Jeff Cohen

I thought that Jeff Cohen's lecture on Mainstream v. Independent Media last Thursday was absolutely fascinating. He said a lot of things that I could have predicted he would say and some things that I never would have guessed. I expected him to talk about small media outlets and the impact they make on the overall market. He reminded us all about how big and bad mainstream media can be and within the first few minutes I had almost decided to zone out because I felt like I had heard this lecture before.
But then he said something that I didn't see coming at all. One of my peers raised their hand and asked him something that is on everyone's mind; should we, as new journalists who will enter the working world sometime in the next 2 years, take jobs we are given at mainstream media outlets or do the "right thing" and strive to work for an independent media? When he said that accepting a job at a mainstream outlet was ok, I was shocked. Sure he himself had worked at mainstream outlets for a long time before switching over to support independent media. The reasoning behind his answer was that it takes a lot for mainstream outlets to change their ways but every person who pushes them towards a different direction counts. Plus, it helps to have the mainstream experience sometimes so that you can better appreciate the independent sources.
Overall, I learned more from his hour and a half lecture (or so) than I have in some of my Journalism classes that I've taken for a full semester. It enlightened me to the fact that people CAN make money in independent media and just how important independent media is to the public as an information source, even if it seems more biased.