The Impact of The Internet on Journalism

Is news reported differently on different platforms? How will future technological developments affect newsgathering and distribution?

Introduction

The impact of the internet on journalism is one area that continues to attract the attention of media scholars. The technology has brought forth a set of opportunities and challenges for conventional media (Garrison, 1996). The last ten years have seen a lot of inventions which have greatly altered the way people access and consume news. Audiences have also “developed more sophisticated and specific demands and tastes for news delivery, thanks in part to the explosion of social media and mobile technology.” (Kolodzy 2013)

Consequently, today’s audience is considered non-captive and far more empowered. This comes with challenges as well opportunities for journalists. Part of the challenge is that those who stick to a specialty area like radio or television, risk broadcasting themselves out of relevance. So, “rather than undermining the traditional narrative, the Internet is an opportunity to experiment with multi-dimensional storytelling and new narrative approaches that provide context and depth and also are more compelling and engaging.” (Grabowicz 2014) This requires the ability to reach the audience using more than one platform.

New media like twitter, Facebook, blogs etc. are all regarded as platforms on which to break news and share content. But in this paper, we will focus on three key elements: audio, video and text. The paper will also look at the web as an umbrella medium under which all these elements coalesce. The second and final of the paper looks at how some future technologies will affect news gathering and distribution in the future.

Convergence

Different stories wor...

... middle of paper ...

...ria will appear before the user’s very eyes. And if he says ‘two’ then the second entry on Syria is displayed.

Works Cited

GARRISON , B., (1996). Successful Strategies for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Mahwah, NJ, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

BULL, A. (2010). Multimedia journalism: a practical guide. London, Routledge. (Document in file)

(QUINN, S., & FILAK, V. F. (2005). Convergent journalism: an introduction. Burlington, MA, Elsevier/Focal Press.

(KOLODZY, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism: an introduction to cross-media storytelling.New York, NY, Routledge.)

Nielsen &Loranger (2006) Prioritizing Web and Usability New Riders Berkeley

(KOLODZY, J. (2013). Practicing convergence journalism: an introduction to cross-media storytelling.New York, NY, Routledge.)

PAUL, G, ( 2014) Multimedia storytelling available online http://bit.ly/1iCHcAC