Internet and Journalism

So today, I look at the different views regarding the effects of Internet on journalism.

From this site, the writer shares the issues that were raised during the conference that was mainly populated by journalists. He brought up issues like how more research should be conducted about the role of Internet and the quality of news. Some of the arguments he put summarized included the Andrew Keen's "Rise of Amateurs" (who's interview we saw in one of the videos in class), the less rather than more diversity of sources (in which the argument put forth is that as people create their own media environment, they select information that they agree with) and mediated coverage (in which the worry is that journalists are spending more time in front of screens than in the field).

This video features a discussion between the founder of Wikimedia Foundations that operates the Wikipedia project, Jimmy Wales and cultural critic Andrew Keen (again). Wales is generally of the opinion that with the Internet changing many aspects of news gathering, the media should keep up and use the Internet to complement their work. Andrew Keen was as usual questioning the role of the Internet because amateurs shouldn't dabble in news reporting and that the Internet reflects our society (narcissism, impatience, laziness etc). However, it should be noted that this is only a preview of the whole discussion.




I agree with Wales in that Internet has and will continue to affect the roles of the media and I don't think it's going to go away. Therefore, I feel that journalists should work with the Internet to enhance their reporting or they would be at a risk of losing their jobs. At the same time, I do appreciate the rather harsh criticisms that Keen has brought up and one of them is that we shouldn't pay as much attention to some random blogger when it comes to news but depend on trained professionals. Is the Internet good or bad for journalism in the long run? I feel that it is just a form of change and that it is hard to say whether it is good or bad. In the end, the Internet is here to stay so the onus is on the journalists.