week 11: Internet & journalism

jour·nal·ism (j ûrn-lzm)n.

1. The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.

2. Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.

The definition of journalism is one that is limited to traditional forms of publications such as magazines and newspapers, and the advent of the Internet has definitely brought about a change in the idea of what journalism is.

This article titled "Desperate battle to save America's newspapers" shows the dire state of newspaper companies today, especially since 2008, which saw the termination of over 16, 000 journalists, and the shutting down of 120 newspapers were shut down, with many going backrupt. Reason for this? "The economy has caused an immediate problem, but the business model for newspapers, based on circulation and advertising revenue, is broken, and that is a real tragedy for communities across the nation and for our democracy." - Bill Cardin

I would say that this change is due in a large part to the Internet, because people are increasingly turning to it for their news fix, and it's no wonder, because the Internet is a more convenient alternative and even free. However, I think that the slow fall of traditional journalism has paved the way for new forms of journalism - citizen journalism and convergence jouralism.

The concept behind citizen journalism is of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information". It is essentially what traditional journalism is, except that anyone can gather research and publish information easily, and this is of course made possible by the Internet. Blogs are the perfect example of citizen journalism, and this video below illustrates how one can make use of technology and new media to be a citizen journalist.



Convergence journalism, on the other hand, makes use of the ever popular social networking website. Convergence journalism is also known as new media journalism, and is seen to be a means of communication over the traditional method of print publications. Examples of convergence journalism tools are Facebook and Twitter, which allow the public to disemminate information rapidly through their online connections with others.

I would say that the Internet has most certainly changed the definition of journalism, but not the idea behind it. If anything, the Internet has allowed for more "journalists", for more information-sharing, and a greater spread of news worldwide.