With everyone a publisher, and the internet the most important source of delivery today, will books, magazines, radio and television as we know it become extinct is the question on many American's lips. "That's what some people thought about radio when television was introduced, but print is living very well on the internet," Ms. O'Brien remarked. In fact, the internet really offers a multimedia experience, so books, radio, magazines and television will just be forced to keep up with the technology.

The internet can be a frustrating experience, where the more we learn, we just find out that there's even more to learn. Additionally, with so many different web sites, "like a supermarket of new, unknown products," how do we learn everything, and choose the right source from which to learn it? "You shouldn't try to learn everything. You should just learn what's relevant to you, what matters to you." And, as for choosing web sites, you just have to look around and become experienced. Ms. O'Brien admitted that, "Sometimes you don't know what's true, what's worthwhile, or what's just garbage." But, she told the audience, there are reliable sources such as The New York Times, NBC-TV, ABC-TV, CBS-TV, The Wall Street Journal, etc. They all have a brand that they are protecting, and so they want to provide a consistent level of information that their audience is used to getting.

With the playing field leveled, anyone can be a journalist. "But," cautioned Ms. O'Brien, "the rules for being a good journalist have not changed." The criteria for being a good journalist are: honesty, credibility, full disclosure, and knowing your sources. How else has the media changed, and how has journalism been affected? News anchors have to do live shots, perform unscripted interviews, and possibly stay on the air for seven hours straight covering one story. News anchors need to be more versatile today than ever before. "That was unheard of ten years ago." So, new skills and more work are being added to the requirements for journalists and anchoring positions because of the new technology and more television news coverage. How, I wondered does a news station keep a story fresh. Ms. O'Brien admitted that sometimes it's hard, but you have to move a story forward, and quickly discover new details as they unfold. "This is one of the benefits of 24 hours news. But you have to be accurate, otherwise, you will lose all credibility."

Internet advertising was another subject that was discussed. Advertising has been going on for a long time, and on every web page, there is at least one ad. Internet advertising also allows the ad picture to be a link to its web