Role of a Journalist – The changing Media Landscape
News has the power to either make or break you as a society. It’s true that the news is not the best thing to read while on a business trip, but if news is the commodity to give up for the evening, then it is indeed a luxury that we can take advantage of. However, with the fast-paced life most of us lead, we often forget to read news on a regular basis. It has been noticed that even those who have the habit of reading newspapers on a daily basis miss out on half their daily dose if they don’t have news on the newsbox.
It is not only newspapers that give us the news. Examples of other news items are radio and TV programs. Examples: Recently there was a special announcement on a major network TV network. An example: A news anchor talked about a certain sports event that had happened in some different countries and mentioned that one had happened in the US. However, nobody missed the mention of how the event happened in a different country, and that the US did not get a chance to be a part of it. This made many US citizens smile, because it showed that the country was not forgetting its commitments to other countries, even though these commitments might be different than our own.
We could say that the news media is more balanced when compared to some other forms of mass communication. For instance, some musicians have been criticizing the lack of objectivity in music today. However, the public opinion, which can be gathered from all types of media, shows that the public does not have an adverse impression of the music industry. Music is considered an art and a commercial activity, so there is public opinion that supports this activity. There are also media professionals who are very critical of this trend.
Other news media are not commercial ventures like a cable TV or a radio station. In fact, most newspapers and magazines are funded by the readers. Hence, the extent of manipulation of the news media is very limited. Reporters and correspondents face stiff competition from other news correspondents. Moreover, when compared to the advertising space occupied by television, radio, and newspapers, the distribution of the news media is much more widespread.
We can conclude that the growing trend of online journalism has paved the way for an improvement in the quality of the news organizations and has led to an improvement in the quality of news and information. The major challenge still lies in promoting and advertising the news organizations. For instance, magazines and newspapers are mostly self-publishers, with the sole profit coming from the subscription fees. On the other hand, online journalists and media outlets are generally not supported by any profit-making mechanism. The internet facilitates the widest dissemination of news, and is also a popular distributing platform. The webmasters and bloggers who provide news content on the internet are able to reach a worldwide audience through their articles.
With the advent of the internet, the role of journalists and newsrooms have also undergone a tremendous change. Nowadays, they publish news and information related to general business and provide updates on world events. This is why journalists are no longer confined to writing news reports and editing news magazines. Instead, newsroom employees now work as news managers and media consultants.