The future of News Media

After watching the video called “Info. Snacking” I would state that the argument they are trying to get across is that broadcasting on the internet is our future, it is not a generational change, but it is a functional, new technologic change, that we need to come to realization. People are stating that the time is now to change over to the internet and the question is how will the old media transition to this new change. Since the year 2000, there has been much more competition that has come into the world of news media and in order to stand out you need to be more opinion-based. People want to hear commentary and the thoughts of the news anchors or journalists. They are becoming less dependent on the reporter based news information.

The chapter summarizes, 60 minutes is still one of the most popular news television shows, which show reporter information and celberity gossip to keep the audience interested, but the CEO of 60 minutes realizes that it’s audience is aging and soon they need to target more of the younger consumers. 60 minutes has joined yahoo on the internet, so yahoo could start putting news from 60 minutes on the internet. Yahoo does not display the news in the same manner as it would on the television. They are using lighter stories and stories that are not even aired on television. This type of news definitely appeals to the younger audience. People in their thirties are getting online to see whats going on in the news, not sitting down and watching the tube. 60 minutes has used something called “info snacking” to catch their consumers attention. They chop up their news stories into pieces, so that consumers can look at a link and then click on it to take them to another link and so on. The smaller, and catchier phrases and information is what catches the new , younger consumers attention. At this point in time the internet is still a small revenue in the old medias new change, and it is going to take them a while to start making a greater profit, but eventually it is a change they are needing to make. Most all of the television media is starting to deliever to the online media. Consumers are demanding news wherever they are and they want it immediately. Consumers are even making up their own blogging and journalist sites, so they can get the news fast and conveniently.

I agree with this argument 100%. I believe that the future is in the online media. People’s lives are not slow enough to sit down and take the time to watch an hour television news show. They want the news with one click of the mouse. The younger generation is not as patient anymore and they are always looking to know the latest information. If the television news media does not change and grow to broaden their horizons with online media they will eventually fall. I do believe though that they are going to have to grow in a new non-traditional way. The competion is a lot higher when it comes to the internet and like the video stated the news can come from anywhere. The CEO of google stated that “the new reporters are not going to follow the traditional path, they won’t be as tied to the traditional newspapers, they are going to be online reporters, bloggers, or man on the street and they are now part of the news calculation around the world”. This is where blogging plays a vital role in the latest news media. Bloggers are the future of online media, and the old media is going to have a hard transitioning to the new future.

The next chapter that I decided to write about is called “The New Universe of Online Media” . I feel as though the argument this chapter takes on is what journalism really is, who are the “real” journalists, and how affective bloggers have become in the online media world. This chapter showed a variety of circumstances that the bloggers and the “so called” journalist have stood out more than the television media. Rocketboom, which is a “daily, short webcast of news and humorous feature stories, which is presented in a mock TV news style” is part of the new universe of online media. Rocketboom currently has just as many viewers as some cable television news media and they are doing it in a cheaper way. The only difference is with one click of a button, in seconds, Rocketboom can be viewed by the world. Rocketboom would never consider themselves journalist, but consumers are saying that this is an act of journalism and they are accurate and credible with the news they are presenting online.

With all the new “so-called” journalists and bloggers out there today, it brings to the question what is journalism? People want to be apart of the online media. Consumers want to get involved, and all they have to do is blog to the world. As a blogger you can not be told what to do or what not to do and people like this. Jeff Jarvis, an online blogger, stated that some bloggers do not want to be considered journalists, he believes they just want to talk to the world, and he says that they are doing so very effectively. Some people in the world want to be journalists and if they find out information accurately and report it to the world that is an act of journalism. Not everyone though believes this, Nick Lemann, the dean at Colombia University of Journalism, belittles online journalists and citizen journalists, he does not believe that everyone should be considered a journalist and does not agree with Jarvis in that sense. He believes it is all just commentary and that it is not new information. Jarvis argues with Lemann when Lemann stated that bloggers and citizen journalists are just repeating news that has already been stated and nothing they share online is original.

I agree with Jarvis especially with one incident the video states to show that online media is becoming more effective. On Strom Thurman’s birthday when Senator Trent Lott spoke to Thurman he put him down tremondously and endorsed Thurman’s old segrational policies. The national media looked over this and it wasn’t until a blogger posted a case about what had happened during this speech and in two weeks after this was posted Senator Lott resigned from this position. It was the online blogger media that brought this to the attention of the world. Bloggers have continued to stand out and in 2004 a blogger caught ear that CBS claimed to have implicating documents on President Bush’s national guard service. People were starting to read this blog and the power of the medium struck again. CBS and Dan Rather appoligized on air, whenever they were caught not being geniune about this story and Rather was fired from CBS after 45 years.

The chapter greatly relates to blogging because of the power blogging has been building over the years to prove that they do have original news and they are trying to affect the world accurately. Consumers are obviously reading online media and bloggers all over the world are becoming the future of the media. Bloggers will just continue to strike again and stand up for themselves as act of journalists.

The future of blogging is going to grow rapidly, more people are going to start blogging. Bloggers are allowed to do anything they want and will not be told what to do. This is what people want. Today consumers are "go getters" they want to get involved in the news media and they will do so. Bloggers are the future of news media, if they realize this or not and its consumers like us that are changing the news media world. We are the viewers of these blogs and citizen journalists sites. The more we view the sites the more noticed the bloggers become.