The Role of the Writer

For the majority of us the advent of the Internet has challenged much of what we consider tradition. Writing is certainly one of the areas most impacted. If you witness an earthquake, hurricane, a plane crash, a murder, or a robbery at your local drug store there is no need to wait for the reporters to tell the story to. You can simply start telling the world from your own mobile phone. We can clearly see that the role of the writer has changed over the last ten years. This was recently discussed in an associated article.

Yet it is necessary to ask whether we are playing the role of journalist or columnist, or perhaps both? Arguably anyone can be a writer, reporter, and publisher.

This is an interesting question and if you look on twitter at the hash-tags #Earthquakes #tsunamis ,you will find a large number of reports from those affected by the recent devastation in Japan.