It's Time to Welcome Innovation

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

Oh, how the times have changed...

I would like to think that I was born at a very interesting time in history where I have had the privilege to watch the social media revolution unfold, yet been young enough to keep up with the rapid changes and understand them. While I am still very young at the age of 21, I was still able to experience what it was like before social media. This included things such as flip phones, landlines, newspapers still being delivered, Walkmans, etc. If you want to read more on the evolution of technology in the last 30 years or so, check out this article here. Obviously, things have changed drastically in my short number of years on this earth and it has greatly affected traditional industries such as journalism and news media.

In the first chapter, "Developing the Entrepreneurial Mindset" in Mike Green's book Media Innovation & Entrepreneurship, he clearly lays out some of the major changes and effects that the age of social media and technology has had on the field of journalism and news media. As one can tell by the title of his book, he focuses on how the changes have forced people to become entrepreneurs or at least have an entrepreneurial mindset, no matter what their job title actually states. Green offers a delightfully realistic but positive perspective on how to adapt to the constant changes that technology brings about, which is something that I appreciated as it is often the doom and gloom perspective.

The New Economy

The United States has seen a few drastic changes to its economy over the last 100 years and the recent shift due to the rise of technology, and more specifically social media, is probably the hardest to adapt to yet. This "new" economy rewards disruptive ideas in the marketplace that accommodate for the always-present global perspective. Someone who is constantly coming up with ideas that "disrupt the marketplace" is considered to have an entrepreneurial mindset. This mindset is important in any profession in this day and age, but it is especially important to those within the journalism and news media field who have to change their deep-seated ways in order to maintain the integrity and professionalism of news and journalism. With the explosion of the internet, anyone and everyone has the ability and opportunity to voice his/her thoughts, opinions and stories. This means that the news news media outlets are right alongside these "amateurs" competing for the same spotlight. 

The Desire for Innovation

I think that one of the biggest reasons there is a great desire for entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial mindset is because we are all trying to navigate the very new era of technology. There is no point in history to reference back to when trying to figure out how to best survive in this digital climate, so a lot of the ideas that end up working are because someone with an innovative mind decided to give it a shot. 

As expected from my generation, I know many people who I consider to be entrepreneurs or have an entrepreneurial mindset. Each person is energetic and passionate about at least one thing, if not multiple, and they truly want to disrupt the world with their ideas. They know that there is a high chance that their idea won't break through the constant influx, but that doesn't stop them from continuing to come up with new ideas. Each person is incredibly resilient and is always thinking of how to make things easier, more accessible, faster, able to stand out and overall better. I think in this day and age where things seem to change more rapidly than in the past, this type of person is integral to our survival as a society. We will only continue to encounter situations and problems that no one in history has dealt with before, and we need the innovative minds to help us adapt to the always-changing environment.

What does this mean for me?

As someone who is pursuing a career in the field of media, I do like that the market is rewarding those who are constantly seeking to improve how things work. While I respect tradition, I don't always think that just because something has been done a certain way for years means it is a forever solution. Especially in today's age, where the children who are currently growing up are experiencing life in an entirely different way than their parents and grandparents, it is important that we welcome new perspectives and ways of doing things. The state of the news media and journalism is far from perfect, but if it is willing to change and adapt I can only see it as a positive for the field as a whole.