- Additional Guidelines for Digital Content Creators
A. Navigating the Digital Landscape
- Understand algorithms but prioritise audience needs over platform demands.
- Protect your audience’s privacy and data.
B. Combatting Misinformation
- Use media literacy tools like Media Bias/Fact Check to assess sources.
- Educate your audience on identifying fake news.
C. Accessibility and Inclusivity
- Provide transcripts and captions for all video/audio content.
- Use gender-neutral language and diverse representation.
D. Visual and Textual Ethics
- Avoid manipulated or deceptive visuals.
- Use consistent style and tone to build brand trust.
- Resource: Associated Press (AP) Stylebook for writing standards.
Journalism Under Assault Globally
Journalism is at a crossroads as the risks and challenges faced by journalists worldwide escalate. These threats, whether physical or digital, pose a serious threat to press freedom, democracy, and the very essence of independent reporting. It’s troubling to see how the profession, which plays such a critical role in holding power accountable, is under siege.
The rise of online violence and harassment, combined with physical threats, not only endangers journalists’ lives but also leads to self-censorship, which severely compromises the ability to report freely.
When journalists—especially women and those from marginalised groups – face disproportionate risks, it reflects broader systemic issues, including gender inequality and discrimination. This can lead to a chilling effect, stifling voices that are already underrepresented in the media.
Given the vital role of journalists in a free society, the question is: what can be done to protect them? International support, legal frameworks to safeguard press freedom, and measures to combat online abuse are all crucial in ensuring that journalists can carry out their work without fear of repercussions. What are your thoughts on potential solutions to these challenges, or ways that journalism can adapt to ensure its survival in such a hostile environment?
How Has Journalism Changed Over The Last 20 Years?
Information overload makes sifting through vast data daunting. Bridging skill gaps between traditional and digital journalism also remains challenging. Smaller organisations may struggle with resource constraints to adopt advanced technologies.
So many changes have taken place in journalism in the last 20 years because science and technology have basically caused revolutions. Three developments stand out: the internet, mobile devices and social media. The entire scope of journalism has been altered concerning its reach, its production and its consumption.
Now, virtually every American used to connect any adult to the Internet and social networks through some additional gadget. Their widespread use often causes people to forget that these trends are still quite novel phenomena in the lives of the average citizen.
The US general public and the world in general were developing but the developments began to mature fully by the advent of the three technologies, that is the internet, mobile computing, and social media. This is due to the fact that with the ability to communicate from any place in the world, the world economy and consumption changed permanently. It wasn’t until 2000 that some recognition began to grow outside normal means of distribution. This according to data amasses but to put it into perspective,
In 2000 only 52 percent were active internet users out of the entire population but by 2019 the figures had escalated to 90 percent. This increase in adoption led to an even wider acceptance of smart features where it more than doubled from fabricating between 35 percent to 81 percent. The absolute majority moved away from looking at traditional media space as in 2005 only 5 percent relied on social media to consume information but in 2019 this figure jumped to 72 percent. The promise of technology led the majority to move to news online leading to more and more news platforms coming into existence where any form of distribution for news was welcomed creating a revolution for news consumption overall.
The change in the industry and the new support infrastructure changed how people came up with new innovative ideas and moved them into show and tell modes. Now vast quantities of ideas have more reach as it is easier now to cover stories and events in real time and talk to anyone in the world remotely. all while receiving feedback.
Technology grows every day, and with it, something new also emerges – web journalism.
Is Journalism In Decline?
Yes, it is different, but there is a news media. Generating revenue, lack of media literacy among the public, political interference are. I think this idea is a fallacy which is held by many people, that journalism is dead or dying.
People say that times have never been so easy for journalists, as people are willing to pay for content. Those who argue would do better to remember the year 2020 when every single person on this planet increased their content consumption by twice as much.
The news is also one of the types of content that is gaining popularity at the fastest rate. Take these statistics into account: Around 50 percent of global consumers are in fact spending more and more time on news apps and websites. Since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic, there have been more subscription acquisitions to both print and digital news than there are to those who unsubscribed. Journalism is still in existence, it has just changed from 2 decades ago.
How Do You Perceive The Modern Mediascape of Journalism?
As per consumers, digital media dominates journalism. More adults in the United States prefer to receive their news from digital platforms rather than from non-digital ones.
According to a research centre in the US which took a survey in January 2021, over 86 percent of the respondents who were interviewed by the Pew research center stated that they either sometimes or often access news content using a digital device. This is more than the proportion of adults who depend on television, radio, or print media for news which stands at about 68 percent, 50 percent, and 32 percent respectively.
What are some of the reasons for the preference of digital media over traditional journalism? For starters, it is advantageous, since news content can now be accessed at any place and also at any time.
However, digital journalism is also interesting and interactive. It allows incorporation of text, stories, images, and sound when telling a story, which adds value to a story and the audience. Nowadays, news agencies use more than one medium to upload news content on the internet, such as:
- Personal websites or blogs
- Apps on mobile phones.
- Audio files broadcasted from the internet or devices
- Content backed with statistics, models or graphics
- Taped and photographed records
- Platforms that allow interaction; handbook, Instagram, and Twitter
- Computer generated reality
- More engaging experiences web based
Such platforms enable journalists to report narratives that integrate more life, more learning, more discovery and more investigation.