The Death of Journalism?

I miss journalism. Perhaps it sounds antiquated to even ask for what were once actual, proffesional journalists in the era of the Internet, Facebook and Twitter. And I write this as, ironocally enough, I sit down to write a blog. The question is ultimately, Is journalism dead?  One unsettling moment in recent memory is that of an acquaintance I knew of who is in his early twenties. We were discussing the modern media landscape and the proliferation of so-called news outlets. In the most perfunctory tone he states, "Today everyone is a journalist". I was taken aback. I'm not sure if it was due to more to the difference in age between he and I and how perhaps, just maybe, as a 38 year old man I could not understand the alleged new wave of journalism. One in which any dunce with an iPhone can  substitute men and women such as Walter Cronkite or Diane Sawyer. To even juxtapose the two seems asine and offensive. Or was it that he was right? Have we arrived at this point in society where such an anology is casually accepted as fact? I get the Internet revolution and the positive rewards that it reaps, including informing the masses of international or domestic events. What I do not get is the nonchalant approval of instantaneous Twitts, Facebook postings and quickie video recordings as sacred journalism. The truth is that such modes of comunication are in fact excellent  and quite helpful, but to a large degree they degenerate the proffessionalism that was not too long ago associated with hardscrabble research by a reporter or the erudite treatment given by a writer to a story. Doctors and lawyers must pass rigorous examinations of their chosen proffesion and become licenced to work in those fields. A journalist never had to, and understanably so as news and information are not the life and death scenarios that a physician or attorney confront. There is clearly no bar exam to be a journalist today or ever. Indeed going to college and majoring in journalism today is either non-existent or a joke. Try competing with Twitter or Facebook, bastions of true journalism of course. What we must not lose track of as we get our news from social media or search engines is that there are in fact still diligent, studied men and women who know how to construct a sentence, spell right and adhere to the ethics and legal matters that genuine news organizations hold themselves accountable to. Yes ladies and gentlemen, those standards are still practiced by the likes of the Washington Post, CNN or the Wall Street Journal; and you can get their apps on your iPhones if you'd like, btw.