Category:Digital Journalism
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"The organic revolutionary sensibility of online journalism guarantees that the cybernetic and informationalist idioms and dispositions of online journalism are relentlessly presentist and future-oriented. "-Dominic Boyer
The digital media explosion has brought professional journalism to a crossroads, dramatically changing both the creation and consumption of news information. While some insist that the "profession is crumbling" most journalists are embracing the opportunities technology has created and using new media as a tool to redefine journalism as an art form and news media as a community resource. What is undeniable is the transformational power of digital media as a tool for journalists and news media outlets. The possibilities of the internet allow online journalists to make the news an interactive, personalized experienced so recipients "could dig deeply into topics, follow their interests, and share their knowledge and passions with others who cared about similar things". Pre-internet the news was delivered by professional journalists who researched, analyzed, and relied on experts. Through the rise of the internet we have seen the creation of a "culture of information sharing" where instead of trusting an individual voice, we look to collective information sources such as Wikipedia, trusting the collective wisdom of a group of contributors.
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The Rise of Online Journalism
The term "online journalism" began to emerge in the late 1990's and has been soaring to popularity since, nearly replacing old journalistic mediums altogether. Over the past five years, the internet has become a central feature of virtually every news organization's strategy for survival. [1] The first group of organized online journalists in the United States formed in 1999, evolved from an annual North American News conference [2]
The Online News Association
Today the Online News Association boasts over 1,900 members who essentially write news in a digital format about news in a digital format. The members seem incredibly passionate about the potential of digital journalism and use the words "inspire" and "create" a lot.
"We believe that the internet is the most powerful communications medium to arise since the dawn of television. As digital delivery systems became the primary source of news for a growing segment of the world's population, it presents complex challenges and opportunities for journalists as well as the news audience" [3] VIDEO:What the Online News Association Does
Changes in the Field of Journalism
The first big changes to recently emerge in the field of journalism began in the late 1980's when news conglomerates began to attempt to synergize media outlets by purchasing and taking over both print and broadcast sources. Owners of news corporations began to realize that audio, video, and textual journalism shared reporting styles, values, and technologies and began to purchase what had originally been competing forms of media and work between them. [4]. Today, talk of an internet revolution in news is commonplace amongst journalists, and even those who voice concerns about the short and long- term effects of digital media on the news industry seem resigned to the transformational power of the new technologies. [5]
Changes in the field brought with them a shift in the field of news as journalists began to be forced to adapt to different mediums, and content became less localized and "less relevant".
The internet also creates a unique setting in which readers can provide feedback "adding depth and human interest". Yet this ability can also cause problems when viewers believe user-generated content on news outlet sources to be verified by a source as news. This is one of the fastest rising problems in the field of journalism as increasingly more content is produced by The Everyday Journalist
In contrast, as we expect less or little from the average journalist (because with the rise of The Everyday Journalist the number of paid journalists continually declines) news corporations expect increasingly more out of their paid reporters. In the world of digital news media, today's journalists are expected to not only be able to uncover stories and write about them but also to create radio pieces, written pieces for print, blogs on their work, write internet news sources, and record and edit video footage. More often than not, they must be competent to function as text, audio, and visual producers, abandoning a lot of the writing technique once attributed to print reporters. "Our 21st century journalist seems more capable of churning out more material on a variety of sites, most of the time, using original material" [6]
"Before it was more the role of the journalist to publish something that without his research would not have existed, but today the role is increasingly to evaluate the material that others are generating. And to organize it. For, the end consumer is still the way he always was, with limited time and with limited competence" [7]
Role of the Podcast
Consumer is no longer limited by broadcast time and location, can experience news from any part of the world at their convenience.
The Extinction of Investigative Journalism?
Another "impact of the corporatization of news coverage and the exorbitant prices media owners have paid for their properties is the virtual extinction of investigative journalism". This is one of a few Issues with Digital Journalism
News and Social Media
Digital media and the emerging use of social media have proven to begin to exponentially expand the reach of journalism Many mainstream news media outlets use social media as a tool to promote their organization. Twitter and Facebook are likely the most commonly used tools to increase readership amongst online journalists. Additionally, social media sources are increasingly being seen and used as news sources in and of themselves. [8]
Jan Leach cites the post-election protests in Iran as an example of ways social media affects and shares news. "With journalists banished or silenced by the Iranian government, news organizations and Web site relied on showing random snippets of video or text messages or tweets sent from people witnessing the protests on the streets of Tehran. The Iran protest coverage illuminates how legacy media's goals now intersect with social media's tools."
Social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook have also been used not just as publicity tools for journalists to increase their readership but largely to create an audience for The Everyday Journalist as now anyone and everyone can and does update their community with the news in their lives.
Popular Digital News Outlets
http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/news-websites
Al-Jazeera
Funded by Qatar, began in 1996, staffed by former members of the BBC Arabic unit in Saudi Arabia. Earned international recognition after broadcasting statements made by Osama Bin Laden after the attacks on the World Trade Center. Began 24/7 English service in 2006. "Until it's arrival, only Western voices, via cable and satellite, gave worldwide interpretation of national and international events. Al-Jazeera uses technological developments- satellites, the internet, satellite phones and laptop editing suites- to rival its Western counterparts" [9]
[Al-Jazeera]
The Huffington Post
The Huffington Post serves as an excellent reference to where we are now in digital news media; it is one of the most popular blogs on the internet and one of the most popular sources for news on the internet in the United States.
[The Huffington Post]
Personalization of News Information
The digital age brings the opportunity for readers to filter and select their news sources based on interests and opinions. For most, this is seen as a benefit as the news recipient can now easily filter out news they find irrelevant. However, when "people self-select information and news to read or view often what they search for is biased toward affirming what they already know and believe" [10]
- Ted Talks Video: | Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"
The Next Generation of News Media
Can be said that we "don't look for news anymore because it comes to [us]" [11]. On the day of President Obama's victory there was a "44 percent increase in the number of text messages being sent by cell phones just as the news of Barack Obama's victory was announced. Some 1.4 billion messages were flashed around the world... individual messages short circuited conventional news delivery systems; it shows how eager we are to share 'the news' and take ownership of it" [12].
References
- Antonio Glodeanu, The IMpact of Digital Communication in Political Journalism
- Dominic Boyer, Digital Expertise in Online Journalism
- Ross Perigoe, Ten-Year Retrospective: Canada and the United States in the age of digital journalism
- Jan Leach, Creating Ethical Bridges from Journalism to Digital News
- Michael Skoler, Why the News Media Became Irrelevent- And How Social Media Can Help
Pages in category "Digital Journalism"
The following 3 pages are in this category, out of 3 total.
