How Has the Internet Changed Journalism and Its Relation to the Public ?
Media Analysis essay 2
How has the Internet changed journalism and its relation to the public? Discuss and evaluate what happens to news and information in the digital age, by analyzing TWO case studies of online journalism, citizen journalism or blogging.
For most of us, using the Internet has become as easy as reaching for our pocket and grabbing our smart phones. Our need to have immediate access to news, social networks, “clouds”, and maybe even our own blogging site has become increasingly bigger. We now want to do everything everywhere, access all areas and let our friends know about it. In the past 15 years, technology has advanced at such a fast pace that we can now do all of these things and more. But just how have these technological advances changed journalism?
Newspapers had to adapt to these technological advances or they would face harsh consequences for not keeping up with the times. Porting their daily content over to the Web meant that they could meet our need for immediacy and portability, and as the name denotes, the World Wide Web is accessible worldwide which means that regardless of the location we are at, we can access content that was previously only available locally. We no longer have to be on location in order to buy a newspaper and read news from a particular area or region; we can access it online. In the same way that TV changed to meet our demands, by moulding itself around us, we can choose what types of news we want to read, and which we don’t want to, by selecting the filters provided in some of the news sites available. Newspapers now need headlines that have a newsstand appeal, whilst the online version can be updated throughout the day and refreshed as many times as necessary. “The digital age journalist has to become a specialist who knows how to search for information on the Web and turn it into news” (Herbert, 2000: p.3). Gone are the days of spreadsheets and heavy word processing, as the Internet provides journalists
How has the Internet changed journalism and its relation to the public? Discuss and evaluate what happens to news and information in the digital age, by analyzing TWO case studies of online journalism, citizen journalism or blogging.
For most of us, using the Internet has become as easy as reaching for our pocket and grabbing our smart phones. Our need to have immediate access to news, social networks, “clouds”, and maybe even our own blogging site has become increasingly bigger. We now want to do everything everywhere, access all areas and let our friends know about it. In the past 15 years, technology has advanced at such a fast pace that we can now do all of these things and more. But just how have these technological advances changed journalism?
Newspapers had to adapt to these technological advances or they would face harsh consequences for not keeping up with the times. Porting their daily content over to the Web meant that they could meet our need for immediacy and portability, and as the name denotes, the World Wide Web is accessible worldwide which means that regardless of the location we are at, we can access content that was previously only available locally. We no longer have to be on location in order to buy a newspaper and read news from a particular area or region; we can access it online. In the same way that TV changed to meet our demands, by moulding itself around us, we can choose what types of news we want to read, and which we don’t want to, by selecting the filters provided in some of the news sites available. Newspapers now need headlines that have a newsstand appeal, whilst the online version can be updated throughout the day and refreshed as many times as necessary. “The digital age journalist has to become a specialist who knows how to search for information on the Web and turn it into news” (Herbert, 2000: p.3). Gone are the days of spreadsheets and heavy word processing, as the Internet provides journalists
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