The Future of Journalism
By Dayanara Analuisa
As traditional media continues to die out, journalism must be able to adapt to the changing environment. It struggles to not only stay relevant but to remain trustworthy as a media outlet. Certain steps must be taken in order to keep journalism as a source for reliable news in the future.
Throw away the idea of objectivity.
Journalists need to throw away the idea that everything has to remain unbiased because it’s impossible to remain objective. It is an old way of thinking and it provides little benefits to the outcome of the story. Certain facts can be stated as objective, but the story as a whole can take multiple different angles. Journalists should be able to target certain audiences without the fear of always remaining objective and unbiased.
Integrate social media and other technologies into journalism.
Journalism has already taken the step to use new technologies to gain new audiences. However, more journalists need to adapt to social media and its influence on the public. If all journalists had social media accounts they would be able to become more accessible to new audiences and spread their ideas farther. According to “How Successful Journalists use Social Media,” it was released that Cision had a Global Social Journalism Study in 2017. There was a 12 percent increase in the number of posts published online by journalists between 2012 and 2017. Social media can provide a long-term opportunity to share ideas in a quicker and shorter fashion.
Target new audiences by reporting on different communities that are necessarily “popular.”
Journalism can often become too repetitive that the same news can be recycled numerous times. Journalists can often neglect some stories that aren’t usually covered like smaller local communities. It is a greater challenge because if it isn’t covered often, the journalist would not have a lot of resources to start on their story. However, shining a light on other locations are necessary for journalism to grow because it can attract new audiences to the media outlet.
