With technological advances, as well as an increased demand for prompt news, most traditional forms of journalism are having a hard time keeping up. Newspapers and magazines cannot feasibly distribute their material at the same rate potential customers are finding news in other mediums. Additionally, televised news is finding itself in a similar predicament. It seems that a new form of journalism must emerge to replace these previous forms, but what will it be?
One likely replacement is the Internet, which provides a practically limitless amount of information to anyone with access to a computer or mobile device. However, there are shortcomings with this, including inaccurate information posted by uneducated individuals. Since the Internet has little regulation, users often stumble upon contradicting “facts” when researching online.
Another interesting new form of journalism is a sort of “new newspaper”, in which much of the corporate staff is replaced by many amateur freelance reporters. This allows them to increase their ability to gather news in all corners of their reach. They also occasionally take voluntary input from ordinary citizens, such as ProPublica’s acceptance of citizen reporting about federal projects.
In order to survive, many large forms of traditional journalism are joining forces with competitors and/or other forms of journalism. Televised news now holds strong ties with Internet material, which can be seen just by watching any news program. Often times, anchors will provide Twitter “hashtags” or URL links to extra media dealing with the same topic.
Although newspapers and televised news are not going to be extinct tomorrow, they are certainly on the decline. One must wonder, will they be able to change their strategies in order to continue on with a fast pace society, or will the Internet emerge as the sole source of news? Only time will tell.