#Week 10: Journalism and The Internet

While the elements that constitute news have remained unaltered, the reception and delivery of news has dramatically changed over the past few decades. Many years ago, journalism was about waiting for daily newspaper every early morning and TV news every evening. However, with the emergence of wireless connectivity and mobile devices such as laptops or smartphones, news can be transmitted and read even within a blink of an eye. In addition, it is not uncommon for today’s reporters to integrate several images and videos with their pre-existing written contents. Though this clearly made every articles more entertaining to read, have you ever thought having images attached within each article has become our “norm”, something that’s considered a must? Having said that, it’s safe to conclude the technology has been and will not only be shaping our perspective of the world, but journalism in particular. However, the question remains, how technology and the internet influence journalism?

Social media revolutionizes another information source.

It can’t be denied that technology has improved the processes of identifying stories that are newsworthy. In the tradition world, people seemed to be content with every available piece of information gathered by media corporations as being able to get access to another source of information was impossible. However, with the rise of technology, simply making information available is not enough for today’s public and the mass media no longer necessarily functions as an agenda setting agent. Audiences of digital era expect to be able to choose what they read, to even contribute contents and opinions themselves via social media platforms such as blogs, and Facebook or Twitter posts. In fact, feeds from Facebook or Twitter have proven to be useful and informative as they provide snapshots or events happening around the globe from the viewpoint of first-hand witnesses. Unlike micro-blogging tools, blog has also provided another world for those who wish to carefully read analyzed news. Personally, I love to update news from these social media platforms as they are fun and inspiring to read!

Long form reading: a thing of the past?

There is a declining shift in the number of people engaging in long form reading. Today, even though much of our time is occupied by a substantial amount of workload, to get updated and to know a bit of everything, still, are fundamental and necessary. Acknowledging this tendency, many publishers have chosen to shorten their articles’ length and include more photos or videos in order to increase media consumption. In fact, many researches on journalism have concluded that 75-word captions in a 10-image slideshow have the power to catch readers’ attention and deliver more information to more readers than a 2500-word article. Interestingly, researches also suggested today’s journalism schools have their teaching methods altered: they teach fact-dense and engaging short-form writing in addition to long-form skills. So ironically, long form reading may become more of a specialized skill with the rise of digital advancement!

In a nutshell, the Internet’s impact on journalism industry is huge. Forget reporters, readers, column inches, press runs, and broadsheets, today - it’s all about content creators, posts, RSS feeds, social networking sites, and page views. Isn’t it fascinating to look at those changes that the Internet have brought so far? Well, to me, it’s amazing and I’m really excited thinking about the future of technology. Stay tuned and wait for my updates!