The first chapter of WaRN titles Changing Concepts of News covers topics such as ways to present your story, how your story affects the readers, and using social media. One of the topics covered in this chapter that stood out to me was the changes in online news. Continual deadlines is considered one of the changes. When a news story breaks, reporters have to continually update this story throughout the day. Twitter, specifically, has changed the nature of breaking news. It is a fast moving platform and reporters need to keep up with that movement. Interactive content is another change in online news. Online news prompts people to express their views and submit requests, leaving writers to consider how their audience will react to their work. Other changes include related links and nonlinear structures.
Another topic that stuck out to me in this chapter was the importance of visuals. Presentation of your story with pictures and graphics is crucial. A study “Eyes on the News” showed that most people only scan a newspaper looking for key factors such as photographs and headings.“points of entry”, which are considered subheadlines and quotations also bring a reader in. These points prove to writers that the details they put in their work is very important and will deflect or draw in readers depending on what they use as visuals.
Chapter 1 of Carole Rich’s “Writing and Reporting News” was extremely informative in discussing important aspects of journalism and what different changing concepts there are in the news. The first thing that I found most interesting and informative was how social media has impacted the news industry. Specifically on page 4, there was a section titled “Social Media” which included a subsection on participation from viewers and readers. Most importantly in this section was how news organizations have begun soliciting information to their websites for breaking news that comes straight from subscribers. Carole goes on to describe one of the important ways social media sites have been changing the outlook for journalism as a whole. She writes, “And social media users share information about the news with each other, creating new types of communities. ‘The public is clearly part of the news process now. Participation comes more through sharing than through contributing news themselves,’ according to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project” (Rich, p. 4). The reason why I chose this to be one of the two most interesting elements of the chapter is because of how easily fake news can stem from this. When individuals are searching the internet for trustworthy news, if the public is trying to create stories about events they find most important to share, sometimes misinformation can arise. This also creates more of a bias scenario with people bringing their own morals and views into play. This quote also connects to a later section in the chapter found on page 8. A section of the “Changing Values” portion covers the study done by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. This project compiled reviews from different news organizations and one said, “’I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rigorous standard,’ one broadcast executive wrote” (Rich, p. 8). Even though celebrities have billions of followers worldwide and individuals may think that everything they write is factual, sometimes it is not. Even the broadcast executive in this case fears that the standard of journalism could be in jeopardy for this reason.
The second element of this chapter that I found important enough to share was on page 13. This is within the subsection “Celebrities” under the “Quality of News” idea. Studies have proven that some of the most popular news stories often include stories about celebrities and other people who are well known for their accomplishments. Carole writes, “But celebrity news has become so popular that some journalists are concerned it is displacing more important news and pandering to the public’s desire for entertainment” (Rich, p. 13). This makes me wonder if people are seeing the news less as “news” and more of “entertainment”. Something that I related back to this idea whilst I was reading was the California Wildfire event. At first, we were seeing thousands of homes owned by regular income individuals burning down. Reporters interviewed some of these people amidst the fires and all they could do was cry. Everything they owned was now destroyed and left them with absolutely nothing. The life they built for themselves and their families was destroyed in front of their eyes, and they could do nothing to stop it. As the fires were spreading however, it started to take the homes of celebrities. The news was now becoming more of a cry for the celebrities and less for the public. But what about the homes of the low income families? The ones that don’t have multiples houses across the country who are fighting to find housing during this time? With my sister being in California, and thankfully not losing her home, even she found it astounding that the news decided to start interviewing celebrities rather than regular citizens. As a viewer, and as a sibling to someone in California, I wanted to know how these citizens were going to start living in a place full of destruction, and what resources would become available to them. This worried me and is a perfect example of how celebrity news has started displacing more important news, as suggested in Carole’s book.
