Hayley Lewis
hl646911@ohio.edu
A key aspect in
human nature seems to always have been an immediate rejection or revulsion
towards anything new that threatens the current social order and invokes inevitable
change. Women voting, interracial marriage, and sexual orientation were all
once an appalling suggestions and are all now (for the most part) accepted as
norms in society. Similarly, the invention of TV was expected to bring down
traditional news as we knew it and is now considered a key aspect of it. So
while the continued growth of the internet threatens news as we know it, we
have also seen the changes and adaptations it can inspire.
Journalists will still be journalists:
One of the biggest hot-topics in the transition is citizen
journalism and where they fit in to the industry - but how do we know they want
to fit in? For the most part, citizen journalism is a mere commentary on
twitter or Facebook that while indeed spreading news rapidly, is there
primarily so they feel like their voices and opinions are being heard and
projected to their family and friends. While sometimes annoying and the cause
of much clutter on my Facebook newsfeed, I’m not worried about older, distant
relatives taking over the industry or threatening my future job in the
journalism world – they’ll keep their day job, they just want to throw in their
two cents before dinner.
Similarly, the blogosphere, while substantially more related
to respectable journalism than Facebook posts, is more likely to grow further
into its own entity as it expands further in popularity across the internet.
What used to be a hobby is now becoming a career and when asked, most will
label themselves specifically as a “blogger” rather than a “journalist,” unless
they are in fact a journalist who blogs for a newspaper or some other media
outlet.
Immediacy of online journalism:
One of the biggest successes – and drawbacks – of online
journalism is its immediacy and wide scope of influence. Getting information
out to the widest span of readers in the fastest amount of time is nothing to
be ashamed of, unless of course when that information that spreads like
wildfire is incorrect. But when done correct, live blogging, or live news
online can be a massive success story.
During the 2013 Super Bowl’s power outage in New Orleans,
Oreo released a now infamous ad capitalizing on the blackout and skyrocketing
them to title of marketing success story of the night. The ad was released
within minutes of the start of the blackout and would not have been nearly as
successful if it had not been done live, during the broadcast and has increased
the popularity of real-time advertising based on the right-now, rather than
traditional marketing campaigns planned months in advance.
www.wired.com
The anonymous journalist:
The rise in popularity of anonymous apps and comments
spanning the internet as indeed imposed a serious threat to some aspects of
journalism. The ability to leave a comment anonymously gives people a
protective shield and thus makes it more likely for the comment to be
particularly scathing or bias. But without being able to credit a source behind
it, anonymous comments can only go so far in their usefulness.
With the rise of anonymous apps such as Yik Yak and Unseen,
anonymity is not going away anytime soon – but it may be discredited faster due
to the sheer ridiculousness quickly being associated with them. If we can agree
on one thing, it is that whoever insists on anonymously posting a picture of
their pizza is not a journalist.
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