I agree with this statement, news has changed significantly in the online age. It has become easier to reach audiences with news through posting articles online. It has also become more accessible for the public to view articles they are interested in, we have the vast amount of news websites, which focus on a wide range from politics to celebrities.
A modern example that you could apply to this statement is the new campaign “Kony 2012”. This first surfaced by the effects of a short film premiered (March 5th) on you tube created by the charity ‘Invisible Children’ and directed by Jason Russell. The video has now reached over 85 million views in less than a month. Online news has also allowed the public to comment on the articles. The Kony 2012 campaign disabled the comments section on you tube as the public were disliking the video and posting negative comments.
The public have become much more important for the news in the online age. To grab an audience and to compete with other news companies the articles they put out have to be accompanied with either images, audio or video or all of these to make them stand out and be as interesting to the audience as possible. News doesn’t only get distributed on the companies websites but also via a twitter or Facebook feed allowing the audience/public have news delivered to their phones.
The news in much more constructed and put together. The gatekeepers choose which stories to show and which to dismiss. They then construct the news stories with pictures/audio/videos and then they sell the story through having it has their headline posting it on their twitter site. Breaking News has become more accessible for the public as you are able to hear about it as soon as it is announced. The main aim of the news company is of course to make money. They achieve this through advertising revenue, this has an impact on news values and news selection.
Tim Lee invented the internet thinking it would bring people together, which is what has happened through Facebook twitter etc. David Gauntlett says “He imagined that browsing the web would be a matter of writing & editing, not just researching and reading”. More than 1/3 of people in the world have a facebook account, this lets the news companies reach an audience through online networking, cheaply and effectively. More and more people and participating in online communities, which regularly revolve around current news stories (what happened with Kony 2012).
Mark Poster says the internet provides a “Habermasian public sphere”, which means a cyber democratic network and points of view, which ultimately lead to a ‘public opinion’. The internet is also a huge source for the news companies to retrieve information. Also as the internet creates communities these communities are also brought together through news stories. Now the public/audience participate in news stories and contribute to the news. For example after 9/11 many videos/photographs/statements captured by the public were then transferred and printed/displayed across the globe.
The online age has had a huge effect on how News is delivered the public. It is much more accessible that how it was before Web 2.0
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