As a recent journalism graduate, I’ve been barraged with a massive amount of questions from friends, family and total strangers.

The conversation usually starts out like this:

“So, you just graduated from college?”

“Yes.”

“What was your major?”

“Journalism.”

“Oh, you know newspapers are dinosaurs, right? Nobody has found a successful business model for the news industry. In fact, they say newspapers aren’t going to be around much longer. Have you found a job? Does it pay well? I know, you should go into PR!”

“Thank you anonymous lady I was making small talk with while waiting in line for the restroom. I didn’t realize until just now that the news industry is in trouble! All those front page stories about different newspapers folding just went straight over my head. Thanks for your great insight. I think I’ll hit up Craigslist right now to search for PR-related jobs.”

OK, I usually don’t say that last remark out loud, but I always think it. Generally, I mutter a thank you and change the subject (“Oh, what a cute purse you have!”).

When I transferred to San Jose State University three years ago, I knew what direction journalism was going. I didn’t know the economy was going to be like this once I graduated, but I did have a general understanding that the circulation and readership of newspapers were following a downward trend.

I rationed through Web sites, blogs and new media, there would always be a need for reporters and a person who could tell a good story. I also thought that once I was out of college, employers would gladly hire me, because I am willing to work for slave wages.

But reality has given me a huge kick in the ass. The only prediction of mine that came to fruition was the slave wages part.

It’s a tough time for Bay Area newspapers, journalism students and recent graduates. Most journalism internships are unpaid, reporting jobs are few and far between and I’ve come to find out it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Sounds pretty depressing, huh?

That’s when we, budding reporters, have to remind ourselves why we went to journalism school in the first place, and take that motivation and channel it into learning the skills needed to be a reporter in the 21st century.

Today, it’s more than knowing the inverted pyramid and memorizing the AP Stylebook.

It’s learning how to

-compose, shoot and edit an image and video

-design a news page

-create a podcast

-Twitter

-maintain a blog

-build a Web site

-brand yourself

-stitch together sound slides

-plus a dozen of other things I have no clue about (such as CSS, interactive multimedia and Flash).

Today, a journalist must be half reporter and half tech geek. What other skills do you think a 21st century journalist needs?

Where were you when Michael Jackson died? I was working at my desk and received a call from my boyfriend, who broke the news to me, a little after 3pm. I checked my usual news outlets — CNN, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post. Nothing was posted about Jacko’s passing. I asked him if he was sure. He said he was positive.

So, I took to Twitter. By 3:20pm, a tidal wave of Tweets pushed Michael Jackson at the top of the charts, many linking to this TMZ article, which confirmed the news. As I circulated the news around the office (I work at a newspaper) that TMZ was reporting Michael Jackson died, people scoffed at it.

“Oh yeah, TMZ is such a reliable source of news.”

Well, as it turned out, yes. It is.

It took another 45 minutes before any mainstream news outlets reported Michael Jackson’s death. CNN had a link to a story about him being in a coma, the Los Angeles Times reported he was in the hospital suffering from cardiac arrest and many other news organizations featured on the Google News feed had no information about Michael Jackson’s sudden passing.

TMZ, the celebrity trash site, scooped everyone.

Meanwhile, the news was spreading like wildfire on Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

And that, my friends, is why we can no longer dismiss the power of social networking. It’s a powerful tool that journalists and people in the news industry can no longer ignore. It’s not a “dumb” fad anymore. It’s where news breaks and information is easily (and freely) distributed to the masses.

Sure, we can point out the fact that the information can be unreliable, unverified and completely false. But in a society where people demend information right here and right now, if you’re late to the party, you might as well not come at all.