Now, I know it’s hard to believe that somewhere out there in that wide world of entertainment and media there is someone who doesn’t even know what The Onion is, I mean they even made a movie. However, I will admit, I had no idea what it was up until sometime last year. Now, I love The Onion, with their stories based on real news events just slightly twisted.

But if someone were to come across a story titled “American Muslims To Fort Hood Shooter: ‘Thanks A Lot, Asshole’” not only would they be slightly confused but possibly a little offended.

It doesn’t take much to figure out the real reason for The Onion and how great it truly is. But for someone just getting on the Internet and searching, it can be a confusing site.

With this in consideration and all the other sites that are trying to capture the audience The Onion has, like www.nytimes-se.com, it can lead to a reader feeling mislead, and with some sort of distrust in journalism all together. If it is as easy as it seems to come across as the New York Times online version as it was for nytimes.com, how do people know who to trust in journalism?

Sure, nowadays it is common to believe that most people are on the web in some way or another. And of course when I’m doing a little research for school and can’t find what I’m looking for on the web I am going to assume it just doesn’t exist and I should look for something else. But we all know the little saying about what assuming does to people. You know, it makes an ass out of you and me. In this case, I have to agree with the saying.

What about people living in countries that cannot afford the Internet, or who don’t have any access what so ever to the web? Do they not exist? What about that undiscovered tribe that was found in 2008? Just because they were not on the web previously, their existence wasn’t real?

I think for Berners-Lee to make a statement like that was slightly off. He is leaving out large populations of people and not just outside of the United States. Things exist, people are out there, and believe it or not, it isn’t all on the web.

Now, being in a class where it’s do or die to learn the necessary web skills to conquer things like wordpress, creating a WYSIWYG, and having my own website, I have only become inspired to learn and learn quickly.

I was always one of those students who was interested but never really took enough interest. I was curious but never took a step forward to learning. I was sort of like this dog in the video. I was curious but the technology mainly scared me. (Watch after :07)

Getting ready to build a web resume interests me but at the same time scares me. I always tend to question myself, am I doing this right? Is this supposed to look like this? And the all time basic question, how do I do this?

When it comes to learning web skills the most important fact that I have now learned is to just try something out and if it doesn’t work, change it. You will only learn by doing it yourself. If I don’t let go of this mediocre fear of webskills I will be left behind in the job market and the future of journalism.(Scroll down to cartoon 7).

I think that there is so much content out there how does one possibly read it all? Well, they don’t.

The web is non-linear, it never ends and information will always be uploaded and always new.

The web is taking reading and changing completely. No longer do people read the entire article, site or all the content, especially if it lasts longer than they really want it to.

Now, there are bulleted lists that can lead you to whatever section of the site you want to read, and when you’re done you can return to the top.

Although I am an aspiring journalist and hoping that people will read my articles and hopefully all of them, I have to admit I am one of those readers who is skimming and simply searching for the material I want to get. However this is only for the Internet.

When it comes to reading something I can hold in my hand and physically turn the page I don’t skim, I know there is an end and I know I can reach it. And with some of the my favorite books it is the end I cant wait to reach.

Bloggers can also give a fresh perspective on reporting and sometimes can get the news of faster to the audience. (watch video at :35 seconds to get the joke of constant blogging.)

Traditional media needs to look towards the web for help, not steer clear of it. Traditional media should incorporate Internet use into their stories. Link readers the helpful sites that have something in common with their own article, a video taken of a specific event they covered or to pictures.

The single most important thing traditional media should do to keep readers and gain new ones is to have them get involved. Like put somewhere in your article that they can go online and comment about your story. However traditional media shouldn’t spend all their time adapting their stories to online friendly audiences because some people won’t ever use the Internet.

Neo-luddites, stick-and-bricks communities and the digital divide, will see the Internet as a problem and want to continue to read their news in print or simply never have the choice between print and online. Traditional media needs to learn how to balance the happiness of both sides of the party. The numbers are growing  (scroll down to blogsophere stats) towards the Internet. Jump on board traditional media.

