I’m speaking tomorrow at the Freedom Forum at Vanderbilt University on a panel about what journalists / bloggers do right and wrong. The panel is part of a day long workshop hosted by the Online News Association titled Journalism Has A Future.

Track 1 - 3:45-4:45 p.m.
Bloggers & Journalism
A panel of traditional newsroom and independent bloggers talk about what journalists do right and wrong in blogging. Learn how to be better blogger.
+ Rex Hammock, rexblog.com, Founder/CEO of Hammock Inc.
+ Christian Grantham, WKRN’s Nashvilleistalking.com
+ Michael Silence, Knoxville News Sentinel’s No Silence Here blog
+ Tammi Marcoullier, Publish2

I work in a newsroom. What I see are two kinds of journalists. Most journalists find themselves increasingly enveloped by a fog of war in the midst of declining resources and technological change. Journalists in general are under pressure to do more with less and have less time to explore new tools emerging that amplify their work and leverage years of developed relationships and sources. Because of this fog of war, they are anxious about missing the turns taken by those who will succeed and find themselves questioning the future of their profession they feel is leaving them and their experience behind.

What I also see are journalists that make the time to expose themselves to new tools, and it’s these journalists that I see projecting a more positive view about the future of journalism.

What this brand of journalist sees is what I see, a world where information is closer than a telephone call or a trip across town, where a source is a mom with a cell phone video, and where technology increases the volume of stories we share about our world experience. They see the ability to leverage and manage their sources like they never have before. They see a need for skilled analysis and human aggregation of mountains of information and content. They project that spark that brought them to their profession. They see the future of journalism.