Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Digital Media is Stressful Fun

Jake Hromada
jh418513@ohio.edu
@JakeHromada

Digital journalism is taking the field by storm.. Or, technically, it already HAS. We're constantly on our phones checking Twitter, checking Buzzfeed, or checking Facebook and seeing what our exes are doing, hoping they're living  more miserable lives than you are. Okay, maybe not everyone, but some are. What I mean by digital journalism taking the world by storm, I mean by the popularity of it, and some of the problems with it.

Maryanne Reed of ijnet posted this article in 2013 about the problems of digital journalism. She lists nine of them, but I'll name a few to talk about. A big one being, "News will have to go to the readers' they don't have to come to us." I find this very true, because she's right. By logging onto Twitter, the news comes to me. Sure, I have to follow other people to find out the news, but the news will come to me. With the recent Paris bombings, that news came to me from Twitter because my followers were using the #PrayForParis hashtag. Later, I saw retweets of the bombings in Paris, THEN I went to go find out the news and what was going on.

"Mobile might be a threat or opportunity, but it is journalism reality." This stands out to me because I access news through my phone. Honestly, the only time I'm really on my laptop is when I'm typing a paper, doing research for homework, or checking on my grades. I find out my news through apps on my phone. So, in order for news stations, newspapers, and web outlets to stay relevant, they must have a mobile presence. An app helps, but I find 99% of my news through Twitter. Since I'm a sports junkie, I'm big into Bleacher Report. Yes, Bleacher Report has a website, but they promote their mobile app everywhere. Including, during sporting events on TV. A website like Bleacher Report stays very relevant in the news world because of their mobile app available on all platforms


 An article by Vincenzo Marino on the positives of journalism go along with what I discussed above. As a reader, I can access news whenever, and however I want now. If breaking news happens, I can figure it out on my phone as soon as possible.That's how I communicate with my followers on Twitter today, simply by tweeting and getting news out there fast. Although, I do need to make sure it's accurate. Which is always a challenge, but accessing news and sending it out there quick is what's important. It's an advantage to today's digital journalism.

As a reader, I love the idea of digital journalism, because of just how fast I can access what I want to access. As a sports fan, I can always be on the lookout for sports news on Twitter, and sports related apps that are out there. With digital journalism, it makes the world smaller, and it allows me to connect with the world in an easy, and simple manner in which has never been done before.

There are positives and negatives about digital journalism, but just like with anything else in society, there's pros and cons. As a reader, digital journalism is an amazing thing, but as a journalist, boy, it can be the most stressful thing. I've encountered both of these sides of digital journalism, and I find it stressful fun.

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