Web 2.0 and the Future of Journalists

1202 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The history of the Internet

Web 2.0 or "the world wide web’ is the network as platform, spanning all connected devices" (O’reilly 2009). The social software applications Web 2.0 offers such as; social networking sites, blogs and podcasts etc. has made communicating easier and for some, more accessible, especially with the improvement of portable, hand held devices like phones and tablets. Although the evolution of the World Wide Web was proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the idea of using "networked computing to connect people in order to boost their knowledge and their ability to learn" (Alexander 2006) was first considered by American psychologist and computer scientist JCR Licklider in the 1960’s. The applications that make up the World Wide Web are the main reason for its rapid expansion. "As the sites continue to grow, more features are added, building off the technologies in place" (Web2.0 2008). "It is now possible for people who have hands-on experience or specialist knowledge concerning news events to broadcast their own news" (Domingo et al 2008). This rapid growth has had a major impact on traditional journalism and to some extent has put the profession under threat. "Journalists are now relying on the public to uncover stories and to source actuality and expertise from the great sway of readers" (Domingo et al 2008).

Since their arrival on the World Wide Web, social networking sites have developed rapidly and have emerged as a "major component of the Web 2.0 movement"(Alexander 2006). Due to the growing number of users, news organisations are using them increasingly more in the news gathering and publishing process. Twitter for example "has acquired 200 million regular users since it was established in March 2006 with around 500 million tweet...

... middle of paper ...

...ssional journalists, the question has to be asked as to why people are straying from newspapers, to online sources, some of which they would not trust as being credible. A reasonable explanation for this could be the improvement of interactivity. Web 2.0 has allowed journalists to post their articles online, with comment sections at the bottom allowing for discussion. Journalists are also joining chat rooms and discussion boards to interact with their audience (Thornburg 2011). In a way this could be a way of compensating for the potential loss of a public voice if and when newspapers were to dissolve completely. To summarise, it can be said, to a great extent that Web 2.0 has the power to turn journalism from a lecture into a conversation, as it has already started to change the way the public consume their news, and in the short time it has been prominent.

Show More
Related

  • Negative Impact On Social Media

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social networks are living their big explosion and organizations can not remain outside it. Improve positioning, branding, business communication, creativity, participation, knowledge management. Multiple business processes can be benefited through use. Sites like Facebook and Orkut, with over 300 million users, 210 MySpace, Hi5, Twitter, Tuenti, with respectively more than 80, 50 or 40, surely they are already

    Read More

  • American Journalism In Peril Summary

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The News about the News: American Journalism in Peril” by Leonard Downie Jr. and Robert G. Kaiser is the forefather to Kovack’s “The Elements of Journalism.” More than 10 years before Kovach penned his expectations for journalists and the public, Downie and Kaiser, veteran journalists at the Washington Post, touch on each of Kovach’s key tenants of journalism, as evidenced by their three main goals: “to explain why good journalism is so important, to increase the knowledge of consumers of news about how the news business works and to encourage public support for the best journalism” (p. 12). Their discussions of infotainment, accountability journalism, transparency, objectivity, changing business models, news values and “genuine interactivity” with readers via the Internet, make the similarities clear. Many sentences from “The News about the News” could be from either book. For example, “When profits, and thus ratings, matter most, the temptation to woo bigger audiences with crime, violence, disasters and celebrities is overwhelming,” and “Of the many unknowable facts about the future, perhaps one is most critical: what consumers will want and expect from the Internet five, ten or twenty years from now,” which both touch on major themes in the two pieces (pgs. 177, 216).

    Read More

  • Public Journalism vs. Traditional Journalism

    2245 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are two distinct sides to the debate of journalism, their journalists, and the consumers: traditional journalism and public journalism. In the current digital age there is a greater number of public journalism being practiced. However, journalists and their consumers run into several issues concerning that matter. To express more clearly, there are particular roles and characteristics in which journalism standards are being gauged.

