Improvements in Journalism, Mass Media and Communication - Essay Example

? Journalism, Mass Media and Communication By Due In the early 90s, journalism depended on television, radio and newspaper. The newspapers were experiencing a decline in their usage as they had for more than the previous 100 years. Perhaps the process of decline in their usage had started since the introduction of radios because radios were quicker and timelier. Radios have been in use since a long time. Their use for news was extensive even in the 90s because they were the only portable devices at that time that could have been used for live updates. The use of televisions had continued to increase but most of the under-developed countries still relied more on radios and newspapers. Still, journalism and mass communication is not as widespread as it is in developed countries. Like many other fields relating to different aspects of our lives, technology has deeply influenced journalism and mass communication. The processes of producing news and delivery of information have become much quicker. News can reach everywhere with much more accuracy. The quality of radio, television and newspapers has improved greatly. The impact of technology has helped journalism to become a more professional field. The news reporters and editors have now to perform at a certain standard. In the early 90s, the performance standards had developed but still a lot of editors and reporters were more inclined to join hands in propaganda to spread a particular point of view or a political party. The USSR had fallen by then but biggest examples of such news reporting can be found in the cold war during which many reporters had the objective of asserting one ideology and renounce another i.e. capitalism and communism. Such mindset made the editors and reporters refrain from telling the whole story. As the Internet has now joined the news industry, it is very hard to hide or avoid a piece of news. It is because the Internet is probably the quickest of all means of promulgating news and anyone can report any news to the world now. Previously, there used to be a competition among journalists only due to which only the journalists got most of the stories or “scoops”. The journalists had the liberty to spread only that portion of the news that they wanted to spread. Journalism and mass communication used to be a closed society to which only those belonged who had the funds to own a printing press or were closely related in some other capacity to one who belonged to that society. Mostly during the last 10 years, the Internet has become very widespread and the cost of reporting news is at the minimum level. Now even the minorities can join the field of journalism as it has become an open society. The general public has access to electronic devices which are portable and can take pictures and videos. These pictures and videos can be posted on the Internet at almost no cost. Therefore, for professional journalists, omission of news has become out of the question. The recent US presidential campaigns used mass internet campaigning which curtailed the influence of the journalists manifold. Journalists have often been used as mediums to convey a political message to the public. Mass internet campaigning seeks to cut out this medium and make the conveying of message more direct and at a lesser cost. This trend has been set by Obama and is followed and likely to be followed by other political parties all over the world. It can be said that the introduction of the Internet has made everyone a journalist. Through blogs, forums and many other veritable devices, anyone can have their voices heard. In recent times, a Facebook fueled uprising led to a huge change in Egypt. It started out with one voice that ignited the inner voices of many others. Egypt was under a dictatorial rule for a long time and probably the biggest reason for that was the ability to the Government to silence the dissenting opinions and make the public hear only what it wanted it to hear. The Internet made it impossible for the Government to suppress the opposing emotions and it led to the downfall of dictatorship. Had there been no Internet, the Government would have had the similar type of influence over the country and Egypt would have still been ruled by a dictator. The introduction of the Internet has also influenced the disposition of the general public towards news reporting. Previously, it was possible for reporters to include their own personal thoughts and feelings towards an event both intentionally and unintentionally. This made the reporting of news somewhat biased and it went unnoticed by the public. These days, people have become more skeptical and the reporters have to pay more attention to make their reporting impartial and objective. Again, it can only be achieved when there is professionalism. In order to attain professionalism in each and every field of journalism, the demand of educated fresh blood has increased. From media executives to technicians, everyone has advanced journalistic training to cope with the challenges of the modern era and the expectations of the modern audience. The need to be fair and professional is strongly asserted by even the professionals themselves these days. Faulty reporting is detected very quickly and the reporters run a risk of losing their credibility. For instance, The Daily Show by Jon Stewart is a mock news program with a purpose of entertaining the audience. It helps in pointing out the absurdities that happen all over the world. Importantly, it has repeatedly criticized and made fun of the errors made by the CNN and Fox News during reporting. It has made the news channels more careful and made them to be more professional while reporting. It has also made the audience more skeptical and aware of its rights. There have been some researches on the impact of internet on journalism. There have been many positive aspects. Internet has proven to be a source of new opportunities for journalists and has made it possible for them to enhance their work and interact with their readers quickly and on a wider level (Schultz, 2000). Journalists used to be information gatekeepers but now they can be information facilitators meaning that they have a new mediation role due to the involvement of the Internet (Boczkowski, 2004). In many countries, the journalists promoted the readership regarding computers and the internet and helped in forming a kind of information literacy (Fortunati, 2005). Some researchers also indicate the negative impact of the Internet. It