The two things that I found interesting within this chapter were the discussions of the ability to filter real news and fakes, keeping the objectivity. As well as the study and use of visual markers on news sites, papers, and other new distribution. Referring back to the objectivity of news and how the news has been changed is extremely interesting. This is due to the type of news that is being reported and the news being read. There is the news that is being published, to extract the rate that it is happening. With the ability for people to put out live updates, it is great but also can cause confusion. News outlets have certain set parameters for news to be published but individuals don’t think or know those so they can supersede the intention of news outlets. Also many people are wanting and reacting more to the celebrity news than national news updates (political or social), which is great at times but it feels as though people are wanting to have more of an entertainment aspect on news, which is not what news is about. The next aspect that chapter went over that was interesting, many people better retain things when the physically see or do things, there are studies out there on where people look on different news sites and papers. Those studies showed that people looked at the photos (color first than black and white) first over the titles. This is making news outlets shift to make sure there are visuals for their papers. When users on tablets, making sure that their fingers can engage to keep them engaged is another tactic that is being used. These aspects are important because both contribute to what you think about on stories and what to write/how.
1. Changing delivery of news. This is important because it has made getting news more accessible. It shifted just from the newspaper to then being able to be accessed by blogs, podcasts, social media, etc.
2. Hard news and features. Hard news covers crimes, natural disasters and things that are very important that just happened. Then there’s soft news which covers things like celebrities and entertainment that caters more towards human interest and novelty. These two categories are important because they define the two types of news that there is and what falls into which category.
The two main things that stuck out for me both came early in the chapter. With the first being centered around how the advancement of technology has affected not only newspapers but journalism overall. Rich goes on to say “News is a significant part of how people use these devices…. A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption.” (p. 3). I found this interesting because in my eyes its pretty ironic. As we turn away from newspapers as a society, we find ourselves consuming more news as a species than ever before. Now this is not to say that television has nothing to do with this and cell phones are the main beneficiary here. But I can attest that I get 90% of my news intake scrolling on my phone. The second thing that stood out for me goes hand and hand with the first. On page 5, Rich starts discussing “citizen journalism” she goes on to say, “The concept of involving readers and viewers in reporting and disseminating news is called “citizen journalism,” “participatory journalism” or “user-generated-content.” The movement is an attempt by media organizations to increase their interaction with their audience. The contributors are often called “citizen journalists” because they are not staff members of the news organization, even though they may write blogs on a regular basis for the media website. Social media contributors sometimes perform the same functions.” (p. 5) This popped out to me because it shows that the technological advancements we’ve made do have some draw backs. With people having access to cameras through their phones, and means of publishing their own words, it puts people without qualification in a position to post news that has the potential for bias, misrepresentation, or flat-out blatant lies. Leading us to the deeper question, where are you getting your news? And is it reliable?
An important element in chapter 1 is the concept of citizen journalism. Involving readers and viewers in reporting and spreading news will increase interaction with the audience. Making it perform better, which is so important to keep people interested in what journalists are reporting in their area. Citizen journalists usually provide local news for a neighborhood or a small community. Another important element is partnerships. News organizations used to have fierce competitive formed partnerships and share news stories, this would cut the costs in print and video. News organizations are partnering with university journalism departments and that expands their coverage without adding more staff and this benefits them heavily. For example The New York Times partners with City UNiversity of New York. These students write blogs and cover communities in the area.
One thing I found very important about the chapter was the changes in online news section. I enjoyed reading about how it gave six different subsections talking about different ways that news has changed. As our generation knows by now, no one really reads the newspaper anymore and we all usually find our information from what is listed as “related links” which is social media platforms like twitter. I thought it was important to understand the new ways that news has been delivered to the public because it is important to get your work out there, and knowing how to best get your writing to the public is important. Another thing that I found to be important while reading this chapter was the section on hard news. I think this is important because before reading this chapter I didn’t realize there were names for the categories or news: hard news and soft news. Knowing the difference can help journalists understand what kind of writing they would like to pursue, whether they want to write about the difficult things that happen (crimes, fires, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases) or focus on the topics of human interest and novelty (effective diets or a profile about a man who designs model airplanes). There are also news stories that are classified as breaking news, which are stories that are published about an event that occurred on the same day or the day before. This is another category that is important because it gives people news in real time.
