In a world that thrives on technology, there are new media platforms emerging everyday. It is obvious that journalism no longer has dominance in our world of mass media, due to the increase of multimedia platforms that have been created within the last decade. This new media allows people to get information from the world around them, not only through information that could once only be held in your hand, but through a range of sources, with most now being online (Berkowitz, 2009).
This technological convergence alters the ways in which we consume media, and this circulation of new media content greatly depends on consumer’s active participation (Jenkins, 2006, pg. 3). This then brings in this notion of user-generated content (UGC), where people are becoming their own journalists, through online blogs, YouTube etc.
Berkowitz (2009) believes that “journalism takes on a new role in the mediascape, it is time for those who study journalism to move beyond the age-old lens of conventional journalism perspectives and consider what journalism means, as defined by the journalists who produce it and the audiences that consume it”. With this point in mind, it is obvious to see that media audiences want more than just the story being told. They want opinions, perspectives and even the chance to voice their own. Old media cannot allow this, however the new media can.
The argument here isn’t whether one is a better form of media than the other. With the online world expanding as rapidly as it is today, we need to move past the fact that journalistic ways are slowly declining, with proof that news organisations are cutting back on staff and operations (Berkowitz, 2009). We need to embrace this new media and the ways in which we are able to consume our media in today’s society.
Berkowitz, D, 2009, ‘Journalism in the broader cultural Mediascape’, Journalism, SAGE Publication, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 290–292
Jenkins, H 2006, Introduction, ‘Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide’, NYC Press, New York, pg. 1-24