This I Believe about Digital Journalism
Journalism today is at a very transformational moment. The era of digital journalism has only just begun. Advancements in technology have changed the way people can now communicate and exchange information with each other. Our current technology, specifically the digital transmission of text, audio, and video has truly altered the traditional one-to-many communication model into a new many-to-many communication model. With this many-to-many model of communication, it allows audiences to become producers, as well as consumers of information around them. It would be a mistake to eliminate the traditional one-to-many model completely.
Instead, by taking the best qualities of the new model, such as the computerized access, delivery and packaging of the information, and taking the best from the traditional model, such as insightful reporting in a well written story, a hybrid model is then created by combining the best of both worlds.
McLuhan explains this process as the creation of a hybrid which blends the old and the new to create a superior medium. “The moment of the meeting of media is a moment of freedom and release from the ordinary trance and numbness imposed by them on our senses.” (Marshall McLuhan, Communication Theorist) This hybrid medium extends the mind and the eye.
This change in the mass communication model is happening so rapidly, the digital revolution is upon us. Writing, now can be looked at as a form of technology, as it follows the computer-mediated communication, where forms of writing such as e-mail have become a popular communication method all over the world.
This new communication revolution is shifting power to the people. This power shift threatens the dominance of the traditional mass media forms, such as, television, radio stations, magazines, and newspapers, all of which were built based on the one-to-many communication model. It seems as though print newspapers are the first of the media types to become rather vulnerable during this time. There is, however, a bright light at the end of the tunnel. Publishers and editors of print newspapers alike have began to acknowledge and embrace this conversion. In attempts to keep all of their audiences, some newspapers have began to create new electronic publications on the internet. Electronic publications have been born!
Being that the electronic newspapers are so new, there are a lot of loop-holes that need to be addressed. So far, online newspapers are not working commercially or conceptually. There are issues that need to be addressed and worked out from a business stand point, such as how, and what to charge for online publications. Currently, some of the newest established electronic newspapers are charging readers only for access to the achieves. Some electronic publications have generated income by selling classified and display ads, for advertisement funding. Basically, “the newspaper needs to reinvent itself as it finds its place in cyberspace.” (Jon Katz, Wired Magazine) This will evolve as we move further in the direction of digital journalism.
Reinventing journalism is certainly not an easy task for an industry that works under constant strict deadlines to produce a new product each and every day. By reflecting on the past, and analyzing journalism as a craft and as a profession, the real essence of the industry will be able to shape and take place in a modern tone for the world we live in today and in the future.
With this new digital era upon us, journalists are gradually being forced to start to escape from the “traditional way of doing things.” That, perhaps, instead of just your basic news and reporting, journalists should begin to use their power to steer the public in the right direction when it comes to having an opinion on a newsworthy issue.
“The press needs a new mission, and the nation needs someone to help initiate and lead the discussion of what kind of place America will be in the twenty-first century.” (Brent Cunningham)
Reading a daily newspaper is a ritual for many middle-aged and older Americans today. However today’s younger generation has a more sophisticated ritual as they look towards several media outlets for their daily information. It is common for our generation to wake up in the morning, and turn a computer on first thing, while checking email and surfing the web, rather than coffee over the morning newspaper. With use of the internet, more information is available to more people, more quickly than ever before.
Our generation is privileged with all of the new technology and advancements at our fingertips to make our journalism career easier. A generation brought up in a high tech, fast paced, one-click-away society. Welcome to the technological revolution, it has arrived.
Journalists of the future will need to express talent to survive in the digital age, “skilled editors, reporters, and image artists who are able to find meaning in the approaching informational glut.” (veteran journalist, Max Frankel)
Besides improving the delivery of the news, technology will improve the research and news gathering aspect of newspapers. With use of the many-to-many model the journalist must take note that news on the internet starts from the bottom and makes its way to the top. With that being said, the journalist now has the opportunity to really get to know and interact with their audience like never before. This goes way beyond the aspect of “letters to the editor”, journalists now have the ability to have a better knowledge of their audience, and writing and reporting that more closely reflects reader’s overall interests and values.