An interesting element of Chapter One of WaRN is the idea of citizen journalism. This concept has to do with content that is created by regular people who are not journalists. An example of this concept are blogs which are updated on a regular basis. Citizen journalism is motivated by media organizations with the goal of boosting interaction with their audience. A portion of these websites are hyperlocal. The term hyperlocal refers to the local news in a small place such as a neighborhood or town. It has become increasingly common for communities within a larger community to have a blog to update others on the local news. This form of journalism is important because it includes everyday people. People who are not official reporters get the opportunity to share their thoughts and news in an accessible manner. Hyperlocal citizen journalism is important because it acknowledges smaller scale news that would otherwise not be reported on. Another interesting feature of Chapter One was the importance of visuals. As a reader, I always enjoyed when news articles had visuals for me to look at. I now know how important including visuals can be. Research by The Poynter Institute in St.Petersburg Florida shows that readers are initially drawn to colored graphics. This was tested using eye tracking measures to see where the eyes go first. This is important for journalists to know as it helps them know what is going to attract the most readers. Journalists want to share their work with the world so finding out the most attractive layout is crucial.
My first interesting element of the reading was the “coaching method”. It talks about how a coach doesn’t stress how you failed but instead stresses how you can succeed. The method in the book is unbroken up into four phases. Firstly, you must “conceive the idea” and develop your story. This can be covering some sort of event or a problem that’s occurring in your community. The next phase is “collecting”, this is the reporting stage of the method. This is when you want to look for any available background information and then interview your sources with the goal of gathering as much information as possible. Next you want to “construct” your writing. You should start by planning your story so it develops around your main idea. You want to have a good blueprint before you start writing and should plan what information you’d like to use. Lastly you want to “correct” your writing, going back through to re-read and make any necessary changes.
A second interesting element I found in the reading was when it discussed the difference between hard news and soft news. Hard news considers timely events or conflicts such as crimes, fires, protests, etc. On the other hand, soft news covers things that are meant to entertain or inform readers. These stories can also be called “feature stories”. Despite this feature stories can still be based on current news events if they take a particular angle with more of a focus on human interest reactions.
Changing delivery of news. This is important because it has made getting news more accessible. It shifted just from the newspaper to then being able to be accessed by blogs, podcasts, social media, etc.
Hard news and features. Hard news covers crimes, natural disasters and things that are very important that just happened. Then theres soft news which covers things like celebrities and entertainment that caters more towards human interest and novelty. These two categories are important because they define the two types of news that there is and what falls into which category.
Something I found interesting from chapter 1 of the reading is the media convergence and its different forms throughout the years. Early on convergence meant spreading media onto as many different Technologies as possible. Then it moved to companies converging together to share content that they needed for their stories. Almost like a marriage or partnership for their websites. Another interesting point from the economic changes in media, was famous and popular newspapers were sold by companies like Knight Rider inc. and Mercury News as just a couple examples of the hundreds of newspapers gone. This rapid change all occurred around 2006 to 2007. In such a short time span newspapers were Vanishing off the streets due to new ways people got their news through technology. This was also due to newspapers being outdated looking compared to the colorful news they saw on their screens.
Chapter one of the WaRN explains key terms and different styles of journalism reporting. This is my first class in the communications realm which caused a lot of these terms to be new to me. One that caught my attention was the idea of convergence. This is a mixture of different types of media that are usually displayed by print, audio, video, and online resources. When this idea of multimedia became popular, it shifted the way news was conveyed to the public. Many print news organizations partnered with a broadcast station to collaborate on a story. This is typical today, but is interesting to see the shift in journalism and how news is brought to the public’s attention. The use of media has also evolved with citizen journalism. This is often called “participatory journalism”.” It was a movement by media organizations to increase their interactions with their smaller audiences. This could be in the form of blogs or other small posts that cater to a niche community. The people that participate in this type of journalism aren’t staff members of an organization, but community members that want to share more information about what is going on around them. As apps like Instagram and TikTok continue to grow, the more common it is to see everyday people reporting on the local news around them that major news outlets may not pick up on. It also made me think of Facebook community groups. For example, it could be a neighborhood page. Many community members often post updates of what’s happening in the neighborhood or in the surrounding area to keep each other up to date. Without social media, this would be a foreign concept and shows how much journalism has evolved.
