Online Journalism (Digital Journalism )

("To evaluate my assignment, click here")

Department of English

Maharaja Krishnkumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Name:-                                   Parmar Milankumar L.

Roll No. :-                             14

Enrollment no.:-                 pg14101026

Course name:-                   Mass communications and Media studies

Topic of an assignment:-Online Journalism (Digital Journalism )

Submitted to :-                    Dr. Dilip Barad,

                                                  Head of the department

                                                  Department of English (MKBU)

Ë         Introduction

The word journal or journalist has their origin in the French word the journal meaning a book and it has its origin in turn in the Roman word ‘Diurnalis’. Journalism has its childhood back in around 130b.c. in roman, where two hand written bulletins were putting in to the public square. Which were known as ‘Acta- Diurrna’. This was probably the first news paper dealing with events.  

From 130B.c to the present time journalism has grown up much. It has moved far from its origin in Roman to the present globalized world. The journey of the journalism in that course of time is that of from stone to print media, print to digital media which remained yet very popular form of journalism. But since last two decades of the 21^st century journalism has grown one more step ahead, now it turned from stone to print, print to broadcasting, and now from broadcasting to online journalism; Online journalism also known as digital journalism. The good thing about this long process of journalism is that it has included the previous form of journalism without any kind of the harm to previous one. Twenty first century is century of digital revolution. The world is digitalizing than why journalism left behind?

First let’s see what is journalism and then we will come to our point what is online journalism, according to Wikipedia page “Journalism is gathering, processing, and dissemination of News and information related to news, to an audience.  The word applies to the method of inquiring for news, the literary style which is used to disseminate it, and the activity (professional or not) of journalism. The media that journalism uses vary diversely and include: content published via newspapers and magazines (print), television and radio (broadcast), and their digital media versions — news websites and applications. (Wikipedia)

Ë  Role of Journalism

Lippmann saw Journalism's role “at the time as acting as a mediator or translator between the public and policy-making elites. The journalist became the middleman. When elites spoke, journalists listened and recorded the information, distilled it, and passed it on to the public for their consumption. Lippmann put it this way: The public is not smart enough to understand complicated political issues. It was also to act as a watchdog over the elites, as the public had the final say with their votes.

There are various types of Journalism they are as below

Ø Advocacy journalism

Ø Broadcast journalism

Ø Citizen journalism (participatory journalism)

Ø Data journalism

Ø Gonzo journalism

Ø Digital journalism

Ø Investigative journalism

Ø Photojournalism

Ø Sensor journalism

Ø Tabloid journalism

Ø Yellow journalism (sensationalism)

Ë   Digital journalism

The role and status of journalism, along with that of the mass media, has undergone profound changes over the last two decades with the advent of digital technology and publication of news on the Internet.

There is no clear cut definition of digital journalism. Mu Lin argues that "Web and mobile platforms demand us to adopt a platform-free mindset for an all inclusive production approach – create the (digital) contents first, then distribute via appropriate platforms." For Deuze, online journalism can be functionally differentiated from other kinds of journalism by its technological component which journalists have to consider when creating or displaying content. The difference between tradition journalism and the digital journalism can be in its role of reporter and its relation with audience and organization. The expectation of audience (society) for instant news and information has given birth to digital journalism. But still we can’t firmly say that this is digital journalism, for that we have to wait for time to pass.

Ë   History of Digital journalism

Like the other forms of journalism, at present we see as digital journalism has undergone very long process and still this process is ongoing. 

v The first type of digital journalism, called teletext, was invented in the UK in 1970. Teletext is a system allowing viewers to choose which stories they wish to read and see it immediately.

v After the invention of teletext was the invention of videotex, of which Prestel was the world’s first system, launching commercially in 1979 with various British newspapers such as the Financial Times lining up to deliver newspaper stories online through it.

v Online news websites began to proliferate in the 1990s. An early adopter was The News & Observer in Raleigh. "Nando evolved into the first serious, professional news site on the World Wide Web".

v By 1996, most news outlets had an online presence. And it was very convenient to reader that it has text, video and audio at a time. And reader has choice what to read and when to read.

v In 2001 the American Journalism Review called Salon the Internet's "preeminent independent venue for journalism."

v In 2008, for the first time, more Americans were getting their national and international news from the internet, rather than newspapers. Young people aged 18 to 29 now primarily get their news via the Internet, according to a Pew Research Center report. Sixty-five percent of youth now primarily access the news online.

v Blogs are also another digital journalism phenomenon capable of fresh information, ranging from personal sites to those with audiences of hundreds of thousands. Digital journalism is involved in the cloud journalism phenomenon, a constant flow of contents in the Broadband Society.

v The Online News Association, founded in 1999, is the largest organization representing online journalists, with more than 1,700 members whose principal livelihood involves gathering or producing news for digital presentation.

v Hyperlocal journalism is journalism within a very small community. Hyperlocal journalism, like other types of digital journalism, is very convenient for the reader and offers more information than former types of journalism. It is free or inexpensive.

