers and aspiring journalists.

Jeanette Abrahamsen is new on the USF campus. The former TV producer is an instructor teaching broadcast news and writing.

“I think millennials tend to get a bad rap for not being informed and I see quite the opposite,” she said, “I see a lot of students who are excited to learn new platforms. They consume news in so many ways.” 

Bryant knows the reputation her millennial generation has and she agrees.

“I get news every day from Instagram from Twitter. We just want it in different ways,” she said.

She confessed her generation has a short attention span and a huge demand for news, so slowing down and fact-checking is more important than ever.

"We have to say, 'Wait a minute. Let’s think about this. What are the facts? Who said that? Where did it come from?'" she explained. "That’s why we need more journalists. We need people to give that credibility." 

Credibility is something Abrahamsen talks a lot about in the classroom.

"What I really like to stress to my students is that whatever platforms change and whatever technology is doing, the foundations of journalism will always be to empower the public so that you can create civic discourse," she said.

She is excited about the future of news and the future for journalists.

“I am optimistic there are enough passionate people in our country who want to be accurate and fair and that will never die,” Abrahamsen said smiling. 

There is hope, she says, that this younger group chronicling our world in real time will do it with truth and integrity.