The Impact of Technology in Journalism

Now that we are living in the digital age, technology is everywhere. But what is it? According to the Oxford Dictionary technology is an application of scientific knowledge, for practical purposes that is used in industry. If you take a look around you probably have a technological device in the same room that you're in right now. We have it at a hand's reach. It is quick, easy to use and at a click of a button it works. These are our portable devices: our phones, iPads, tablets, laptops. It connects us to loved ones, informs us on what's happening around us and plays our favourite playlists. If you're wondering what form of technology this is, it is mobile technology. 

So we know where we can find it but how can this be applied to journalism. Traditionally when you think of journalism you think of TV, radio and print. In today's day in age journalism can be found through different outlets and online sites. We can even ask Alexa, Cortana or Siri  “what’s on the news today?” or “what will the weather be like today?” We no longer have to wait for the evening news or buy the paper in the mornings before going to work. News today is easy to access, find and it is there in an instant, that's if you're connected to the internet. Social media aids journalists to speak to their audience and readers and be active by sharing their views and opinions. Whereas in the past it was a passive one-way system where the audience would just have to read or listen to the news. Social media apps on our mobiles phones like Facebook, Twitter and sometimes even Snapchat are able to help journalists find new stories. From a tweet to a post, a journalist can decide what is newsworthy and what isn't. With this, we find that because there are so many people constantly posting, tweeting and sharing content this leads to UGC’s (User-Generated Content). Meaning that people can share their opinions, ideas, photos, videos, links or whatever they want through tweets and posts making it difficult to sift out potential stories. But this also highlights the difficulty of how the news can get lost on our timelines. Yet, to prevent this from happening journalists have started to use keywords that grab our attention and lure us into reading their stories. This may sound familiar to some. Yes, this is clickbait. It is a form of false advertising that makes the audience listen, read or view their content. But is this such a bad thing? If we click on a link to a story we may not have intended to read but was actually interesting and informative.  

Another disadvantage of this is that a journalist may find a story that they deem newsworthy but because there is so much content that is produced daily by millions of people, journalists also have to be careful that they don't find fake news and potentially publish it. As a journalist, our job is to check through all the necessary facts before publishing as we don’t want to mislead any of our listeners, viewers or readers. 

Jen Rich a freelance photographer and recipe blogger has seen a positive impact of social media on the industry. She explains how social media helps to promote her work. “Social media is the main thing that made it [freelancing] a bit easier because I’m not good at the whole gift of the gab thing so doing go-sees and taking my book to people was the most terrifying thing in the world and I really really didn't want to do it. So, social media has actually made it a lot easier to kind of help me reach out to clients and make that first contact and to put yourself in front of clients. Before, unless you met and saw them at their office they wouldn’t know you existed.

It’s quite nice to have that kind of technology to be able to contact people, it’s a lot easier. for tracking down their direct email address it can sometimes be quite hard but you can DM [Direct Message] or you follow them on Instagram or Twitter or whatever. Things like that  have made it easier.”

Jen mainly uses social media to post her photography but she uses other sites to connect to other clients. “I [mainly] use Instagram, [but] I use Pinterest a lot when I’m working with clients on jobs, to create a board that everyone can communicate [and] put different ideas [for] your client. ”

Jen has her own website that she showcases her portfolio blogs and much more. “For my website, I run [it] myself with Squarespace. I don’t have anyone running it for me but I only have a basic portfolio.”

Journalists not only look for stories on social media but they create content specifically for it.  As a generation, we've grown impatient. If we want something we want it straight away.  Our mobiles are constantly glued to our eyes so when we get a notification we are able to see the latest news in that same instant. Social media helps us to stay updated with the current happenings. Live tweets help us to stay engaged but also helps us to see what is going on from that same moment. Snapchat stories are a creative way of sharing small snippets of news. They’re usually eye-catching and take a minute or less to read. Which is great as you have all the essential information in a snap of a finger. New apps like TikTok are also being used to share news stories within 15 seconds to a minute. Not only is social media constantly developing but this one of the best ways to get young people to read or listen to the news.