Are we artists? Or, should I ask: aren’t we?

Journalism is about making the community better. It’s about challenging people directly, with information. Newspapers, like artists, are out to affect the world.

If newspapers die, then some part of society dies with them.

And none of us should let that happen. But what a frustrating endeavor this is, saving newspapers from their tendencies. At work, I hint and nudge. Pushing or shoving toward the future has a way of inciting more rebellion than cooperation. So many little steps comprise only one full step.

At what has seemed the fastest possible pace of progress, I’ve been running a Web site in the way it should be operated, with page views increasing and awards on occasion. But it has not evolved from a personal vision. Not yet. Maybe some of you feel the same?

Artists require vision. An example of my imperfect, still-forming vision would be that magazine I created during college. The name was “static” and the slogan was “making sense of the noise.” A visionary site would be in the words of its users. Stories would be lessons learned and told in the most personal way possible. People would be touched, they would feel related to. They would feel not alone.

That’s what we should be doing with newspapers online and in print.

All of these problems that people face, they too often face alone. The Web site, the newspaper, can pull those people together. And all it takes is one truthful story around which to gather. One story can intrigue them and entice their reaction, and then their action.