Ë Impact of digital journalism

When the new things or new ways of something come it in one or other way has its impact on the traditional way of doing the things. The same things happened when there was new flaw of digital journalism. It has its impact on the traditional media ways of journalism and thus on the readers. Here are some points which are regarded as the impact of its…

 (Paxson., 2010)

v Digital journalism allows for connection and discussion at levels that print does not offer on its own. People can comment on articles and start discussion boards to discuss articles. This was not possible before this, reader and the writer never met or can interact with each other. People add to the story and connect with other people who want to discuss the topic.

v Digital journalism creates an opportunity for niche audiences, allowing people to have more options as to what to view and read.

v Digital journalism opens up new ways of storytelling; through the technical components of the new medium, digital journalists can provide a variety of media, such as audio, video, and digital photography.

v Online sources are able to provide quick, efficient, and accurate reporting of breaking news in a matter of seconds, providing society with a synopsis of events as they occur.

v News consumers must become Web literate and use critical thinking to evaluate the credibility of sources. Because it is possible for anyone to write articles and post them on the Internet, the definition of journalism is changing. Because it is becoming increasingly simple for the average person to have an impact in the news world through tools like blogs.

v The interaction between the writer and consumer is new, and this can be credited to digital journalism. There are many ways to get personal thoughts on the Web.

v This form of journalism has pushed journalists to reform and evolve. Older journalists who are not tech savvy have felt the blunt force of this. In recent months, a number of older journalists have been pushed out and younger journalists brought in because of their lower cost and ability to work in advanced technology settings. (wikipedia)

Ë        Digital journalism and traditional journalism

Many newspapers, such as the New York Times, have created online sites to remain competitive and have taken advantage of audio, video, and text linking to remain at the top of news consumers' lists. Indian news papers like The Times of India (www.timesofindia.com), Indian Express (www.indianexpress.com)and other publication also has their own news websites like The Hindu(www.thehindu.com).

Figure 1

                                      The Times of India Web Site

Newspapers and TV cable are at a disadvantage because they generally can only put together stories when an ample amount of detail and information are available. Often, newspapers have to wait for the next day, or even two days later if it is a late-breaking story, before being able to publish it. People are now able to find the news they want, when they want, without having to leave their homes or pay to receive the news.

The Internet has created a faster, cheaper way for people to get news out, thus creating the shift in ad sales from standard newspapers to the Internet. Many newspapers and individual print journalists have been forced out of business because of the popularity of digital journalism. Because of this, many people have viewed digital journalism as the death of journalism.

Students wishing to become journalists now need to be familiar with digital journalism in order to be able to contribute and develop journalism skills. Some of the quality require in digital journalism are…

They have to be quick,

Who can update their stories within minutes.

Able to infer credible information.

Some critics believe that newspapers should not switch to a solely Internet-based format, but instead keep a component of print as well as digital. in order to keep up with the transition from print to web.

Digital journalism allows citizens and readers the opportunity to join in on threaded discussions relating to a news article that has been read by the public. These threads can provide useful information to writers of digital journalism so that future articles can be pruned and improved to possibly create a better article the next time around.

The Internet has also given rise to more participation by people who are not normally journalists. Bloggers write on web logs or blogs. Traditional journalists often do not consider bloggers to automatically be journalists. This has more to do with standards and professional practices than the medium.

Other significant tools of on-line journalism are Internet forums, discussion boards and chats, especially those representing the Internet version of official media. Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict, but often the Internet is turned into the battlefield by contradicting parties creating endless "online battles." Internet radio and podcasts are other growing independent media based on the Internet.

Ë        Blogs

The increasing improvements in the field of digital journalism gave new rise to journalism in form of bloggers. Blogs can be seen as a new genre of journalism because of their “narrative style of news characterized by personalization” that moves away from traditional journalism’s approach, changing journalism into a more conversational and decentralized type of news. Blogging allows readers and journalists to be opinionated about the news and talk about it in an open environment. By allowing comments, the reader can interact with a story instead of just absorbing the words on the screen. According to one 2007 study, 15% of those who read blogs read them for news.

Ë  Citizen journalism

This allows anyone who wants to share something they deem important that has happened in their community. Individuals who are not professional journalists who present news through their blogs or websites are often referred to as citizen journalists. One does not need a degree to be a citizen journalist. Anyone can record events happening and send it anywhere they wish, or put it on their website.

For citizen journalism to be effective and successful there needs to be citizen editors, their role being to solicit other people to provide accurate information and to mediate interactivity among users.

The Internet also offers options such as personalized news feeds and aggregators, which compile news from different websites into one site. One of the most popular news aggregators is Google News. Others include Topix.net, and TheFreeLibrary.com. (wikipedia)

Conclusion:-

Digital journalism is very popular now days, people access news and information so easily and quickly, cheaply, and they can access what they want and whenever they want. It gives everybody the right of freedom of expression. But with all these there are several disadvantages also, like reliability and authenticity lacks in online journalism. It is threat to traditional journalism and print media.     

("To evaluate my assignment, click here")

Works Cited

Paxson., P. (2010). The Internet. In P. Paxson., & P. Paxson (Ed.), Mass communications and media studies : an introduction (pp. 144-148). London, 11 York Road, , London: The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.

wikipedia. (n.d.). wikipedia. Retrieved march 21, 2016, from wikipedia.org: www.wikipedia.com/digital_journalism

Wikipedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia.org. Retrieved March 17, 2016, from Wikipedia.org: www.wikipidea.com/journalism