A Journalist’s Techtrums

On my previous blogs I have been discussing on how the present new media is stepping up to new trends through usage of multimedia, convergences between other types of media through citizen journalism in keeping up with latest technology based informa-craving world.

All this leads us to where as journalists we  stand not knowing which way the news medium is heading.

Truly enough as John Mullen (ALJ 301) discussed; not one in my circle of friends (which happen to be within the age of 20-30) do bother picking up a news paper to read the daily news.

We’d rather comfort our rears in front of an LCD screen that manoeuvre us through the news we want to read.

The Channel Ten News theme song says ‘right here, right now’ and then flashes ‘witness’ on the screen. However what we really want to witness may quite not be what they as media decide their audience may want to know.

It is a matter of the power of choice; the ability to decide what we need to know is what attracts us into online news distracting us from mainstream media. (MSM)

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On the boxing-day morning in 2005 I woke up at my in laws’ house to a big commotion. Everyone was rushing towards the TV and my husband said, “Get ready to leave at once in case of emergency”. Their house was located in the coastal area of Colombo and for the first time in my life-time ‘Tsunami’ had struck Sri Lanka.

Sri Lankan coastal areas is dominant in the tourism industry. As we waited patiently in front of the TV and in online news websites, videos taken by mobile phone cameras and camcorders of the tourists in many tourism locations were broadcasted on breaking news.

The television stations depended on the survivors to send in material such as audio & video recordings describing the disaster and images till they could get their teams on site as most of their representatives in the area were killed by the Tsunami.

This natural disaster may go down in history as the trigger of ‘Citizen Journalism’ as the survivors of the tsunami around South East Asia had their say and became a part of the breaking of news as it happened.

Nevertheless the media decided to give official acknowledgment to news worthy material from the public after the London bombings in July, 2005. This was because BBC established their user-generated content desk to support the mass in-flow of the information from the public.

Even though it is a difficult task to monitor or even edit certain material to journalistic standards (especially on blogs), it still manages to provide general public with the information on demand. May it be due to the sixty second fame it has to offer, the money or simply the desire to be informative, citizen journalism certainly is a key player in the present news media.

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I will never miss my daily dose of celebrity gossip updates at pinkisthenewblog.com as a habit. I certainly would think twice before I change my celebrity news preferences because I am a consumer of online information. The author of this Blog, Trent Vanegas does such a great job keeping his readers up to date on the latest hot stuff linking them through numerous videos, images and other websites as they hit online.

However, whenever I come across the Melbourne’s own free evening tabloid, the MX I realise that there’s still potential in newspaper medium to reach out to the Gen ‘Y’ online community.

It may still be in the beta mode of media in the News Limited, but has managed to create a niche in the market complimenting the business model of media convergences created mainly for survival.

I thought I should also mention the relationship between Rove and the Fox Fm’s Hamish and Andy. The loyal radio listeners of this Fox Fm evening show who may not really be fans of television media do still make it a point to tune into Channel Ten on Sunday nights into Rove’s show to see their favourite hosts in visual action. Rove’s fans return the favour to Fox Fm vice versa.

This is just one of the examples I could come up with to elaborate on how media convergences are now successfully regaining and regrouping the fragmented audience.

Online radio, talk show blogs and news podcasts are certainly the present of people’s media. Only time will tell what other types of techno-savvy mediums of information will come our way as the convergences pave the road to the future.

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When we were kids there was only one way we got through a story; starting from ‘once upon a time’ leading to the ‘the end’. No prequels no sequels and certainly no relevance to what may have become of the fairy godmother after her job was done.

However now that we have tasted a few years of the hi-tech 21^st Century that Sir Arthur C. Clarke was boasting of, just the happy ending of a story is no longer good enough. That’s why the number of information hungry consumers seems increasingly interested in the non-linear multimedia story telling methods of this century’s journalists.

What does not get reviewed is the effort put in by the reporter’s on the field also sometimes known as the ‘mojo’s within a limited time space gathering data, images, video and audio clips to cultivate this network of stories that need to be constantly updated to feed the information hunger 24/7.

When the pope arrived in Sydney for the World Youth Day, there were number of issues that were related to his arrival his activities and other matters relating to the church actions against paedophiles.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7503246.stm

The non-linear nature of multimedia story telling (especially online) has allowed the audience to skim through any article and also find links and material to any other related issue that has developed around this event that they would particularly be interested in.

It does not matter if you aren’t concerned of Cinderella’s happy ending anymore, because you always have the option of deciding that you would rather know of the scandal at the glass shoe factory thanks to non-linear multimedia that will guide you through to your destination of information.

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