has led to the introduction of a new class of professionals who are young and often underpaid. They have to work under strict deadlines which sometimes force them to copy and paste somebody else’s work instead of writing fresh articles hence compromising originality and leading towards possible plagiarism (van der Wurff, 2005). Such reporters have less security and are more like news producers than journalists because their investigative role is almost none. Weaver, Beam, Brownlee, Voakes & Wilhoit found out that most of the journalists rate the interpretative/investigative role and the disseminator role as the most important in journalism (2006). The introduction of the Internet has forced a change in the field of news reporting. When there is a requirement of a change, the hardest step is to unfreeze and leaving some of the practices. The journalists themselves have shown mixed tendencies to change. Some of them adapt to the change, some resist it. Some of them assert the requirement of high quality journalism and try to reinvent themselves by incorporating a new outlook and an IT ideology (Deuze, 2005). According to Domingo, the Internet has opened a new chapter in the relationships between publishers and journalists as regards professional identity: a story of modest wages, of precarious jobs, and of extreme flexibility (2006). It has redefined the role of the readers. As stated above, the Internet has made everyone a journalist which means that the readers have now the opportunity to promulgate their own ideas, views and analysis which has made them competitors to professional journalists to some degree. Their relation with news, information and newspapers has been redefined. On the other hand, despite being competitors, they are also unpaid for their services and most of the times just prove to be external content producers for the professional editors and reporters. Over the last 20 years, global news reporting has certainly improved but there have been some negative impacts too. Since everyone can be a journalist, the code of ethics in news reporting is forgone to a great degree because it cannot be regulated with numerous sources of disseminating information. Online sources are too vast to be kept under a check which is why the readers always show concern over the credibility of news that they come across online. It is common experience that when a reader goes online to read news, he looks for “news”. The reader is expected not to believe any online article without proper references. The major newspaper companies have their websites which are updated consistently with fresh news hence creating online newspapers. These online newspapers have more credibility than any online article. It is largely due to the fact that these news articles are written by professional journalists who have a brilliant investigative role. However, the journalists themselves too receive news from online sources and there again comes the issue of credibility. The behaviour of journalists towards online sources is still in the process of evolution and it is likely that with the passage of time, more journalists would resort to using the Internet and deeming the online sources credible. This also means that ethics are also in the process of development regarding the online media. Global news reporting has experienced a great improvement in the speed of reporting. World has become a global village. The news of an earthquake in America would take no more (even less) than 5 minutes in spreading all over the world. There are many countries today whose performance in stock exchange depends directly on the stock exchange performance of the US. There are news channels that consistently update the news regarding the American stock exchange and people who are thousands of miles away are able to take important financial decisions in time. Any event of significance in any part of the world is promptly reported. This has also affected the foreign relations of countries. For instance, the US has funded Pakistan to fight against terrorism. Every development in the disputed areas or any act of terrorism is promptly reported and the US can directly infer the results of its efforts while being thousands of miles away from the scene. With the passage of time, the audience has grown smarter and more up to date. This has required the news reporters to be more efficient and professional in their work. The competition in the field of journalism has caused journalists to try to report what their rivals have not. There is no omission of news and people are very much aware of the performance of their Governments. The higher authorities have also become aware of the improved journalism and they try to be more transparent in their working as any act of corruption might not go unnoticed. As among the Governments of different countries themselves, they can show their reaction towards any event very effectively at a great speed. The improvement in news reporting has been great in some countries but many under-developed countries have not been able to share this fruit equally. There are many places where there is no electricity e.g. in Africa. They have to rely on newspapers and radios which make the Governments able to have a control on the general opinion. Times are still changing and the development is still in progress. That time is not far away when such countries would be also as much updated as the developed countries and for that, better system of education is necessary. References Boczkowski, P.J. (2004). Digitizing the news: Innovation in online newspapers. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Deuze, M. (2005).What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 6(4), 442–464. Domingo, D. (2006). Inventing Online Journalism. Development of the Internet as a News Medium in Four Catalan Online Newsrooms. Doctoral dissertation, Universitat Aut`onoma de Barcelona. Fortunati, L. (2005). The mediatization of the net and the Internetization of the mass media. Gazette, 67(1), 27–44. Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the concept of interactivity: an exploratory study of online forums and reader email, Media, Culture & Society, 22, 205–221. van der Wurff, R. (2005). Introduction: Impacts of the Internet on newspapers in Europe, international communication. Gazette, 67, 5–7. Weaver, D.H., Beam, R.A., Brownlee, B.J., Voakes, P.S., & Wilhoit, G.C. (2006). The American journalist in the 21st century: U.S. News People at the Dawn of a New Millennium.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Read More