Aaron Sorkin and Jeff Daniels keep real news alive.

At some point in my life, probably soon, people will stop asking me, “What you want to do with your life, journalism?” The farther I get from a connection from that world, through jobs or school, the more obvious it is that no, I am not a journalist.

And it’s something that will haunt me forever.

I’m intensely proud that I majored in Literary Journalism, but honestly even at the time I was never really set on the idea of being a literary journalist. I had a love-hate relationship with my classes, and where many of my classmates dreamt of writing for The New Yorker, I was satisfied reading it. However there was something magical about being on the brink of it, of getting those news internships, and having the world of journalism ahead of me. I clung to that “future time when I would be a writer” with as much optimism I could muster, all the while knowing I just didn’t want it enough and that one day the dream would end. It just seemed… hard and tiring. I never wanted a journalist’s life. I just wanted their purpose.

Why must I fall again and again for the dying and extinct arts? It seems that when it comes to rock and roll music and investigative journalism, I’m just a hopeless romantic. I think a lot of it can be attributed to one thing: the niche market. While in some ways a savior from the bland bully of the taste of the masses, some things will be lost along the way as the Internet fragments our popular culture. Will there ever be another Beatles or Elvis? Can you imagine Mumford and Sons permeating our culture in the same way? If anything, the more popular a band or artist is, the more derision they seem to attract (hello, Coldplay – I’m still a fan!).

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, Investigative Journalism (Literary Journalism’s more practical sister). Apparently CNN no longer has an investigative journalism team for their news network. I admit, I may be a little late in acknowledging this, since apparently I’m part of the problem and don’t follow it too closely. However, yeah, so… one of our top American news source no longer has a team of investigative journalists. Sorry, I repeated what I just wrote – there’s just no way to make it sound more absurd than it already is.

Yes, my number one news source IS The Daily Show

We’re told people are more into opinionated talking heads on TV, and opinionated bloggers on the web. CNN seems to think we watch the news to hear what people on Twitter are saying than what professional journalist have to report on. They could be right. There’s no reason they shouldn’t try to attract viewers with condescendingly stupid segments. Newspapers were always a business; anyone who claims they exist to serve a civic duty hasn’t gone back in history far enough. I understand that, I just wish it wasn’t so.

But contrary to what everyone says, I don’t think investigative journalism is dead yet. I think saving journalism will be a global effort. Perhaps one day we won’t need to send someone to cover a drug war here or the plight of women there because the journalist will already be living in the country and the Internet will bring the foreign home. The Internet is both a destroyer of attention spans, and a savior of information. It publishes the uncommon to the masses, and I think that as long someone is willing to write about something, there will be someone reading it.

You also can’t discount the other forms of journalism out there. The veterans find success in documentary film making or non-fiction book publishing. If you write it, they will come. Maybe not in droves, but in appreciative niche audiences. Maybe you’ll have to write not to be paid a lot, but to be archived for eternity. Maybe that’s just enough to prevent people from saying journalism is dead.