One thing I liked about the passage for starters is how they brought a police report into things right away. “It’s shortly after 1 A.M., and the police officer’s patrol is uneventful, except for the man carrying a 5-inch-long rat on his shoulder. No crime; it was just a man who bought a rat at a pet store. At 5:42 a.m. a young mother wakes to the cries of her hungry 10-month-old daughter. (Par 1 Pg2)” I think it that it’s the perfect example to show how specific and informative you should be when reporting.
Another thing I liked about the passage is how they are bringing up the fact that news in today’s age is changing into an internet world now. “Americans are now fully into the digital era or data delivered in a series of the digits ones and zeroes that are the basis of computer cera,” according to a study by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. More than three-quarters of U.S. adults own laptop or desktop computer, and 56 percent own Cell phones that have software to perform several computer functions such as email and Web browsing , according to the study. I think it’s smart to understand that in today’s age most people are not going to grab the paper and read the news. Instead they will go to a video or look up a journal written from a news site.
A main point of the chapter is how news is evolving. It’s not just found in physical newspapers anymore but also online and on social media. It forces news companies to rethink their marketing methods and the way news is presented now with the world changing. However, the chapter says that this doesn’t change the characteristics and skills needed for a journalist, but a new type of journalist is emerging that’s unique to online news. Citizen journalism is the concept of involving readers and viewers in the reporting and spreading of news. Usually citizen journalism takes place locally, like in neighborhoods or similar communities. This can look like through blogs or social media. It doesn’t usually report on hard news but can spread helpful neighborly information.
14 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 3”
The first chapter of WaRN titles Changing Concepts of News covers topics such as ways to present your story, how your story affects the readers, and using social media. One of the topics covered in this chapter that stood out to me was the changes in online news. Continual deadlines is considered one of the changes. When a news story breaks, reporters have to continually update this story throughout the day. Twitter, specifically, has changed the nature of breaking news. It is a fast moving platform and reporters need to keep up with that movement. Interactive content is another change in online news. Online news prompts people to express their views and submit requests, leaving writers to consider how their audience will react to their work. Other changes include related links and nonlinear structures.
Another topic that stuck out to me in this chapter was the importance of visuals. Presentation of your story with pictures and graphics is crucial. A study “Eyes on the News” showed that most people only scan a newspaper looking for key factors such as photographs and headings.“points of entry”, which are considered subheadlines and quotations also bring a reader in. These points prove to writers that the details they put in their work is very important and will deflect or draw in readers depending on what they use as visuals.
Chapter 1 of Carole Rich’s “Writing and Reporting News” was extremely informative in discussing important aspects of journalism and what different changing concepts there are in the news. The first thing that I found most interesting and informative was how social media has impacted the news industry. Specifically on page 4, there was a section titled “Social Media” which included a subsection on participation from viewers and readers. Most importantly in this section was how news organizations have begun soliciting information to their websites for breaking news that comes straight from subscribers. Carole goes on to describe one of the important ways social media sites have been changing the outlook for journalism as a whole. She writes, “And social media users share information about the news with each other, creating new types of communities. ‘The public is clearly part of the news process now. Participation comes more through sharing than through contributing news themselves,’ according to a report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project” (Rich, p. 4). The reason why I chose this to be one of the two most interesting elements of the chapter is because of how easily fake news can stem from this. When individuals are searching the internet for trustworthy news, if the public is trying to create stories about events they find most important to share, sometimes misinformation can arise. This also creates more of a bias scenario with people bringing their own morals and views into play. This quote also connects to a later section in the chapter found on page 8. A section of the “Changing Values” portion covers the study done by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. This project compiled reviews from different news organizations and one said, “’I worry that journalistic standards are dropping in that blogging and celebrity gossip and tweets are being confused with reporting and editing that passes a rigorous standard,’ one broadcast executive wrote” (Rich, p. 8). Even though celebrities have billions of followers worldwide and individuals may think that everything they write is factual, sometimes it is not. Even the broadcast executive in this case fears that the standard of journalism could be in jeopardy for this reason.
