Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Week 6 - We are ALL online-ed today

It is all about the ever-changing, ever-improving technology today that affects the journalism industry in more than one ways. Quality of news has taken a dip, the lingering question of credibility, the truth of where exactly do journalists today stand... Just to name a few, those are some of the issues facing the journalist industry in the world today.

Although it may be true that technology has brought with it numerous advantages, it also has adverse effects. The utmost convenience and simplicity of gathering and then distributing news through online platforms (worthy or not) has taken a toll on 'true' journalism. New media has taken over traditional journalism by allowing people from all walks of life to report on events happening around the world and pass them on to any Tom, Dick or Harry who subsequently, may (or may not) believe the report.

We are lucky if the news we received online were released by a real journalist behind the screen, or maybe a doctor - just someone educated and 'credible'. (Note that I insert an apostrophe in the word 'credible'. We can't escape biasness. It's human nature.) But what if we received news report released by a part-time cashier or maybe a 12-year-old kid, predicting the Armageddon? Well, the idea I am trying to get across is how terribly easy it is for just anyone to create news and pass them on to another person.

Technology has allowed such thing to happen and it is all happening today.

The convenience of the internet has resulted in people, even those who were previously not often exposed to news, to be exposed to news now. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs are some of the most common platform of news today. It's immediacy, easy-access and fresh updates has won traditional news hands down. This has resulted in something terrible despite its (little) advantages:

We are all subjected to lies and inaccuracy in news content.

3 comments:

  1. Just a short question: how do you think readers can be educated to detect "lies and inaccuracy in news content"? Or is that an imposible feat?

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  2. That is the whole point, Raudhah. Not everyone can detect such discrepancies and that's why I said that all of us are subjected to them each day.

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  3. I think as far as inaccuracies in a report can go, I suppose it's all up to the readers freewill to really believe what they read. As budding journalists, currently undergoing training, we should really strive to be objective in our reports.

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