The New Age of Journalism

The Internet has revolutionized much of the world. Journalism is also being evolved into many different forms. Tradition print such as those of magazines and newspapers are being threaten due to the existence of online news websites. Participatory journalism, citizen journalism and many others form of it has risen thanks to the internet.

Now, anybody is able to create a blog and report on news. However, the big question is- will the content be bias or false? Newspapers such as Straits Times have an online edition of their newspapers, however, these news are still controlled by editors and censors. They are usually news that have already happened. Websites such as Stomp, make use of the public to harvest news. Everyday citizens are able to record a video or take a picture and sent it to Stomp. This will thus become the latest news that full-time journalist may not be there at the moment to capture and report on it.

Nowadays, big media companies also harvest on these small blogs to run their stories. They may pick up a lead of a story on someone's blog and thus be able to go ahead and find out more due to more resources on hand. Communal news that directly affects certain communities or neighbours have been very beneficial to specified target groups as they will be get the news efficiently.

Moreover, many news stations have set up Twitter accounts and have many followers. This will allow them to broadcast pressing news as it happens to the followers. Not only is it real time, accessibilty is also easy.

Mainstream media no longer control the news flow. They were previously gatekeepers of news. Although the Internet is full of hundreds of thousands of blogs, the most successful blogs rise to the top by keeping high standards of journalism. Objectivity remains a crucial value for journalists and the best bloggers know this New media isn’t forcing journalism to die, but simply adapt.

In summary, technology has improved the processes of identifying stories that are newsworthy. Feeds from social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter provide a snapshot of events happening around the world from the viewpoint of first-hand witnesses, and blogs and citizen news sources offer analytical perspectives from the ground faster than print or television can provide.