The second element of this chapter that I found important enough to share was on page 13. This is within the subsection “Celebrities” under the “Quality of News” idea. Studies have proven that some of the most popular news stories often include stories about celebrities and other people who are well known for their accomplishments. Carole writes, “But celebrity news has become so popular that some journalists are concerned it is displacing more important news and pandering to the public’s desire for entertainment” (Rich, p. 13). This makes me wonder if people are seeing the news less as “news” and more of “entertainment”. Something that I related back to this idea whilst I was reading was the California Wildfire event. At first, we were seeing thousands of homes owned by regular income individuals burning down. Reporters interviewed some of these people amidst the fires and all they could do was cry. Everything they owned was now destroyed and left them with absolutely nothing. The life they built for themselves and their families was destroyed in front of their eyes, and they could do nothing to stop it. As the fires were spreading however, it started to take the homes of celebrities. The news was now becoming more of a cry for the celebrities and less for the public. But what about the homes of the low income families? The ones that don’t have multiples houses across the country who are fighting to find housing during this time? With my sister being in California, and thankfully not losing her home, even she found it astounding that the news decided to start interviewing celebrities rather than regular citizens. As a viewer, and as a sibling to someone in California, I wanted to know how these citizens were going to start living in a place full of destruction, and what resources would become available to them. This worried me and is a perfect example of how celebrity news has started displacing more important news, as suggested in Carole’s book.
The two things that I found interesting within this chapter were the discussions of the ability to filter real news and fakes, keeping the objectivity. As well as the study and use of visual markers on news sites, papers, and other new distribution. Referring back to the objectivity of news and how the news has been changed is extremely interesting. This is due to the type of news that is being reported and the news being read. There is the news that is being published, to extract the rate that it is happening. With the ability for people to put out live updates, it is great but also can cause confusion. News outlets have certain set parameters for news to be published but individuals don’t think or know those so they can supersede the intention of news outlets. Also many people are wanting and reacting more to the celebrity news than national news updates (political or social), which is great at times but it feels as though people are wanting to have more of an entertainment aspect on news, which is not what news is about. The next aspect that chapter went over that was interesting, many people better retain things when the physically see or do things, there are studies out there on where people look on different news sites and papers. Those studies showed that people looked at the photos (color first than black and white) first over the titles. This is making news outlets shift to make sure there are visuals for their papers. When users on tablets, making sure that their fingers can engage to keep them engaged is another tactic that is being used. These aspects are important because both contribute to what you think about on stories and what to write/how.
1. Changing delivery of news. This is important because it has made getting news more accessible. It shifted just from the newspaper to then being able to be accessed by blogs, podcasts, social media, etc.
2. Hard news and features. Hard news covers crimes, natural disasters and things that are very important that just happened. Then there’s soft news which covers things like celebrities and entertainment that caters more towards human interest and novelty. These two categories are important because they define the two types of news that there is and what falls into which category.
The two main things that stuck out for me both came early in the chapter. With the first being centered around how the advancement of technology has affected not only newspapers but journalism overall. Rich goes on to say “News is a significant part of how people use these devices…. A mounting body of evidence finds that the spread of mobile technology is adding to news consumption.” (p. 3). I found this interesting because in my eyes its pretty ironic. As we turn away from newspapers as a society, we find ourselves consuming more news as a species than ever before. Now this is not to say that television has nothing to do with this and cell phones are the main beneficiary here. But I can attest that I get 90% of my news intake scrolling on my phone. The second thing that stood out for me goes hand and hand with the first. On page 5, Rich starts discussing “citizen journalism” she goes on to say, “The concept of involving readers and viewers in reporting and disseminating news is called “citizen journalism,” “participatory journalism” or “user-generated-content.” The movement is an attempt by media organizations to increase their interaction with their audience. The contributors are often called “citizen journalists” because they are not staff members of the news organization, even though they may write blogs on a regular basis for the media website. Social media contributors sometimes perform the same functions.” (p. 5) This popped out to me because it shows that the technological advancements we’ve made do have some draw backs. With people having access to cameras through their phones, and means of publishing their own words, it puts people without qualification in a position to post news that has the potential for bias, misrepresentation, or flat-out blatant lies. Leading us to the deeper question, where are you getting your news? And is it reliable?
