Week Two: New Media, the Future of Journalism and Jelly Beans

Journalism was born into a world that essentially no longer exists; a world where information was broadcasted to mass audiences through newspapers, magazines, television and radio. We call this the ‘old media’, or ‘heritage media’ if you want to be fancy. In the late 20^th Century, the age of industry waned to make way for an information paradigm, driven forward by the World Wide Web. The New Media was born; the way stories could be told would never be the same – and thus neither would journalism. Translating journalism into the new media is both exciting and terrifying, and this was the focus of this afternoon’s lecture.  Some see the new media as a renaissance, liberating journalists from the traditional and rigid constraints of the old industry, while others see it quite simply as the death of the journalistic profession.  

The internet started life at Web 1.0, an “information web” consisting essentially of brochure-ware - simply an extension of the old media. Moving forward a couple of years, the “social web” harnessed the internet’s capability to change the way information is distributed. The internet now became a place of communication, contribution, collaboration, interactivity and social networking – epitomised in applications like  Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Youtube, Blogger, Flickr, Tumblr, etc. Currently we are on the cusp of web 3.0 – the “semantic web” - which will focus on the individual user by means of meta tagging and increased mobility.

Welcome to the world of the prod-user: for better or worse, professional journalists no longer rule the flow of information throughout society.

 The New Media is a powerful tool, and has undoubtedly changed the way we access all sorts of  information. Invisible Children’s Kony2012 campaign (and the arguments, objections and general online hysteria that it generated) is a perfect example of this. Without any use of the Old Media, a message appealing for social change was spread to millions of audience members, sparking global debate. It is clear that we now rely entirely on the New Media – a source of information that no longer requires the input of professional journalists. This week’s lecture looked at what this means for Journalists and News Corporations that have sat comfortably in the Old Media for the last century.

The sales of physical newspapers have dropped dramatically. This hardly came as a surprise - anyone with internet access can receive current news updates free on sites like twitter. Most newspapers have simply translated their content into an online format. Some, like Brisbanetimescom, are an entirely online newspaper.

These are the final days of Rupert’s regime. Will the newspaper perish in big world of new media without its beloved father to protect it?

This worked well for a time, but with confidentials (a key source of income for newspapers) made redundant by websites such as Ebay, a new business model needs to be developed. Publications like The Australian are employing a subscription system similar to that used by traditional newspapers. They are going behind the pay wall with little knowledge of whether their online readers are willing to pay for something that they have been getting (and can get elsewhere) for free. Based on Dr Redman’s entertaining and rather tasty analogy using jelly beans, reactions are aren’t likely to be positive – but how else is journalism to remain a payed profession?

Personally, I wouldn’t mind paying for a subscription to my favourite newspaper online – but I’m a student of journalism and we’re talking about my future job here. Whether the general public will pay for something that they currently enjoy for free is an entirely different question, and we will soon see an answer as more newspapers put up a pay wall. Under web 3.0, journalism will continue to evolve in exciting ways, but its future as a payed job is hangs in the balance.