How the Internet Changed Journalism
Thomas Lyster
Word count: 1,471 words including bibliography.
Student number: 10342547
Module code: A8JL1161920
The current era of Journalism is ever changing. The recurring theme of this era in which current Journalism functions is its highly digital nature. The most recent improvements in a broad range of digital technologies-going from computers, mobile devices, multimedia instruments, software and applications and finally social media. Although some old fashioned non digital types of contact have been kept, such as the print book publication also the physical campus-based education. The activities we do, such as bank transactions, going shopping and playing video games have all went digital. How humans communicate is now very technology driven; behind it stands not only machines such as computers, social media sites and smartphones but also processes and data collection. Normal people- most certainly the younger generations who can be nicknamed the “digital natives”- have started to get used to living their livelihoods in the digital way. A digital driven society has many profound impacts for Journalism and its future. Normal people- most certainly the younger generations who can be nicknamed the “digital natives”- have started to get used to living their livelihoods in the digital way. A digital driven society has many profound impacts for Journalism and its future. According to Franklin: “On this account, recent developments offer the potential for a new Journalism which employs new media technologies creatively to explore distinctive ways of writing and presenting news, whether working in converged newsrooms funded with innovative (public and private sector) sources of revenue”.
An example of a Journalistic piece using online storytelling would be the 42 an Irish sports website.
Here is the list of the online story telling it gives us:
- On a Sunday they publicise sports people’s tweets of that week. This is something the television stations don’t do.
- The 42 has a Facebook and a Twitter account that you can view their news stories on.
- It also has an app in which people can download on to their smart phones and are able to read the stories on the move if they are out and about.
- The website covers a wide range of sports from Rugby to Soccer, GAA, Golf, Boxing and Horse Racing.
- The website also gives an in depth match report after the final whistle.
- In Rugby and Soccer, it does an article on how each players performance is rated out of ten.
- Unlike Pundit Arena, Sports Joe and Balls.ie it has a comments section that allows sports fans voice their opinion on a relevant topic that matters to them.
- A few days afterwards, top Rugby Journalist Murray Kinsella who writes for the website, breaks down an Irish game into forensic details about how players carry out a move, how they defend and how they attack. To emphasise this Kinsella also uses GIFs in the articles.
- For someone who does not know much about Rugby they might this beneficial and get the gist of how technical Rugby can be.
- The 42 runs a poll on match days or who they think will win a tournament and sports fans pick which team who they think will do it.
- Finally, the site uses hashtags in its sports stories to go with the modern trend.
Here is the link to the website: https://www.the42.ie.
One of the challenges facing modern day newsrooms nowadays is the declining sales of newspapers due to the popularity of now reading news online. The Irish times and Telegraph to name a couple of papers, have being pay walling their articles because it is a way to get more money due to the declining popularity of people buying newspapers. The newspaper subscription service is used to pay its Journalists who write the stories and the advertisement money that the paper gets the benefits of. According to Pattabhiramaiah, Sriram and Manchandia: Recently Newspapers have attempted to try out a new source of online money by bringing in an access and/or a usage fee that is commonly known as a “paywall”. Another challenge facing the modern day newsroom be it the newspapers or broadcasting, is the way people consume news today be it on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and You tube on the go or on an instant on a smartphone or tablet at home. This compared to 10 or 15 years ago when you would have had to wait till the main evening news or the Radio to find out. The rise of fake news has become a hot topic and has brought into question how credible and accurate the news is that the media gives us. Fake news is news, stories or something false that is built to intentionally misinform or lie to readers.
According to Fedler, Bender, Davenport and Drager: The Internet saves Journalists time and the news companies money. It was only a few years ago, the information found by Journalists was picked up by going to libraries and other areas in the locality. Even with the telephone, many calls from Journalist still had to be made, messages were left and you had to be patient for people to call you back. Now with the Internet it allows Journalists to make more and higher quality stories.
The current news sites like to put in click bait news stories so that they can get a certain amount of people to read them or like them via social media and on the website. This more of a challenge for the traditional media such as the Irish Times or say the main television channels like RTE because more people are interested in reading the news off Facebook/Twitter whether it is credible or not. This generates more money for the clickbait sites and social media, hence the more traditional forms of the media, newspapers and Television channels lose money.
Newsrooms especially the more traditional forms of the media such as newspapers, Radio and Television stations will look to try and overcome these challenges by trying to match or adapt to what the more modern digital content platforms e.g. Netflix or The Journal.ie. This will include having Twitter polls on broadcasts an example would be; Who would be the most suitable candidate for the USA presidency, introducing a streaming platform like Facebook live or You tube for people to watch the same event as on the Television if they are not by the Television. Running a minute by minute Twitter commentary of a sporting or political event on a website is another form of modern Journalism. As a case study example, I worked in the Irish Field which is a Horse Racing and Equestrian sports newspaper for a week at the start of September. They only release a newspaper once a week which is on a Saturday. The Irish Field like some other papers have gone down the route of pay walling their articles so that they can pay their Journalists. I learned a lot working with the experienced Journalists at the paper and was integrated quite well. One of the things I learned to do was edit and check an article before it went to be published. Like other modern platforms the Irish Field tried their first podcast a month ago, which they discussed all things Horse Racing. They felt by having a podcast it would get the Racing fans who don’t buy the paper anymore or read it online due to the subscription service to listen to their content for free and increase listenership. It was a bright and innovative idea that I hope they will persist with in the future.
Newsrooms might change in the future with newspapers eventually going out of stock in shops and only being available to read online through a smartphone or an Ipad as one example. Some Radio stations like Newstalk here in Ireland with Off the Ball, stream their live Radio show on You tube. I can see more Radio stations doing that further down the line. Finally, paying for content online in the future will become more common than it is now, this will make Journalists responsible to the audiences rather than the advertisers. The days of getting news for free with any shroud of credibility are likely to become less and less.
Bibliography
Sillars, L. (2019). First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life. March 2019, Issue 291, p9, 4 p.;
Fedler, F., Bender, J.R., Davenport, L. and Drager, M.W (2005). Reporting in the Media (8th ed.). New York: Oxford University Place.
Franklin, B. (2012). The Future of Journalism. London: Routledge.
Philips, A. (2014). Journalism in Context: Practice and Theory in the Digital Age. http://www.okumedya.com/journalism%20in%20context.pdf
Pattabhiramaiah, A, Sriram, S; and Manchanda, P. (2019). Paywalls: Monetizing Online Content. Mar2019, Vol. 83 Issue 2, p19–36. 18p. 14.
Khan, A (2019) International Journal of Knowledge Management & Practices, 2019, Vol. 7 Issue 1, p77–80, 4p,