An important element in chapter 1 is the concept of citizen journalism. Involving readers and viewers in reporting and spreading news will increase interaction with the audience. Making it perform better, which is so important to keep people interested in what journalists are reporting in their area. Citizen journalists usually provide local news for a neighborhood or a small community. Another important element is partnerships. News organizations used to have fierce competitive formed partnerships and share news stories, this would cut the costs in print and video. News organizations are partnering with university journalism departments and that expands their coverage without adding more staff and this benefits them heavily. For example The New York Times partners with City UNiversity of New York. These students write blogs and cover communities in the area.
One thing I found very important about the chapter was the changes in online news section. I enjoyed reading about how it gave six different subsections talking about different ways that news has changed. As our generation knows by now, no one really reads the newspaper anymore and we all usually find our information from what is listed as “related links” which is social media platforms like twitter. I thought it was important to understand the new ways that news has been delivered to the public because it is important to get your work out there, and knowing how to best get your writing to the public is important. Another thing that I found to be important while reading this chapter was the section on hard news. I think this is important because before reading this chapter I didn’t realize there were names for the categories or news: hard news and soft news. Knowing the difference can help journalists understand what kind of writing they would like to pursue, whether they want to write about the difficult things that happen (crimes, fires, meetings, protest rallies, speeches and testimony in court cases) or focus on the topics of human interest and novelty (effective diets or a profile about a man who designs model airplanes). There are also news stories that are classified as breaking news, which are stories that are published about an event that occurred on the same day or the day before. This is another category that is important because it gives people news in real time.
Journal #3- Jadyn Stevens
An interesting element of Chapter One of WaRN is the idea of citizen journalism. This concept has to do with content that is created by regular people who are not journalists. An example of this concept are blogs which are updated on a regular basis. Citizen journalism is motivated by media organizations with the goal of boosting interaction with their audience. A portion of these websites are hyperlocal. The term hyperlocal refers to the local news in a small place such as a neighborhood or town. It has become increasingly common for communities within a larger community to have a blog to update others on the local news. This form of journalism is important because it includes everyday people. People who are not official reporters get the opportunity to share their thoughts and news in an accessible manner. Hyperlocal citizen journalism is important because it acknowledges smaller scale news that would otherwise not be reported on. Another interesting feature of Chapter One was the importance of visuals. As a reader, I always enjoyed when news articles had visuals for me to look at. I now know how important including visuals can be. Research by The Poynter Institute in St.Petersburg Florida shows that readers are initially drawn to colored graphics. This was tested using eye tracking measures to see where the eyes go first. This is important for journalists to know as it helps them know what is going to attract the most readers. Journalists want to share their work with the world so finding out the most attractive layout is crucial.
My first interesting element of the reading was the “coaching method”. It talks about how a coach doesn’t stress how you failed but instead stresses how you can succeed. The method in the book is unbroken up into four phases. Firstly, you must “conceive the idea” and develop your story. This can be covering some sort of event or a problem that’s occurring in your community. The next phase is “collecting”, this is the reporting stage of the method. This is when you want to look for any available background information and then interview your sources with the goal of gathering as much information as possible. Next you want to “construct” your writing. You should start by planning your story so it develops around your main idea. You want to have a good blueprint before you start writing and should plan what information you’d like to use. Lastly you want to “correct” your writing, going back through to re-read and make any necessary changes.
