Week 10

Online: a 'new' journalism - content and the rule of the search engine

As this week was my presentation I feel as though i have a good understanding of online journalism and the opportunities it can offer not only the media but also the public. I have also learnt about the concerns of online journalism, such as a reduction in quality. The following is some of the main points from my presentation as well a general discussion of the topic.

Online Journalism is most simply defined as journalism in the online environment. The primary role of online journalism is to report and analyse immediate facts and events, using the unparalleled technological abilities of the Internet. As Tapsell & Varley explain in this weeks reading, “ On-line journalism combines some elements of all its predecessors forms of news. On-line journalism can be immediate, providing frequently updated stories of news events” (2001, p.248). On-line journalism merges the power of pictures, graphics, audio, text, and interactivity and is available to millions of people. The internet has created a new platform in which all other forms of media can converge. From one perspective, the Internet can be seen as the whole package and thus requires journalists who have the skills to provide this package.

Online journalism began in the 1990's after the introduction of the internet which was arguably the most the most significant change in mass communication since television. Never before has any one medium been able to offer such informational, recreational and commercial diversity to such a vast network of connected users. In Australia, more than 1.5 million households were connected to the Internet by May 1999 (Conley & Lamble 2006) and for this reason, journalists, whose profession centres on the distribution of the news to the general population, quickly took advantage of the countless possibilities the Internet provided them with.

So what are the main reasons newspaper corporations now use on-line journalism?

After doing some research for my presentation, I found that the most important thing on-line journalism offers is immediacy. The immediacy of the news has always been the most important aspect of journalism. Traditionally, print journalism was not very immediate; readers would have to wait an entire day before the next paper was published with updated local news and they would have to wait even longer for national and world news, as it took longer to transport information across large distances.Television and Radio Journalism were more immediate, with several broadcasts throughout the day highlighting major news stories. If a really important story came up, regular broadcasts could be interrupted and the breaking news would be aired.However, online journalism has taken the next step; providing it users with the most immediate source of news. Online news sites are updated hourly, providing their users with instant access to local, national, and international news.

The next reason is that is that online journalism offers its users interactivity unlike any of its predecessors. As Meakin (2004) explains, online journalism offers two styles of interactivity. One dimension can be identified as interpersonal interactivity, or the extent to which audiences can have computer-mediated conversations in the spaces created for them by journalists. The other dimension can be defined as content interactivity in which journalists technologically empower consumers over content.In one way, online journalism offers users interactivity by allowing them to respond to articles, give feedback on the services provided, email journalists and hold discussion forums on topics of interest. However, it also allows the user interactivity with the online news site itself. This is known as content interactivity and allows users the power to interact with the content they choose to, ie, browsing local stories only, or getting the most up to date information on special topics such as the War in Iraq.

The advances in technology have also enabled online journalists to offer multimediality to their readers. Multimediality is the use of multimedia in the telling of the news. No longer are journalists restricted to telling the news in one format; they have the opportunity to let the story unfold throughout the use of a variety of mediums, giving the user the power to determine for themselves which medium tells the story in the best way. In the online news environment, video, audio, print and interactive software have converged, allowing the user the ability to choose which medium they would have their news served in.

Online Journalism also provides it users with hypertextuality, that is, the option to link to related articles, forums, websites etc with the click of a button. Hypertextuality essentially links one internet page to another. This new feature offered on news sites acts as a gateway to information, not only empowering the user to follow up stories if they choose, but to search for related material on the Internet.

Next I just wanted to talk about another form of on-line journalism. This refers to journalism not presented on newspaper and magazine websites. This is citizen journalism online. The internet has created a realm where people can take on their own initiative to be the journalist rather than let others provide it for them. We are seeing this through the use of blogging, commenting on/correcting articles on online media forms, letters to the editor, YouTube and more. On-line citizen journalism allows the public greater voice in expressing their interests, ideas, concerns, and desires, and allowing these to set the agenda for public debate through surveys, public forums, blogs etc (Tapsell & Varley 2001). The internet has given citizens a way to communicate the news themselves. It allows them to not only tell their stories but also publish them the way they want.

Another import part of online journalism is the introduction of a multi-skilled journalist. As the internet encompasses print, images, sound and video, there is a greater need for a journalist to have the skills to produce all of these formats. This will make a journalists job quite challenging in the future due to funding reduction that will mean less jobs avaliable and more work for those who do have jobs. The future journalist will be expected to do the work of four people instead of one.

Concerns of online journalism

The Internet challenges traditional news organizations in several ways. One in particular is that Newspapers may lose classified advertising to websites, which are often targeted by interest instead of geography. These organisations are concerned about real and perceived loss of viewers and circulation to the Internet and the revenue gained with advertising on news websites is sometimes too small to support the site. Other issues include lack of protections of intellectual property, anonymity (lack of credibility), lack of consistency, graphic manipulation, increased confusion between editorial and advertisement, loss of objectivity and loss of the tiered structure (the roles like editor may disappear which in turn may mean tasks such as source checking and sub editing may be skipped altogether). Many argue that the increasing amount of information that the internet provides, the decline in newspaper circulation, the significant number of internet users in Australia and the increasing use of citizen journalism online will mean the end for journalism in the future.

I found this quote while I was researching for my presentation:

“Journalism and journalists won’t disappear. As purveyors of meaning and context amidst all the noise, they could become more essential than ever.”
(Fulton 2000, p.2)

I personally agree with it. The internet contains so much information and I would much prefer to read a news story published by a journalist who has atleast done some sort of research into the facts, then reading about an event on someone's blog or in results from a search engine. Anyone with the internet can publish information as I find this very concerning. There will always be a need for professional journalism but the issue of funding it will need to be addressed!

What do you think about this and what are your reasons?

Here is a great website that explains online journalism in detail. It was written by journalist Doug Millison-

http://home.comcast.net/~dougmillison/faq.html

Sources:
Conley & Lamble, 2006,The Daily Miracle: An Introduction to Journalism, Third Ed. Oxford University Press.

Fulton, K, 2008, “News isn’t always journalism”, Columbia Journalism Review,
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3613/is_/ai_n8911982

Meakin, G,. 2004, M/Cyclopedia of New Media Online
http://wiki.media-culture.org.au/index.php/Online_Journalism_-_News

Nguyen, D. A., Ferrier, E. F., Western, M. C. and Mckay, S. B. (2005) Online news in Australia: Patterns of use and gratification. Australian Studies in Journalism, 15 : 5-34.

Tapsall & Varley, 2008, Journalism: Theory in Practice, Oxford University Press