By Brittany Burke
More than one week ago I was in Hollywood, the city that for some reason everyone wants to migrate to to become rich and famous.
Personally, for me, Hollywood wasn’t anything other than a West Coast New York City, a concrete jungle with palm trees. But with 10 hours of nothing to do in LAX but think, I realized I actually walked away from the conference with something besides a new appreciation for the Los Angeles Kings.
While at the journalism conference, I was lucky enough to be able to listen to Bill Plaschke speak for a brief 45 minutes, but a 45 minutes that he made count.
For those who don’t know, Plaschke is an Los Angeles Times sports writer, regular on ESPN’s “Around the Horn” and absolutely amazing. Just saying.
The main thing he spoke about in front of a room of eager college journalists was that the words we produce still matter. It may be hard to believe, but yes, in a world where the Internet is taking over and any person smart enough to turn on a computer and click on the Google Chrome button can create a blog or twitter account to begin spewing off nonsense, words still matter.
For me, hearing that the words I spend each week writing about it are still pertinent is comforting, especially since every other professor and guest speaker talks about how the journalism and newspaper market is actually dying. Talk about job security.
However, listening to him speak really hit home. I never realized how much of what I wrote actually counted until last week, when a previous column I had written about fans crossing a line, a month ago resurfaced on the Facebook accounts of the people I had called out.
What I had written had struck such a chord that in return I was attacked and called out via Facebook, Twitter and our newspaper’s own website. Yes, I admit that I might have jumped the gun in my assumptions of these fans, and while yes, they may be crazy, it’s a good kind of crazy. I didn’t do my homework on the history of the section before writing about them.
The whole point is what I had typed on the page still counted to those who I had read it, exactly what Plaschke was trying to instill in our enthusiastic minds. Trust me, after managing to upset the NHL and Federal Hockey League with things I’ve written, I’m realizing exactly what he meant more and more every day.
Keep in mind; words are just as important to readers as they are to the journalists. So instead of religiously following some random blogger, who may know absolutely nothing, think about what you are reading. Pick up a newspaper once in a while and realize that what you see on the page is just as vital as what you read online or hear on the television.
Not only will you stay informed, but you’ll help secure my future.