Survival of Media Platforms for Journalism

With more and more advanced technology emerging each day, the current media platforms that we have such as television, radio, newspapers can all be converge into a single screen and can be operate from anywhere in the world. This modern form of media platform is known as the Internet. New form of media such as blogs and Twitter are known as the powerful tools for journalists to interact and connect with the people. Therefore, it is true to say that journalists nowadays no longer write for the print media only.

The Guardian’s blogger, Greenslade (2009) stated that with the emergence of new media from time to time, the internet will be the single platform for people to receive audio, radio and television in the future. Plus, regarding to the future of journalism, he thinks that the newspapers are dead.

The Modern World

Source: www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/?p=3429

For centuries, newspapers have been a tool to spread information and news to the public (World Association of Newspapers 2004). With the changing forms of media, newspaper too had changed. Back in the olden days, newspapers were only full of printed texts with minimal pictures. However nowadays, the situation had changed. Layout, the arrangement of words, pictures and other graphics play important roles in conveying meanings as written text is no longer structured by linguistic means (Kress & van Leeuwen 1998).

Later on, new media such as radio, television and the Internet exploded the media scene. Newspapers were forced to re-evaluate their role as the primary information provider (World Association of Newspapers 2004). According to Greenslade (2009), young people nowadays do not see newspapers as a unifying element of the home. They no longer buy newspapers. Young people nowadays are so attached to the advanced technology and other new forms of media that even though with the emergence of online newspapers, young people still don’t even read them even if they go on the net. They no longer need the newspapers to keep them inform about the latest updates.

New challenges and opportunities are being created for the traditional media each day due to the technological revolution. Greenslade (2009) thinks that the newspapers are considered dead as there will be far fewer of them in the future. With its immediacy and amount of information available on the Internet, there’s no doubt that challenges will keep coming towards newspapers industry. However, I still think that the newspapers will remain an important tool for analyzing and reporting news and events to the public. As Murdoch (2006) said, “newspapers will change, not die.”

References

Greenslade, R 2009, ‘Survival of Media Platforms for Journalism’, The Media Report, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2009/2436717.htm>

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, "Front pages: The Critical analysis of newspaper layout," Approaches to Media Discourse, p.186-187

Murdoch, R 2006, 'Rupert Murdoch - Newspapers will change, not die', The Independent Media, viewed 18 November 2009, <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/rupert-murdoch-newspapers-will-change-not-die-470581.html>