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All of the above sounds pretty good. But there are also some uncertainties (suspicion/doubtfulness) along the way. To begin with, No one knows how important these advantages are to the news-consuming audience. Unlimited space is nice but how many consumers have the time and patience to read a 40-screen story on the economy. Will enough readers go searching through the Chat rooms are nice, but the discussions tend to be either banal (overused/overfilling/faded) or strident (tuneless/unmelodious). Can audio and video clips compete with the coverage on traditional TV news.
Hyperlinks are nice, but they can easily lead a reader away from the online news organization to sites that contain incredible information. Will people begin to distrust legitimate (legalize) news sites due to the number of sites giving out fraudulent (dishonest, fake) and misleading information. Also complicating the picture is the beginning/rise These services make use of the “push” technology that sends information direct to the computer. There is no need for the user to visit web sites. A consumer can construct a personalized and highly focused news service that draws on a variety of sources.
Majority Believe That Traditional Media Will Be Dead in Ten Years Personal News Page, in the US for example, lets a subscriber choose news from more than 700 publications covering topics ranging from medicine to business. Pointiest offers users the chance to choose news and information from such diverse sources as CNN, Time, Reuters, and local newspapers. It also provides weather forecasts for selected cities. Will these new services permanently change Journalism by shifting control from the news provider to the news consumer?
What impact will they have on traditional newspapers and television news orgasm? Online Journalism and Sources In reporting on the days events, Journalists rely most fundamentally on two key relationships: the relationship with their news sources and with their audiences. These relationships are most fundamental for at least three reasons. First, without reliable sources, a Journalist cannot get the facts needed to prepare the story. Second, without an audience, there is no point in telling the story.
Third, and most important, maintaining integrity in the relationships between Journalists, their sources and their audiences is fundamental to establishing and maintaining the credibility, or believability, of Journalism, the only real value a journalist has. When the integrity of the reporter-correspondences relationship is violated, not only does the individual Journalist suffer, but the credibility of the entire news organization or even institution is damaged. The reporter who gets too close to a source can sometimes fail to ask the tough question, the question that needs to be asked and answered to fully inform the public.
Convergence is transforming the reporter-source relationship, partly by introducing more technology into the equation. The scenario prior to convergence 0 Telephone – to set up interviews 0 Sense of the tone? 0 Fax, teleprompter? Some sources deluge reporters with written communication, including press releases, but most reporters generally disregard or discount this type of communication as public relations. The rise of computer-mediated communication has begun to erode face-to-face and even telephone interviews. When on deadline, reporters may take whatever means they can get to reach a source and that may often be email.
Expert sources, especially those in science, medicine or higher education, may have a strong reference for email communications, and may specifically request that a source contact them via email, particularly if they want a timely response. For the business news wires, reporters rarely leave their desks, doing almost all their reporting either via the phone, email or other internet-based communication. On the other hand, email communication, can provide certain improvements to the reporter-source relationship Use of the internet Use of the internet and email by Journalists has grown dramatically from 48% in 1998 to about 2001.
Email also makes it more practical and efficient to fact check stories, especially hose dealing with complex technical issues, including health, science, technology or business. In the past, the reporter might first conduct a face-to-face interview, and then fact check with a But doing fact-checking over the phone necessarily limits what can be done on deadline; it also reduces the chances of error detection since the source will not actually see what is written and may not catch, discern or effectively correct an error heard over a phone call from a harried reporter. Via email the source can check and verify the details.
New tools for Reporting Technology has also given reporters greatly expanded access to entire classes of source material previously rarely if ever seen. For example, remote sensing satellite imagery is now a routine part of reporting on a variety of stories, ranging from environmental reporting to military conflict. Use of GIS. Now every significant news entity is exploring how to integrate geographical data into its news graphics. Broadcasters are using these [satellite] pictures to reveal denied areas of the Earth: taking viewers to places where governments or nature otherwise bar access.
In recent days, North Korean and Iranian nuclear sites have been made public Just as convergence has exerted dramatic impact on the reporter-source audience relationship, it is also changing the relationship between Journalists and relationship with their audiences. In days past, reporters would typically write or produce their reports, and only the most unusual stories would generate more than a letter or two, or phone call (typically from a source misquoted) from the audience.
With the rise of email, most reporters who have published their email addresses get deluged with emails from their readers, viewers or listeners. In his book, Digitizing the News, MIT Professor Pablo]. Bouzoukis explains: News in the online environment is what those contributing to its production make of it. News is moving from being mostly Journalist-centered, communicated as a monologue, and primarily local, to also being increasingly audience-centered, part of multiple conversations and micro-local.
With the advent of Google, everyone can broadcast information and everyone can research information across the intellectual universe. The problem is, as it’s always been, determining the bona fide of the data and the merits of the information conveyed. Moreover, reporters must always bear in mind heir main function: to report. They cannot afford to get side-tracked into tangential conversations with readers or sources, or worse, start worrying about the consequences of a story to the extent that they experience reporting paralysis.
A Journalist maintains a fine balance between telling the public what it needs to know, even when the truth may cause hurt or pain, and being responsible and ethical in reporting and respecting personal privacy. Audience expectations are also evolving. News via the internet is on-demand and instantaneous. In a broadband environment, it is media rich and giggly interactive. Audiences are increasingly accustomed to and demanding news that is customized to their interests. Reporters are increasingly supplementing, and sometimes supplanting, face-to-face news gathering with internet-based reporting.
Web-searching, email and list-serves are increasing staples in the reporting food chain. Although most reporters still rely on personal interviews and observations, they often rely on the internet for material when on deadline, weekends or doing follow-up work, including fact checking. Moreover, with economic shortfalls afflicting most news organizations, he need for increased productivity is a pressure felt acutely in a growing proportion of news rooms, and this sometimes translates into journalistic shortcuts.
Online Writing Online writing, is a cross between print and broadcast writing. The short, simple style favored by broadcasters makes online writing easier to follow. Television news manager Scott Atkinson says his best advice is to write for the internet as you would write an e-mail too friend. “That doesn’t mean you can misspell words, ignore story structure, or leave out context,” he says. “What it does mean is you should write in the most intimate style you can muster. Because web-based news sites tend to offer readers many choices, writers should avoid delayed The lead should give the reader a good reason to continue reading; otherwise, he or she probably will click on another story. Stories online are generally shorter than newspaper stories. A good guideline is to limit an online story to about 800 words and to keep it all on one page. Studies have found that readers are willing to scroll through text online; there is no need to force them to click to additional pages for more of the same But to make the text easier to absorb, online