Digital Journalism
Digital journalism, also referred to as web journalism or online journalism, is the creation and distribution of news and information primarily for online platforms, distinguishing it from traditional print and broadcast media. This form of journalism encompasses content from established news organizations as well as diverse sources like news blogs and independent sites. Since its emergence in the early 1990s, digital journalism has rapidly evolved, eventually surpassing print media as a preferred source for news in the late 2000s, and rivaling broadcast news in the 2010s.
The rise of digital journalism has been facilitated by advances in Internet technology and greater accessibility of devices, enabling a broader audience to engage with news content. It offers advantages such as faster news delivery and increased consumer interaction, allowing individuals to contribute to discussions and share their perspectives. However, it has also raised concerns about the quality of reporting, with critiques focusing on declining research standards and less rigorous peer-review processes.
Despite the growth of digital platforms, many digital news outlets still rely on traditional journalism for sourcing original content. As digital journalism continues to shape the media landscape, its impact on the profession and the way news is consumed remains a topic of ongoing debate.
Digital Journalism
Digital journalism, also called "web journalism" or "online journalism," is the process of producing news and information content for online publication rather than traditional print or broadcast media. Digital journalism includes content produced by professional news organizations as well as nontraditional news sources, such as news blogs, independent and alternative news-oriented websites, and websites that aggregate and present news collected from other sources.
The benefits and detriments of digital journalism have been debated since the early 1990s, when the first online news sites and services began to become popular. Nevertheless, in the late 2000s digital journalism eclipsed print journalism as the primary method for obtaining written news, and in the 2010s digital journalism reached similar or higher levels of popularity to broadcast news. The rise of digital journalism provides advantages in terms of the rapidity and diversity of news available to consumers, and it also allows consumers to play a more direct role in creating and commenting on news stories. Conversely, the emergence of digital news media has lowered quality standards regarding research, content, and peer-review processes in the news industry.
Background
In the early 1990s traditional newspapers began making use of digital media by producing web versions of print articles. The Chicago Tribune, for instance, began offering a service called Chicago Online in 1992 through the America Online web service. By the mid-1990s most of the major newspapers and television stations were producing online videos or articles to supplement their regular content. The online magazine Salon has been cited as one of the first online-only news publications that achieved sufficient readership to compete with traditional media outlets.
Digital journalism evolved alongside the technology supporting the Internet in a broader sense. The advent of wireless Internet, in addition to reductions in the price of Internet access as well as home computers and mobile devices, helped to make the Internet available to larger markets, allowing digital news to compete with traditional news vendors. In the early 2000s news outlets such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal enjoyed increased profitability due to the addition of online advertising revenues. The potential market for online news inspired the establishment of more online-only vendors, such as the Huffington Post, which began in 2005 by reprinting news stories from other sources but gradually shifted toward offering original content. News-aggregator websites such as BuzzFeed, established in 2006, also became popular by offering links and "snippets" from news stories published on other websites.
In 2008 surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center indicated that online news had surpassed print journalism for the first time in history. While television and cable news maintained a slight edge into the 2010s, in 2011, a Pew Research study indicated that Internet news had surpassed television broadcasts as the premier news source for young adults. The Pew report suggested that online broadcast would soon displace television and cable as the primary source for news among all subsets of the population. A number of prominent newspaper and media companies, including the Chicago Sun-Times and the Tribune Company, were forced to reduce their staff and general scope in the early twenty-first century.
Digital Journalism Today
One of the major developments in the news industry in the 2010s was the movement of a number of high-profile reporters from traditional to digital media outlets. For instance, journalist Glenn Greenwald, one of the most celebrated journalists at the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper, left to join digital start-up First Look Media in 2013. The next year Ezra Klein, renowned blogger for the Washington Post, left to work on a new site with Vox Media. A Pew Research report studying staffing at 468 digital news services in 2013 found that five thousand new jobs had been created through the expansion of digital news media, while more than fifty thousand jobs had been cut from the print news industry between 2003 and 2012.
At the same time, as of 2014, digital journalism was still dependent on traditional journalism to some extent. Though a growing number of digital news services produced original content, the vast majority of digital news sites lacked the staff and infrastructure to cover national, local, or international news without reprinting or reporting on coverage originally produced by traditional newspapers or news services.
There is no general consensus on the best way to embrace the potential of digital media while preserving the overall news industry. Supporters argue that with digital formats, consumers can investigate a topic in as much or as little depth as they want, giving readers control over how they receive and digest the news. In addition, some have argued that digital media represents the "democratization" of news media as a whole. Whereas news was once controlled by a small number of companies, limiting the breadth of information available, professional news is now accompanied by amateur, independent, and alternative news sources that can provide different perspectives on local, national, and international news and events.
Through blogs, social networking, and commentary sections on news sites, public participation has become an important part of news media. Digital news outlets can also combine video, audio, written reporting, participatory commentary, and other forms of media in a single venue, thus expanding the diversity of coverage and interaction available to consumers. Additionally, readers can access this information from an increasing number of digital platforms, including devices such as smartphones and tablets.
To remain useful and relevant, newspapers and broadcast news agencies have often shifted their focus toward providing essential, digestible local information like traffic and weather updates while decreasing emphasis on in-depth reporting. The rise of the amateur, alternative journalism industry has also led to a vast proliferation of sensationalized or rumor-based news that has reduced the use of editorial supervision to maintain accuracy and reliability in reporting.
Though the ultimate result of the digital media evolution remains unclear, the world has already witnessed a decline of the traditional news.
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