I. The Future of News? Virtual Reality | Nonny de la Peña | TED Talks
Nonny de la Peña is an American journalist, documentary filmmaker, and entrepreneur. She is often credited for contributions in the field of immersive journalism. In the TED talk, she talks about the uses of Virtual Reality (VR) in journalism. She describes how VR can affect the minds of people and give them a “whole-body sensation”. To show the effect of VR on people, she provides an example of a VR piece, ‘Hunger in Los Angeles.’ She, with her intern, developed this VR project, which depicts a scene where a person with diabetes collapses into a coma. She showed the reactions of people, and many people felt terrible as they could not help the seizure victim. She also gave examples of other VR projects such as a scene of a girl singing and a bomb going off in Syria, and recreation of a crime scene where a young boy was shot dead by a watchman. She also talks about the ethical issues related to the introduction of VR in journalism. She says that she has to follow the best journalistic practices and be cautious in depicting a particular content.
I think this talk will help the students of the DCNM class to understand how technology can complement journalism to depict stories more engagingly. The talk will also make the students introspect about the ethical issues of introducing these technologies. The notion of Augmented Reality in journalism can also be discussed side by side with VR.
II. Journalism in the digital age: trends, tools, and technologies | Martin Belam | The Guardian
The Guardian post was published on 14 Apr 2010 by Martin Belam, who discusses the impact of technology on journalism and expected trends in the future. He initially mentions a brief history of publication and how developments in technology have changed the printing process. He describes how the development of the World Wide Web has helped in reaching a vast number of people and also enabled a quick publication of an event on a website. He says that self-publishing platforms have significantly reduced the cost of publishing content. The aspects of ethics and accountability for journalistic opinion in the digital age have also been discussed. He also mentions that with the advent of new free publishing platforms, such as Tumblr and YouTube, journalists have another option to tell their stories. He then talks about live blogging, which is a rolling article updated periodically, and he says that it cannot be directly converted to another medium. He finally describes the notion of linked data, which is interlinking of data and facts across the web, and expresses his opinions related to Google’s “Living Stories” project.
Although this article was published 10 years ago, I have selected it because of its relevance in today’s world also. The students of the DCNM class will get to know about the transition in the field of journalism with the development of the World Wide Web. This article will also show them that platforms like Tumblr and YouTube have survived until now, whereas the Living Stories project has failed. The students would also relate to the concept of live blogging and free publishing platforms, which are still widely used for journalism.
III. The Future of Journalism: Risks, threats, and opportunities| Karin Wahl-Jorgensen et al. | Digital Journalism
The article was published in 2016 by Karin Wahl-Jorgensen et al. It provides a brief description of the risks, threats, and opportunities related to journalism. The article mentions dangers to journalists have been a result of geopolitical change and changes in the way people think of their objectivity. It discusses the economic model of journalism has made employment less secure and increased the role of freelancers. It then says that the involvement of the audience, even with the introduction of social media has not been as participatory as expected. The threat to a journalist has also been described resulting from fewer resources to question the political elites. The article then mentions the opportunities and mainly talks about how blogs, social media, picture sharing platforms, and big data have transformed fields of photojournalism and allowed people to participate in local and global debates. The final part of the paper is a summary of different articles related to the impact of technology on journalism, the roles of a journalist, and public opinion.
This article provides valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities in the field of journalism. The class of DCNM will discover the problem faced by a journalist in this era and will also learn about the alternatives to traditional methods of journalism with the advancement in technology. It may also lead to a discussion related to the objectivity of a journalist given the pressure faced by him/her from higher authorities.
III. How The 21st Century Changed Journalism | Jules Suzdaltsev interviewing Tim Pool | NowThis World
Tim Pool is an American journalist and known for covering protests from all over the world. Jules and Tim talk about the changes in journalistic practices in the 21st century. They discuss the concept of citizen journalism, where anyone can report any event of relevance. Tim mentions the impact an ordinary citizen can make by sending out even one sentence. Jules then asks if everyone becomes a reporter then whom should one trust. Tim describes his personal experience, where the verified checkmark on his Twitter profile made people believe him. So, he says its a challenge to check if a source could be trusted. Later, he mentions that media companies should put effort into investigating corrupt institutions and people and share these stories with the people. Tim and Jules discuss how the model of the media companies have changed and how it has caused their decline. Lastly, Tim says that live streaming has become an essential part of journalism.
From this interview, the students of DCNM would get to learn the role of citizen journalists in the digital era. They would get to know how technology has enabled people like Tim to become a famous journalist. This may also lead to a discussion about the reliability of a news source in the digital age, where everyone has access to smartphones. I can also have a discussion on how technology has enabled more people to be a part of journalism and freely express their feelings.
