Why ? Why ? Why ?

Why Does Guild Membership have to be Mandatory ! ?


Take a look at this report in today's issue of alghad newspaper, then see my commentary below the link.

http://www.alghad.jo/?news=45943

I'm against forcing every journalist to be a member in the professional journalist association in order for the Journalist to be able to practice the profession of Journalism.It is absurd, why? what difference does it make? I think that membership ought to be voluntarily one. If the Journalist believe that he would be better off belonging to an association, then so be it but If he feels that his membership will not advance his career in any way, then why should he be obligated to become a member!?

The advent of Internet in the mid nineties have completely changed the way professional journalism is conducted and posed a great deal of challenges that never existed before.

The exploding of the electronic media and its ability to update events on the global level made it impossible for the print media to continue enjoying the prestige that it had always enjoyed since the dawn of the print media.

The bloggers posed another challenge as they proved that they can do the same job that the journalists are doing without pay and without any cost to the publishers, their rise over the past decade or so put another huge damper on professional journalists and their employers.

Everyone feels threatened by the bloggers, the journalists, the publishers, and the guild. They are trying to establish some sort of control over this festering problem. Will they be able to stem the tide? It is any ones guess. There is no way to measure how will the professional journalism look like ten to fifteen years from now.

If the current pace of declining readership of print media continues, there is a good chance that say by the year 2025, newspapers and journalists working for them will become a thing of the past like the typewriters and the eight track bulky tape players before it.

I certainly don't wish for the Journalism profession to become extinct but it is not up to me, the professional unions need to revise the way they deal with their members and give them the personal freedom to be able to join or not join the union.

But to make it mandatory for any member to join before they are able to practice their profession isn't the right approach at this point in time, it may even end up have a reverberating repercussions.

I hope that those in charge of the professional associations start thinking in terms of the requirements of the 21st century and not the exigencies of the 19th century.
Why Does Guild Membership have to be Mandatory ! ?