Photography

I love taking pictures, and have seriously considered being a photo journalist. However, many people have made their dislike of journalists very clear. And yet there are so few actual professions, outside of being a full-time photographer, that involve taking pictures on a daily basis. I feel like I'm trapped: I don't want to care about what people think about journalism, but at the same time, if enough people stop reading teh newspaper like they used to, then I don't even have that. Also, I'm sure my parents would much appreciate it if I told them that I wanted to pursue a "real" career--teacher, lawyer, etc.
For me, I am drawn to photography by the abilities it has to change a person's perception of the world. For one person, the photographer, to look through a viewfinder and capture something, sometimes without even editing it, and they almost magically create an image that will resonate with many people. And the editing itself is a whole other world: cropping, burning and dodging-- they all make that 1/60th of a second, often less, so worthwile.The pictures that I take, some at 1/4000th of a second, can take me at least five or ten minutes, thousands of seconds more than how long the exposure was.
There's just something so amazing about pressing a shutter and having something beautiful come out. And if I don't make lots of money doing it, then that's okay too.

Is journalism a trend that will soon fade out? In the future, will photographs be linked to and spread all through the web, with no care for who took them? Can it be considered art at that point?