    Read More

  • News Media Impact On American Culture

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    To avoid putting out unreliable information, journalists have to be very skilled at fact checking as quick as possible and posting it online before someone else does. However even knowing this people in today's society prefer to get the majority of their information from the internet because it is the most up to date. Not to mention it is much more convenient to obtain information through the internet. People are able to pick up their smart phone or tablet from virtually anywhere and look up anything they could think of. This beats waiting until 10 o'clock news on TV or the morning

    Read More

  • Web 2.0

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    The term Web 2.0 was invented by Tim O’Reilly, founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media.

    Read More

  • The Future of Journalism

    1581 Words  | 4 Pages

    Thirty years ago, if I told you that the primary means of communicating and disseminating information would be a series of interconnected computer networks you would of thought I was watching Star Trek or reading a science fiction novel. In 2010, the future of mass media is upon us today; the Internet. The Internet is and will only grow in the future as the primary means of delivering news, information and entertainment to the vast majority of Americans. Mass media as we know it today will take new shape and form in the next few years with the convergence and migration of three legacy mediums (Television, Radio, Newspaper) into one that is based on the Internet and will replace these mediums forever changing the face of journalism, media and politics. In this paper I will attempt to explain the transition of print media to one of the internet, how the shift to an internet based media environment will impact journalism and mass media, and how this migration will benefit society and forever change the dynamic of news and politics.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Journalism

    902 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many people believe journalism is just newspaper, books, and reporting, but it is much more than that. The only way news station can stay intact is because of journalism. The journalists feed those stories, which then are broadcasted on TV or the radio. Taking out that first medium slows down the process of retrieving that information (Holm, 2001, pg. 68). With lower funding towards the industry, it cuts out a middle man that is crucial in the news, broadcasting, and entertainment process. It even has affected major companies too. CNN who revolves around reporting cut half of their stories packages down from 2007 to 2012 because of declines in the budgets for journalists (Anderson, 2004, pg. 63). The industry has also taken a huge hit because in 2012 30% of the industry was cut down and no more than 40,000 journalists were full-time (Anderson, 2004, pg. 63). That affects daily news stories and has made major players in the newspaper business drop out purely because it cannot support to keep running. With the declining numbers, it would seem as if the industry has taken a dive, but the industry itself hasn’t lost any content it is more around the fact that the people believe they do not need journalism anymore. That is because of the internet age, and how basically all the world’s information can be at one’s fingertips. All the information can be found on the internet, and with social media, many people believe they can find something if they look hard enough, which is a statement that is mostly true. Also with this renaissance of information people get their information faster through things like social media, which has taken a toll on journalism (Grabowicz, 2014). Things like twitter can document things happening at any given moment, and journalism takes longer than typing a tweet. This move to the amateurish content has resulted in a travesty for the

    Read More

  • Elements Of Journalism

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Naturally, journalism would spill over to the Internet and as social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook grew in popularity, so did regular citizens involvement with sharing news. The argument can be made that the explosion of social media journalism was due to frustration from the lack of coverage of news that mattered to society. For example, the lack of subjective coverage of Michael Brown 's death helped with the creation of #BlackLivesMatter and spread of news related to African-American’s and other minorities across the country. After all, journalism is supposed to be a public forum. Millions of people on Twitter share their thoughts and opinions on several topics, furthering the conversation and to some degree challenging society. Things such as “Moments” on Twitter provide us with direct links and summaries to the world’s most important stories and encourage a conversation. According to journalism.org, 63% of users on Twitter and Facebook get their news from these websites. Even more eye opening is that 59% of users on Twitter keep up to date with news stories via Twitter while they are in the process of happening.[3] The rise of social media related journalism has caused some issues however. “Inevitably, as citizen involvement grows, more of our media culture is concerned with talking about news, instead of focusing on original reporting and the vetting of it.”[4] Because the general public has the ability to post as they wish and pass it off as news, it has affected the accuracy of many reports. Many stories lack reputable sources but are shared between millions as an accurate and true story. There are several websites designed to spread inaccurate information. The website www.fakenewswatch.com exists to inform people of these sites in order to avoid mishaps. Recently a Connecticut mom went viral for being involved in an online hoax

