Technological advances over the last few decades have forever changed journalism, and the entire news industry. Advantages such as speed of communication, more easily accessible information, and lower-cost ways to learning of news topics seem like technology’s impact on journalism has been nothing but positive. Any good journalist however, will always tell both sides of the story.
The development of a website called “Twitter” in June of 2006 makes it easier than ever to get a guaranteed true quote and/or fact straight from the typing fingers of everyone from President Obama, to reality TV. star, “Snooki”. Subscribers to the free service can receive the literally latest though that crosses Snooki, or preferably Barack’s mind, seconds after said thought is formulated, and all to your mobile device. The obvious advantage journalists receive from so-called “Tweeting”, is the relief from the many hours logged making phone calls, confirming facts, asking questions, and tracking down answers. In fact, stories will now often spawn from a “tweet”, rather than the old-fashioned way, in which a “tweet” (or any quote or fact gathered) would be used as evidence or research in a writer’s preconceived story.
Twitter: making fact-checking and quote gathering things of the past? That may, ironically, be the downside as well. With celebrities and public figures essentially text-messaging their followers whenever they eat lunch, it increases the difficulty, for a writer, of “breaking” a story. When Paris Hilton, world-famous “It” Girl, tweeted last month about being arrested for drug possession, it certainly took the wind out of any tracking reporter’s sails.
Thanks to this new-fangled internet we have, information of any sort is globally available. A subscriber to The New York Post can now save themselves a dollar a day, and just read their news online. Heightening the positive aspects of reading a paper online, is the added bonus of up-to the-minute ever-changing news, which a printed newspaper, ancient at three hours old, does not accommodate. With online devices such as Facebook and Twitter instigating peoples’ increasing need to know everything about everyone at every moment, what right-minded person is about to shell out money for “old news”?
This wonder that is known as online journalism is killing the physical need for magazines and newspapers; however it is also killing journalism itself. With circulation rates drastically down, and publishers with journalists looking for paychecks, advertisers swoop in to save the day. Simply logging onto NYPost.com shoves an ad, a third the size of the page, at the reader. With flashing text the advertiser lures a viewer’s eye to the right. When companies are essentially paying for the publication to stay in “print” (so to speak), it comes as no surprise that they want to be seen, and they do want to be seen. The problem presented with advertisers who want to be seen is the methods they will utilize. Articles by a popular author or with a major subject are where the advertisers want to be placed- but what happens if they don’t like what they see? For examples a religious affiliation will not want to be advertised next to a column promoting abortion; advertisers not only do not wish to be seen in a certain way, but want to be seen in areas with readers who will pay attention (like posting the religious ad to a pro-life article). Now the publication, desperate for funding, will bend to the advertiser’s will. Advertisements now control journalism because they can. Articles we read online for free are being paid for by people who are paid to make sure they get our money in the end.
Newer and advancing technology certainly allows for easier transport of communication, information, and thought exchange. There are better-than-ever techniques for storing and saving pieces and information that make it capable of lasting forever. The benefit of technology in journalism is lost on those who are unwilling, or simply unable to learn. From writers who are set in their ways, to journalists who simply were dealt the misfortune of not having the “knack”, resisters of technology are getting left in the dust by flash drives, megabytes, pdf files, and every other terrifying creation. Of course emailing is easy, and hard drives are safe, but how can we learn the latest and greatest technology when something new will make it whatever you read this online article on, into a fossil by tomorrow?
kaytoney 