I have chosen the following four texts as each of them highlights a different point in the context of ‘News and Digital Studies’. The first selection focuses on ‘Networked Journalism’, the second looks into the ways and means of effective journalism in a digital era, the third article traces the various stages of innovation in news delivery systems and how the change in medium does not necessarily mean a change in the attitude to tell stories, and the fourth one tries to understand whether journalism can be objective in a digital world. These texts not only provide information but in all probability can lead students in a DCNM class to come up with a new viewpoint about News and Digital Studies, understand the pros and cons and maybe even provide solutions to certain problems.
I. The Role of Journalism in the Digital Age. Being a Superhero or Clark Kent: Do Journalists think Networked Journalism is an appropriate tool to work with (in the future)? – Anja Kröll, Reuters Institute Fellowship Paper, University of Oxford “Credibility is the shortest good in an era of information overload.” # We live in an age surrounded by new media like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, etc. Devices like smartphones and tablets make it possible to carry news in our pockets and there is a considerable growth of easy to use digital publishing technologies. Among all these, a major shift has been in the behavior of the audience. The audience doesn’t want to be a passive consumer anymore but an active contributor; a phenomenon Nic Newman calls ‘era of active citizen.’ So is it possible that professional journalists and the public can work together to generate news? This collaboration is termed ‘Networked Journalism.’ It is the working together of professionals and amateurs to get the real story, linking to each other across brands and old boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas, perspectives – all this enabled by Web 2.0 technologies such as mobile phones, email, websites, blogs, micro-blogging, and social networks. 1 This paper analyses the role of journalism in the digital age and whether journalists think that ‘networked journalism’ is an appropriate tool to work with (in the future). The paper becomes an interesting choice as it concerns itself with the traditional role of journalists, how that role is now changing in a digital world, are journalists ready for networked journalism and if yes, what are the potential risks and solutions at hand. Journalists may publish inaccurate information received from the public. Here, the journalist, who is traditionally trained as a gatekeeper or a watchdog and finds herself in the middle of these changes and challenges must stick to the core values of journalism – verify stories, analyze them and then comment on them. Some of the other solutions are models like the User Generated Content (UGC) portal of BBC where journalists verify all the information received by the public. Clear guidelines and procedures must be mandatory to handle any information received from the public before breaking any news. A major difference in the role of a journalist in the past and today’s digital age is dealing with much more information than in the pre-digital age. It thus becomes imperative for the journalist to fulfil her role as the gatekeeper.
__________________________________________________________________________ II. The Future of Journalism: Tom Rosenstiel at TEDxAtlanta
To the question, “Has digital technology made journalism better or worse?”, speaker Tom Rosenstiel answers with a simple “Yes” and goes on to say that the disruption caused today by technology will lead to the Reformation of journalism. Earlier it took a monk over a year to transcribe the Bible. With the Gutenberg press, over 180 bibles were printed in one year. Every time a new technological innovation made its way, it was thought the older one would fade away. When the camera was introduced, it was thought that paintings would disappear. When the television made its way, it was thought the radio would disappear. But none of this happened and in fact, every medium bettered and reinvented itself. The same is the case with journalism in the digital age. In the old system of media, journalists were obliged to publish news they thought others should know. The media told the audience what to think about but it didn’t tell them what to think. Earlier, consumers had to adjust themselves to news media. If one didn’t want to miss the evening news, one had to be present in front of a television set or radio to listen to it. Today, the scenario has changed completely and news media has to fit consumer behavior. Journalism has to understand the rhythm of the audience. The news has to be worthy because if not, better coverage of the same story is only a click away. The fewer audience for news programs does not mean that people are moving away from the news. Technology is, in fact, bringing a whole new set of consumers who wouldn’t have otherwise consumed news in the older format. Hence, journalism cannot be advertisement-driven anymore and the financial turmoil it faces will be overcome by innovations like charging for digital subscriptions. And to attract the audience to pay for content, journalism is going to have to be more convenient, transparent and evidence-driven. And for journalism to continue to be effective in digital times, when the consumers’ readings drive what goes on the homepage, it is the consumer’s curiosity that will determine quality journalism. If earlier, journalism was only as good as the person who owned the press, now it will be as good as the consumer’s curiosity. __________________________________________________________________________ III. Journalism in the Digital Age: Trends, Tools, and Technologies – The Guardian
The ’90s was a period of significant changes in India – not just in terms of her economy, but also in terms of how her people would communicate. From a landline telephone to a cord-less phone, from cassettes to walkman, from DD news to a plethora of news channels, and from dial-up connection to broadband internet connection. Those of us who were able to experience the change know that not all that is old disappears with modern innovations. The news article chosen traces the history of news and print media all the way back to the Roman Senate. Documents would be transcribed by hand and news would be preserved. It was the printing press that broke the monopoly of the scribes when William Caxton brought it to England. It’s interesting to see the picture of the printed news with a big blank left for the first capital letter to be written by hand as the press at the time wasn’t equipped to print different fonts and sizes. Tracing the history of journalism from the Senate, the printing press, to broadside, the article comes to the time of the World Wide Web that has resulted in an increased distribution of news. It suggests that it is alright for a journalist to use Tumblr, Dipity, YouTube or Live Blogging to tell her story because the concept of journalism is different from the concept of running a newspaper. Journalism and the methods of delivering news have always changed with technological innovation. If initially, the Chruch had the power of producing and transmitting knowledge, the printing press brought about a revolution, in that news and information was made available to all. From chronicle to broadside, from broadsheet to iPhone app, the format and delivery of news have always changed, but the basic human behavior of wanting to uncover, tell, and share stories of common interest always remains. 2 https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2010/apr/14/journalism-trends-tools-technologies __________________________________________________________________________ IV. Impartial Journalism in a Digital Era – Al Jazeera
In an age of increasing digital journalism, can a journalist be impartial and objective? Impartiality and objectivity are the basic values of a journalist but in times such as today when there is more information than there ever was and where the internet provides a space for partial and partisan journalism to exist, can news be impartial and objective? Zahera Harb believes that just as there is no ultimate objectivity, there is also no such thing with respect to impartiality. Every news-teller, whether she writes in the newspaper, on a digital platform or even posts a tweet, is opinionated. By the very nature of being a human, it is only natural that one has her own views and opinions that lead to actions. Expecting absolute objective content from the provider is a fanciful demand. The responsibility rests also with the consumer to understand that the provider may have a different view-point and taking offense or verbally attacking the journalist on available digital platforms against anything and everything that does not fit into one’s own framework is not how the future of digital journalism can work. https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2015/01/impartial-journalism-digital-era-2015110131426594231.html __________________________________________________________________________ Bibliography
1. Kröll, Anja. The Role of Journalism in the Digital Age. Being a Superhero or Clark Kent: Do Journalists think Networked Journalism is an appropriate tool to work with (in the future)? Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford. 2015.
Videos
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuBE_dP900Y (Accessed on 05th February 2020)
2. https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2015/01/impartial-journalism-digital -era-2015110131426594231.html (Accessed on 05th February 2020)
News Articles
1. https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2010/apr/14/journalism-trends-tools-te chnologies (Accessed on 05th February 2020)
2. https://www.zeit.de/2015/40/leitmedien-entscheidungen-meinungen-virale-netze (Accessed on 06th February 2020) [1] Kröll, Anja. The Role of Journalism in the Digital Age. Being a Superhero or Clark Kent: Do Journalists think Networked Journalism is an appropriate tool to work with (in the future)? Pg. 6 [2] https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2010/apr/14/journalism-trends-tools-technologies
