News flash: Technology is taking over the newsroom.

Deborah Potter, former CBS and CNN correspondent and executive director of NewsLab, a nonprofit journalism training research center, visited Penn State last night to discuss the future of electronic news in the latest installment of the Hearst Visitor Program.

Potter began her career 35 years ago in a newsroom with manual typewriters, film reels and editing software that included razors and tape.

While students today are used to "cutting and pasting" Microsoft Word documents, Potter literally cut and pasted her news stories.

With rapid advances in technology, all fields of journalism are transitioning to the digital world, she said.

She stressed how the media have had to adapt to the revolutions in news multimedia.

"I think that the iPhone is going to be an interesting change with its larger screen and higher resolution," Potter told the crowd of about 30.

Potter discussed how for decades TV stations and newspapers competed in the media industry, but in this day and age, they are often being forced to mesh.

The transition has not been smooth she said, with many reporters assigned to learn new trades such as photojournalism, frustrating those that do it for their career.

Also, the audience is now more important than ever. CNN and other news stations have what Potter calls "citizen journalism."

These news features, such as CNN's I-Report, have community correspondents that are able to call in their own news stories or post them online, thus becoming an interactive part of the news.

"Interactive news is no longer posting a comment on a story or calling in to give your opinion," Potter said.

She advised students entering the field of journalism that while it may seem as if their jobs may be outsourced to the public, "we cannot replace reporting with citizen journalism."

One student had a more optimistic outlook on the idea of citizen journalism.

"I know it will become a great part of journalism and thus changing the industry," Emily Dean (sophomore- journalism and sociology) said.

Potter said advancing technology may pose structural challenges for upcoming journalists.

"One size will not fit all," she said. "You can't take one story and just shovel it on different media."

But even with citizen journalism and the multimedia revolution, one thing will remain constant.

It's still "all about the story," she said.