A second interesting element I found in the reading was when it discussed the difference between hard news and soft news. Hard news considers timely events or conflicts such as crimes, fires, protests, etc. On the other hand, soft news covers things that are meant to entertain or inform readers. These stories can also be called “feature stories”. Despite this feature stories can still be based on current news events if they take a particular angle with more of a focus on human interest reactions.
Changing delivery of news. This is important because it has made getting news more accessible. It shifted just from the newspaper to then being able to be accessed by blogs, podcasts, social media, etc.
Hard news and features. Hard news covers crimes, natural disasters and things that are very important that just happened. Then theres soft news which covers things like celebrities and entertainment that caters more towards human interest and novelty. These two categories are important because they define the two types of news that there is and what falls into which category.
Something I found interesting from chapter 1 of the reading is the media convergence and its different forms throughout the years. Early on convergence meant spreading media onto as many different Technologies as possible. Then it moved to companies converging together to share content that they needed for their stories. Almost like a marriage or partnership for their websites. Another interesting point from the economic changes in media, was famous and popular newspapers were sold by companies like Knight Rider inc. and Mercury News as just a couple examples of the hundreds of newspapers gone. This rapid change all occurred around 2006 to 2007. In such a short time span newspapers were Vanishing off the streets due to new ways people got their news through technology. This was also due to newspapers being outdated looking compared to the colorful news they saw on their screens.
Chapter one of the WaRN explains key terms and different styles of journalism reporting. This is my first class in the communications realm which caused a lot of these terms to be new to me. One that caught my attention was the idea of convergence. This is a mixture of different types of media that are usually displayed by print, audio, video, and online resources. When this idea of multimedia became popular, it shifted the way news was conveyed to the public. Many print news organizations partnered with a broadcast station to collaborate on a story. This is typical today, but is interesting to see the shift in journalism and how news is brought to the public’s attention. The use of media has also evolved with citizen journalism. This is often called “participatory journalism”.” It was a movement by media organizations to increase their interactions with their smaller audiences. This could be in the form of blogs or other small posts that cater to a niche community. The people that participate in this type of journalism aren’t staff members of an organization, but community members that want to share more information about what is going on around them. As apps like Instagram and TikTok continue to grow, the more common it is to see everyday people reporting on the local news around them that major news outlets may not pick up on. It also made me think of Facebook community groups. For example, it could be a neighborhood page. Many community members often post updates of what’s happening in the neighborhood or in the surrounding area to keep each other up to date. Without social media, this would be a foreign concept and shows how much journalism has evolved.
One thing I liked about the passage for starters is how they brought a police report into things right away. “It’s shortly after 1 A.M., and the police officer’s patrol is uneventful, except for the man carrying a 5-inch-long rat on his shoulder. No crime; it was just a man who bought a rat at a pet store. At 5:42 a.m. a young mother wakes to the cries of her hungry 10-month-old daughter. (Par 1 Pg2)” I think it that it’s the perfect example to show how specific and informative you should be when reporting.
Another thing I liked about the passage is how they are bringing up the fact that news in today’s age is changing into an internet world now. “Americans are now fully into the digital era or data delivered in a series of the digits ones and zeroes that are the basis of computer cera,” according to a study by the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. More than three-quarters of U.S. adults own laptop or desktop computer, and 56 percent own Cell phones that have software to perform several computer functions such as email and Web browsing , according to the study. I think it’s smart to understand that in today’s age most people are not going to grab the paper and read the news. Instead they will go to a video or look up a journal written from a news site.
A main point of the chapter is how news is evolving. It’s not just found in physical newspapers anymore but also online and on social media. It forces news companies to rethink their marketing methods and the way news is presented now with the world changing. However, the chapter says that this doesn’t change the characteristics and skills needed for a journalist, but a new type of journalist is emerging that’s unique to online news. Citizen journalism is the concept of involving readers and viewers in the reporting and spreading of news. Usually citizen journalism takes place locally, like in neighborhoods or similar communities. This can look like through blogs or social media. It doesn’t usually report on hard news but can spread helpful neighborly information.