Sure Facebook connects people, sure it lets people from the past meet up with each other again and sure it’s a great way to keep in touch but on a daily basis what is it really doing for our social skills.

Why is it that I find more and more of my friends writing on my wall rather than just picking up the phone and giving me a call? Even for the simplest things like making a lunch date or wondering what I’m up to. And why is it that in more and more of my human conversations people are talking about what someone posted on facebook or if I saw the new pictures someone posted? I just want to talk about real life, not what’s happening online.

I can’t help but see how people are spending more time on Facebook than out in the real world catching up with friends, or people updating their statuses to an audience who most likely isn’t listening. Even the Pope agrees, what will become of our day-to-day, real life social skills?

Even though I have my concerns I really don’t see myself giving it up all together. I do like looking at people’s posted pictures and I honestly do use it to stay in touch with friends in different states and countries. I am interested to see how much further the Facebook phenomenon will continue to grow and what comes out of it. Will it change?

I have yet to grasp the concept of an online community. Yes, I do have Facebook but I don’t really think too much of it other than a way to stay connected with friends who aren’t in Chico.

Since beginning this online journalism class it has dawned upon me all the ways people think of the word community and what it means to them. People have numerous amounts of groups online that all have some common interest. But with all the communities out there how does one find the time to be active on all of them let alone one? It seems that if you want to be taken seriously on most online communities you need to post ideas several times.

Although I do see the upside in online communities providing a place for people with common interests to meet and communicate, I am more of a face-to-face person. Community to me is all about real life and sometimes I don’t think the Internet is all that real. The term meatspace is more preferable to me than cyberspace.

When I think of all the people meeting online rather than meeting out in the real world I can’t help but think what is going to happen to our social skills in the future? What is going to happen to the way we communicate with each other? With these questions in mind, watch this clip from Disney’s Wall- E (to really understand my point begin at 1:07).

To be completely honest I don’t think I even know what bloggers were in high school. Now I cant even look something up with out at least half the search results being blogs and peoples opinions. Every time I type something into Google, searching for information, what looks like 95 percent of the results are from people with blogs.

When it comes to picking a viewpoint of reality that either David Weinberger or Andrew Keen described I find myself stuck somewhere in the middle. I am all for defending amateurs as I am the experts. How does anyone really pick on side of this argument when both parties give amazing points?

What I find as one of the important points I will defend is the idea that the public needs professional journalists to be the necessary gate keepers that Keen says they are. There is so much information not only in cyberspace but in the world in general that journalists go through it and find what is more important for their intended audience. Without them people can become overwhelmed.

On the other hand I’m with Weinberger on that fact that social networking is a good thing for people to become experts in their niche community. Not only does it allow people to find other people doing the same thing that makes them happy, it allows people to chat, share and network with each other. But then there is the fact that those certain people are only getting to hear what they want to hear, and that is what makes them happy. This is how Keen views it.

When you look simply at the two different viewpoints between Weinberger and Keen, you get one who views the change in the internet as a good thing and the other who simply thinks it’s going to create to many truths where the public wont be able to find the real one.

As an aspiring journalist in a world stuck between defending the bloggers or backing up journalists who don’t agree with blogging, I just hope someone reads my writing.

9/11 was the starting point of what journalists like the call the third wave of journalism. Being a journalism student, it caught me off guard, I had never heard of any kind of waves, but I guess that is why I am a student.

Immediately after the attacks the public wanted information fast. This is where the third wave, which was from 2001-2005, took off. Now the Internet has become peoples main source for news and even entertainment according to the Pew Research Center.

During the third wave of Journalism news became more personalized, and also a collaborative concept. People could post things and not just in chat rooms. The only concern I have, as an aspiring journalist, is how I am going to financially survive as a journalist when all the information on everything is out there for free? Why are people going to want to pay?

Maybe I should start thinking like John Einar Sandvand who has a plan and says to be a proactive journalist in times of on uncertainty on his blog BetaTales.