Week 10 Entry: Internet and Journalism

SPRING 2011 COM 125: Introduction to the Internet

Blog Entry 9: Journalism and the Internet... Shall the two ever meet?

A.C. Quote of the Week: "The danger of truth is partial truth."

I am taking a course in Journalism now. What I know about the Internet is that it is promoting and killing journalism at the same time. Social media (LIKE THIS BLOG for example), encourages members of the public to write about anything they want, where ever or whenever they want. People no longer need to go through formal training in Journalism just to become a 'journalist' in a sense. Also, the Internet now provides news feeds, articles and pictures that can be searched anytime.

The most common example of citizen journalism is STOMP Singapore. People take pictures of basically... anything they want to post up online, and sometimes tag a silly headline to it. To an extent, whatever is reported from there seems highly sensationalized sometimes.

Recently, we saw the embarrassing case of a Singaporean soldier letting his maid carry his army pack. The picture which was sent in to STOMP, instantly became the talk of Facebook wall posts, and eventually, the front page of print newspapers in Singapore.

NSmen trained to be fit, strong soldiers -- yet this one makes maid carry backpack

However, there are implications of Internet news advancements. Our print journalism is suffering. With the Internet/Web 2.0 in place, coupled with smart phones, tablets, readers and iPads, people no longer need to hold a newspaper in their hands. Everything has gone digital. Even PDF files of print newspapers can be found on news sites like those of TODAY. News companies have also become members of social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter and such. Of course, there are some who still enjoy holding ACTUAL paper in their hands.

In a way, you can see a parallel between the future of newspapers, and the future of books (no thanks to e-books now).

So, is the Internet shaping the future of the journalism?

Right now, it might seem that the Internet might just break the profession altogether, but we would have to look for any future trends.