‘Technology
is transforming citizens from passive consumers of news…’
Due
to the vast change in technology, there has been a rapid alteration in the way
journalism is now, compared to how journalism used to be. Technology such as
Web 2.0 has allowed us (the consumers) to become producers of media. Social
media has had an enormous impact on how news is now consumed, and then passed
on. From print to online there is all of a sudden a large decrease in the
amount of print papers readership and all of this is due to the change in
technology.
“Technology is transforming
citizens from passive consumers of news produced by professionals into active
participants who can assemble their own journalism from disparate elements. As
people Google for information, graze across a seemingly infinite array of
outlets and read blogs or write them, they are becoming their own editors,
researchers, and even correspondents. What was called journalism is only one
part of the mix, and its role as intermediary and verifier, like the roles of
other civic institutions, is weakening.”- Bill Kovach & Tom Rosenstiel,
'Chapter 1: What is Journalism For?', The Elements of Journalism, London, Atlantic,
2003.
The
statements above I deeply agree with. The power of the Internet today; we can teach
our self’s anything and everything to do with journalism. There are online
courses, YouTube videos, online books, journals and articles, all that can give
advice in order for people to self teach them self’s journalism and how to
become a professional journalist. Technology has transformed citizens from
passive consumers to active participants due to ability for people to publish
work online. Consumers can the promote their own work by social media and using
hash tags and hyperlinks so readers can access it easily. Also when Kovach and
Rosenitel state ‘they are becoming their own editors, researchers and even
correspondents’ this is right in the way that the process of an blog or
website, is the consumer goes though the same process as a producer.
Web
2.0 has given the public the opportunity to create, research and then publish
their own work. There are options to adjust settings, in order to set out the
blog/ website in order for it to be presented in a particular way. There are
websites that now help people create a website without having a deep
understanding of HTML, codes etc. Web 2.0 has been completely transformed journalism.
Looking back at journalism twenty or thirty years ago, members of the public
never had the opportunity to publish their work like you can do today.
Journalist working for news corporations would also have teams of people to go
out shoot, report, research, interview, each person would have a certain role
whereas now, journalist are expected to do that all by themselves as a one man
band, so as well as filming, shooting, editing, researching reporting,
journalist now have to obtain all of these different skills. According to the
culture-ist there are over 2,405,518,376 users on the Internet worldwide, so
the amount of news and content that is reaching these people is immense.
Social media has now become a big contributor for readers
reaching stories within news. The most viewed social media site is YouTube with
an astonishing 157 million monthly views, Facebook then follows with 148
monthly views and twitter with an 88 million monthly view. Social media
websites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn all connect with news corporations
like Facebook has apps which you can connect to online newspapers, newspapers
will have there own twitter account so people are constantly being updated on
the latest stories where as before there would only be a news paper published
everyday and readers would have to wait until the paper is published where as
now, communication within news has become a lot quicker. Hash tags are also a main part in new
journalism now. It’s important online writing is hash tagged with the right
words as this can be linked with the news article and will be more easily
accessible to people and easier for people to find the article. LinkedIn also
have a link with news, as they have published pieces, which you can share,
like, or comment. “In the coming years, if not sooner, social media
will become a powerful tool that consumers will aggressively use to influence
business attitudes and force companies into greater social responsibility -
and, I suggest, move us towards a more sustainable practice of capitalism.”
(Simon Mainwarning, 1997) This leads me to mention the new sort of
communication consumers can have with media. Having a share button on these
social media sites and online magazines this helps the magazine become
contributed on a bigger scale and can be sent to a lot more people, with print
the only other way to have people pass on a paper or magazine is if they physically
give it to someone. Another way for consumers to easily get involved is to
comment on news articles. By commenting the reader can express their view on
the article and even create a debate. This is something consumers have never
had the opportunity before. As well as this can be a good thing, it can also
cause harm in the way that people can act inappropriately online.
Blogging
on websites like Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr allows consumers to become
producers in the way that consumers have the opportunity to create, write and
publish their own work and create there own news. There have been lots of
successful blogs that now professionals follow and people rely on. This is a
incredible way of becoming successful and some people now create and maintain a
business through blogging. These blog websites allow consumers to easily upload
text, images, video and audio to there work and usually they all have apps, so
you can blog on your phone.
This
new form of connection as well as it being a positive point, it can also be an
extremely negative factor in journalism. Since social media has risen, there
has been a rise in cyber bulling. “Bulling
is violence and a human rights issue.” (Kirman, 2004) Being online, people
feel it is easier to post what they wont as there is a screen in the way but
there is a cranked down on what is said on social media and people are
beginning to be arrested for bad things said on social media. Bullying being
one issue but authenticity is another. People can be anyone they want to be on
social media, and this is a problem as there are comments being said on social
media that is not appropriate. Especially celebrities will get threat on social
media, some even go as far as death threats. It is important that online people understand
to respect one an other and to use the Internet wisely. Another factor is
personal information being handed out on social media people have to be careful
of, so when commenting on article it’s all about being safe.
To
conclude, I do agree with the statement Kovach and Rosentiel claim. I strongly
believe that technology has altered journalism, journalist skills and abilities
entirely. The readers have changed as well since the advances of technology today
allowing them to interact closely with media and become closer and part of the
media it’s self. And to sum up, we are producers as well as consumers.
Reference:
Caryl Phillips, 2008. Migrant Journeys:
A Converstation with Caryl Phillips.
Kevorkian, M., D’Antona, R., 2008. 101
Facts about Bullying: What Everyone Should Know. R&L Education.
Kovach, B., Rosenstiel, T., 2001. The
Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should
Expect. Crown Publishing Group.
McGuire, S., 2003. That’s show
business. The Guardian.
Science 2.0: Great New Tool, or Great
Risk? [WWW Document], n.d. URL
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/science-2-point-0-great-new-tool-or-great-risk/
(accessed 5.7.14).
