New media qualities; multimodality; new forms of journalism

Section 2, Topic 10:

            On the internet, social networking sites are among the fastest growing segment representing a valuable information source (Jansen, Sobel & Cook, 2011).

Unlike the previous post, which cover the disadvantages of the internet and how it could fuel crisis. This post would cover on how the advancement of technology can create awareness and provide help to the people who needs it most. 

From this article, by Dorian Benkoil, about how reporting disaster in 1995 and in 2011 is so different. In 1995 before the era of internet we have to rely on newspapers and television news to keep us updated with the world, but now internet has become part of our lives and it is something hard to do without, news are being pass around via various websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and these are only a few from the hundreds of sites news can be obtain from.

Facebook:

Sky news' page on Facebook

Twitter:

News agencies using twitter to update followers on the latest on going around the world. And citizen journalism, reporting  to fellow followers on the latest traffic and road blocks around Selangor and Kuala Lumpur.

Youtube:

Sky News' channel on Youtube

 

            Here is an example of how an American Youtube user tries to raise funds for tsunami victims in Japan.

According to Mortensen (2011), why sites such as Youtube have become a new source of news is because of its raw footage, which is uncensored and sometimes violent in nature. Furthermore he summed up that citizen photojournalism has the capacity to disclose otherwise unobtainable footage (Mortensen, 2011), fresh as it is, untouched.

From the above pictures and Youtube clip we can how see, how fast news are being circulated and their multimodality (various types elements in a media). With these new media qualities, it is so much easier for general public to gain access to the news, furthermore they can choose what they want to read, and ignore information that they dislike or not interested in. unlike the traditional form, such as radio and television, an user needs to follow the program that have been lined up by the producer. 

Thus in conclusion, we can summaries that this new forms of journalism could be a complimentary service to the existing traditional services or even it could take over as the premier source for news and entertainment.

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Reference List:

Jansen, B.J., Sobel, K., & Cook, G., (2011) “Classifying ecommerce information sharing by youths on social networking sites” Journal of Informational Science, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 120-136 

Mortensen, M., (2011) “When citizen photojournalism sets the news agenda: Neda Agha Soltan as a Web 2.0 icon of post-election unrest in Iran” Global Media and Communication, Vol 7, No. 1, pp. 4-16