Week 4: Who will pay for journalism?!

It is a fact that you can't flip open a newspaper or a magazine without being confronted by advertisements after advertisements. Advertisements are obviously the main supporter, backbone and probably one of the main factors apart from its readers which allows journalists to keep their job safe. According to Franklin (2006), journalism is a full-time job paid through a combination of subscription and advertising.

However, with the technology advancing at an alarming rate, and thus, the growing popularity of turning to the internet for news updates rather than picking up a newspaper at a local store, it has definitely placed print journalism in a threatening spot. Let's assume that newspapers fold worldwide and every single person start to rely heavily on the internet for news which subsequently, do not produce enough money to pay people to do journalism - then who will pay for them?

And it is probably exactly because of that (and also the fact that print journalism is a more credible source of news) that the print industry will never cease even when the internet rules the entire world.


References

Franklin B. 2006, Local Journalism and Local Media. Available from: Google Books [Accessed: May 27, 2011]

Week 3: Journalism as a Public Conversation

According to author Zaidi (2005), journalism was first introduced way back in the 17th century. At that time, newspapers were the only platform available used to reach out to members of the public. This form of traditional journalism was often seen as objective and balance. In other words, traditional journalism can often be trusted without a doubt.

However, over the centuries, a new form of journalism known as citizen journalism is undoubtedly thought to be the latest trend in media today. With the inception of local blogs such as Temasek Review and The Online Citizen, such form of writings has taken a new take on journalism.

As these bloggers are not considered to be professional reporters or journalists, this questions the credibility of the information that is put up in their websites. Citizen journalism usually puts people first, thus, capturing readers' hearts through its biased reportings. As mentioned by Allan (2009), citizen journalists have no responsibilities and that they can opt out anytime they want unlike professional ones.

Therefore, as much as we might want to take in and believe every single word put up by such 'irresponsible' journalists, it is of utmost important to not entirely rely on their reports solely. Perhaps what we can do is to read from multiple sources, inclusive of those from professional ones before coming to a conclusion and allowing those reports to shape our mindsets.

References

Allan S. 2009, Citizen Journalism: Global Perspectives. Available from: Google Books [Accessed: May 21, 2011]

Zaidi S. M. 2005, History of Journalism. Available form: Google Books [Accessed: May 21, 2011]