Entry 11 : Internet and Journalism

As you can see from the video, technology has a profound impact on media today. It cannot be denied that online news is crippling mainstream media. Traditional news organizations are now concerned about the real and perceived loss of viewers and circulation to the internet.

It was reported that an increasing number of people are getting their news from the internet, rather than the traditional source of TV news and newspaper. This consists mainly of the younger generations who are more IT-savvy. They are able to access the internet, be it through laptop, iphone or blackberry, for the latest news updates. This is probably where the future of readers and newspapers are headed. The internet also challenges traditional news organizations in another way. Newspaper may lose classified advertising to websites which removes barriers such as time and distance. Advertising is the main stream of revenue for traditional news organizations. The decline of advertising revenue often threatened the livelihood of these news organizations. In addition, internet give people the power to report the news as they see it. This gives raise to citizen journalism which is more evident these days.

Citizen journalism is defined to be the concept in which members from the public played an active in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information. One recent good example of citizen journalism would be that of the following photo posted on STOMP.
The image was uploaded and shared in Facebook with the caption 'Why we need foreign talents in Singapore'. It has since sparkled off debates on how fit and strong are our NSmen. (See the article in STOMP for more details.)

As you can see, citizen journalism raises issues and communities that have not been fully covered within the confines of a newsroom budget. It bought issues that have not been reported by the traditional news organizations to the media's attention in an effective and yet cost saving method. However, citizen journalism has its downside too. Citizen journalism often takes heat for lack of credibility, poor original writing and biased reporting. Sometimes, the citizen journalism sites showed little understanding of the process of gathering the news and writing it in a conventional form. Conventionality of presentation is important after all as it gives readers a recognizable framework to assess and understand what is being written. Facts may sometimes be distorted and be presented in a negative light. One example would be that of the citizen journalism website, Temask Review, which delved into the personal life of the youngest PAP candidate Tin Pei Ling. The article questioned her motives of for marrying her husband and even presented her as a materialist and social climbing monster. Such attacks on a social media is bias and lacks objectivity. See article for more details.

For now, the future of journalism and its business model remains unknown. However, it is evident that to remain competitive, traditional news organisations should incorporate technology and the internet into their reporting. Newspaper should also created citizen journalism websites separately from their newspaper. Newspaper need sound journalism afterall.

Now, what do you think of the future of journalism in the face of growing technology and internet?