The world wide web has began to serve as a medium for online news. With the emergence of the digital era, mainline producers of news began to create online extensions of their newspapers or broadcasts. One of the advantages of online news reportage is the immediacy that it brings. Print media find a conflict when breaking news strikes whether to release the breaking news on their website before they print it in their newspaper.
Research on a journalists behalf is especially important as we enter this digital era. The internet has allowed information to be at our fingertips, making solid research a top priority. “Using computers, databases, online services are becoming standard for nearly everyone in the newsroom” (Philip Moeller, American Journalism Review)
While many newspapers may be searching for an elusive answer, the only certainty we have currently is that there is no one correct way to do things. Each newspaper must discover its own way of conquering this digital age, creating the content in the format their readers want and make it work for them.
There are two ways in which the “new media” have had an impact on the news. One being from the point of view of the consumers of the news, the readers or the viewers, while the other is from the creators of the news or the journalists and newscasters.
This “new media” has opened up many new channels, mainly on the Internet. Mainstream media, such as print and broadcast, have both developed and maintain websites in which their audience can log on to view headlines or breaking news and stories throughout the day.
Search engines have even created alerts and provide a service where they can scan the web on behalf of personalized user accounts, giving the results of selected news items that fit the user’s interests and can e-mail them updates however they wish.
This “new media” also has paved the way for a news aggregator, or “feed reader”, a software application, website or a service that collects syndicated content and provides a consolidated view for the user.
“Newspapers themselves are beginning to understand that to best serve their customers they too must aggregate. Some newspapers have begun to provide links from their Web sites to other news sites on the Web. But perhaps a more dramatic development is that they have been acquiring news aggregators as part of their operations.” (Robert K Logan, Understanding New Media)
The online news environment blurs the distinction between news and information by linking the past with the immediate present. When breaking news is added, once it becomes known, then it then turns into background material for the interpretation of the latest events that take place afterward.
Citizen journalism comes along with this digital era, the emergence of the audience being able to have their voice heard for once. This digital age has opened up a door to a whole new way for the audience to be involved and have some say on what they read. Whether it be simply a reaction, praise or criticism. Online articles give the “comment” option, where readers can then use such comments to bring up some point that may have been missed by the writer, or add new information that the reporter was unaware of. Such readers potentially make the original story better.
Rich Gordon, chair of Newspapers and New Media at Northwestern University pointed out that for citizen journalism to be effective and successful there needs to be a “citizen editor”.
The role of a citizen editor is to solicit other people to provide accurate information and encourage interactivity among the users. With the freedom of public commentary, there has to be some sort of censoring.
While anyone can participate in citizen journalism, it takes a talented, dedicated individual to be a citizen editor. A person who can take initiative for the good of the community.
Journalists are able to gather and distribute news more widely than ever before. Online news organizations, nonprofit investigative reporting projects, public broadcasting stations, bloggers, and community news sites with citizen participation just to name a few. Together these are all creating a different definition of news.
Reporting in general is even evolving, it is becoming more participatory and collaborative. Collaborative journalism is on the rise as reporters go beyond the news room staff to include reporting from freelancers, students and citizen journalists. Mutualized newspapers, papers that include reporting from all different sorts of reporters, will soon be on the rise.
Reporting will however always be an important part of journalism and our society. Reporting helps create an informed society. We need reporters not only to interview but to interpret, analyze, have an informed opinion and advocacy. News reporting provides our society with the vital information in order to participate in society and in daily life.
This digital era is opening up many new possibilities for reporting. “Journalists can research much more widely, update their work repeatedly, follow it up more thoroughly, verify it more easily, compare it with that of competitors, and have it enriched and fact-checked by readers.” (Leonard Downie)
The internet has made research faster, easier and richer, but it will never be able to take the place of interviews, being there or narrative.
This digital technology is a blessing. Sure, people may be stressed about this emerging period right now that we need to go through in order to get where we are going for the future of news, but it will eventually pass. The digital news environment will constantly continue to evolve throughout our lifetime.
Journalism will never die, it just evolves with the rest of the world.