    Read More

  • The Impact of Electronic Media and the Internet on Print Media

    1545 Words  | 4 Pages

    New technology has developed rapidly since the birth of the internet, and it continues to expand and evolve affecting many domains, especially the print media. This essay will investigate the influence and impact of current technology of the electronic media and World Wide Web on print media, and how future developments in technology will affect the future direction of the traditional newspaper. The way in which “Bloggers” have influenced traditional journalism will also be explored and how this has affected the journalism profession. In addition, the negative impacts of how the electronic media is being used as a political forum will also be investigated. Finally, the author will predict the consequences of future developments in this rapidly growing industry and the implications this may have on the direction of print media.

    Read More

  • Print Media vs Digital Media

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Paul Grabowicz. "The Transition to Digital Journalism." Print and Broadcast News and the Internet. N.p., 30 Mar. 2014. Web. 27 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Mainstream Media

    1999 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mainstream media such as television, radio, newspapers were the primary source of reliable information before the epoch of the internet. However, the situation has changed. The evolution of modern technology in the world today has led to the continuous increase in the methods of practicing journalism. Social and technological advancements have not only improved the pace and content of this field’s practice, but has extended its genre to online or cybernetic journalism. (Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2007). News websites most of which are owned by major media companies and alternative websites with user generated content such as social networking sites and blogs are gaining grounds in the journalism field of practice. (Nel, n.d). One of the chief forces affecting the practice of journalism nowadays is online citizen journalists. Nel (n.d) defines citizen journalism as “individuals playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information”. He further adds that “citizen journalism is slowly being looked upon as a form of rightful democratic ways of giving hones news, articles, etc, directly by citizens of the world from anywhere.” One of the major researches conducted in the field of citizen journalism, describes the phenomenon as “individuals who intend to publish information online, meant to benefit a community”, and this information is expected to benefit the audience or the wider population in making decisions for the improvement of their community. (Carpenter, 2010.)

    Read More

  • Journalism and Social Media

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    "Journalists and Social Media | The Changing Newsroom." The Changing Newsroom | New Media. Enduring Values. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. .

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Facebook And Twitter Essay

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    Social media has become a major epidemic in today’s society. According to millions of people have signed up on social media websites, allowing their basic information to be shared with the world wide web. Two of the biggest social media websites today are Facebook and Twitter. The new generation tends to use Twitter over Facebook, the older generation prefer Facebook over Twitter. Though Facebook and Twitter serve the same purpose and have many similarities, they both differ in many ways.

    Read More

  • Impact Of Social Media Essay

    646 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, social media changed the way of living and the working level of many people like organizing vacations and researching for school and university projects. With attributes that may affect the way people interact online, social media open a new ways for many newspapers, magazines to publish their issues online to promote their ideas quickly and to let the people in contact with their news and to make more productivity and make more money. Also, they can listen to any type of music, reads books, story, purchase any product, buy clothe online...

    Read More

  • The Similarities Between The Old Media And The New Media

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    Newspapers and magazines may cease to exist as we know them and simply more to solely electronic productions. “Breaking news” can be moved to live stream videos by newscasters and not formal stories. There is a possibility that newer forms of media will eliminate old forms altogether, but that does not have to be the case. Ideas from both can be taken and merged together to ensure a quick and also trustworthy source for news. Social media is a medium between the two that is a good goal for media companies to reach. Many “old media” news sources have a Twitter, Facebook or other type of social media account related to their companies. The news is trustworthy because it’s coming from a well known source, but it also comes faster than a broadcast story or a newspaper/magazine article. A good example of where having a social media account is more beneficial is with the fire currently burning in Santa Clarita. News sources such as ABC 7, KTLA, and the LA Times are able to give constant updates via “new media” about the condition of the fire and the environment around

    Read More

More about Web 2.0 and the Future of Journalists

Open Document