Kids with a keyboard or media revolution

Internet Journalism – Kids with a keyboard or media revolution

The internet has opened up numerous possibilities for the citizen journalist. Citizen Journalism is a form of new media that involves individuals who publish work, usually on the internet, but do not have an affiliation with any news organisations. These citizen journalists provide information on the circles they operate in, including social, environmental and working circles.
This new wave of social commentary will often give a richer and more in depth analysis of events, as the people who write the commentaries, blogs and articles are the people who actually experience them.
These demi-journalists stand to topple the powerful news organisations that are supposedly run by the few but rule the masses. The impact of the bloging revolution echoes the revolutionary movements that have gone on in our changing world through out the ages. Could the traditional journalist become as scarce as the French monarchy? This is unlikely.
Where religion once stood as the governing body of the western world the media has taken over. Like the protestant revolution that chose to challenge the “old fashioned” Catholic church, internet journalism has started to challenge “old fashioned” Journalism. While Protestantism was revolutionary, it did not change or topple Catholicism it just stole some of its customers. This is what is likely to happen with Journalism, changes will be made but print will never go out of print and it will continue to keep its professional disciples.

Nicholas Lemann, Journalist for the New Yorker, refers to the internet as “Journalism without journalists”. In his article, Amatuer Hour, he explains how the United States has twelve million blogers and 34 per cent of them considered bloging to be a form of Journalism. While this is not a majority, it still means there are four million self-professed journalists bloging away, and that’s just in America. The sheer number of citizen journalists does prove that the internet is more than a substantial medium. The fact that professional internet Journalists are growing in number also pays testament to the influence the internet has.

One undoubted advantage of internet Journalism is the globalisation that it brings to the profession. There are even cases in Journalism where news organisations are going abroad to get cheap labour much like many other multi-national companies. Steve Schifreres Economics reporter for the BBC explains this in his article.

The hype that traditional journalism will one day become eradicated is in some sense fantastical. John Markoff, technology reporter for the Times said, “It sometimes seems we have a world full of blogers and that bloging is the future of journalism, or at least that’s what the blogers argue” John Markoff’s views can be considered on the far end of the spectrum but it is still inaccurate (or unknown) to assume that bloging is the sole future of journalism. However, internet journalism cannot be dismissed as angry kids with a keyboard. The new medium is most likely to go the same way as television and radio in the sense that it won’t change the face of journalism; instead it will stay its own medium and continue to grow irrespective of other journalistic forms.