"A Year in the News"

Most of the readings that are given to students majoring in Journalism by the professors are doomsday tales.  Since the first day of freshmen year, we are taught that sales of newspapers are on the decline and that reporters are being "let go" across the country.  Reading "A Year in the News" last night was uplifting and optimistic compared to all of the readings I have done on the subject of journalism before it.  It didn't deny that newspaper, as a national medium, is on the decline but it did raise hope that those journalists who are being let go can find other jobs and that the media as a whole is not dying or dead.  Most of the facts that made up the rest of the article did not come as too much of a surprise (such as Iraq and the presidential elections having dominated as mega-stories in the past year).  The only fact that came close to surprising and actually upset me a little was that the legal system was listed as one of the least covered domestic issues.  In a country that was built on the fundamental system of checks and balances, it's the media's job to research and tell the public about what is happening around them - especially in the government.  What's the use of having free speech if we're not going to use it to our greatest advantage?