Digital journalism
[1][2] Fewer barriers to entry, lowered distribution costs, and diverse computer networking technologies have led to the widespread practice of digital journalism.
[3] It has democratized the flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.
[6] The digital aspect may be central to the journalistic message and remains, to some extent, within the creative control of the writer, editor, and/or publisher.
[6] While technological innovation has been a primary focus in online journalism research, particularly in interactivity, multimedia, and hypertext, there is a growing need to explore other factors that influence its evolution.
[citation needed] The information was broadcast between the frames of a television signal in what was called the vertical blanking interval or VBI.
[19] American newspaper companies took notice of the new technology and created their own videotex systems, the largest and most ambitious being Viewtron, a service of Knight-Ridder launched in 1981.
Computer Gaming World in September 1992 broke the news of Electronic Arts' acquisition of Origin Systems on Prodigy, before its next issue went to press.
It is believed that a major increase in digital online journalism occurred around this time when the first commercial web browsers, Netscape Navigator (1994), and Internet Explorer (1995).
A twenty-four-hour news cycle and new ways of user-journalist interaction web boards were among the features unique to the digital format.
[26][27] Blogs are also another digital journalism phenomenon capable of fresh information, ranging from personal sites to those with audiences of hundreds of thousands.
[30] Prior to 2008, the industry had hoped that publishing news online would prove lucrative enough to fund the costs of conventional newsgathering.
The interaction between the press and the online public has led to a shift towards a participatory model in news framing, where alternative discourses emerge alongside traditional journalism.
In the dynamic landscape of journalism, as news consumption habits evolve and traditional outlets face declining audiences, there's a growing imperative to reevaluate established models of information dissemination.
Exploring diverse storytelling approaches, beyond the conventional inverted pyramid, offers an opportunity to optimize communication effectiveness in the digital realm, catering to the evolving needs and preferences of contemporary audiences.
Newspapers lose a lot of ground to their online counterparts, with advertising revenue shifting to the Internet, and subscription to the printed paper decreasing.
According to communication scholar Nicole Cohen, "four practices stand out as putting pressure on traditional journalism production: outsourcing, unpaid labour, metrics and measurement, and automation".
[47] It is now possible to contemplate a time in the near future when major towns will no longer have a newspaper and when magazines and network news operations will employ no more than a handful of reporters.
Critics believe digital journalism has made it easier for individuals who are not qualified journalists to misinform the general public.
Digital journalism allows citizens and readers the opportunity to join in on threaded discussions relating to a news article that has been read by the public.
[54] This theory is in contention to the notion that technological determinism is negatively effecting journalism, as it should be understood that it is just changing the traditional skill set.
Because digital journalism takes place online and is contributed mostly by citizens on user-generated content sites, there is competition growing between the two.
[citation needed] Outlets such as Vice Media have also created a resurgence in Gonzo journalism in the form of digital videos and articles.
For instance, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding journalism attracts amateur journalists, as well as ambitious professionals that are restrained by the boundaries set by traditional press.
However, the implication of these types of journalism is that it disregards the professional norms of journalistic practices that ensures accuracy and impartiality of the content.
[56] But, as of 2005[update], blogging has generally gained at least more attention and has led to some effects on mainstream journalism, such as exposing problems related to a television piece about President George W. Bush's National Guard Service.
Often this gives a unique chance to find new, alternative solutions to the conflict, but often the Internet is turned into the battlefield by contradicting parties creating endless "online battles.
[citation needed] In addition, many journalistic media have created Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that provide online access to their data and content for research, to encourage links in other publications, or the development of specialized apps.
[65] Memes are often shared on these blogs due to its social phenomenon and its relation to existing subcultures which often attain high engagement.
Traditional journalism has helped set the foundation for blogs, which are frequently used to question mainstream media reported by journalist.
An example can be found in the start-up of the South Korean online daily newspaper, OhMyNews, where the founder recruited several hundred volunteer "citizen reporters" to write news articles that were edited and processed by four professional journalists.
