The world of print journalism is changing profoundly. Jeff Bezos, the owner of Amazon who just bought the Washington post compares newspapers to horses. He points out that we used to use horses for all transportation purposes. We still use horses but for fun, sport or specialized elite activities. So newspapers will be around but they just won't be the workhorses (sorry) of journalism.
Mathew Ingram, a social media journalism commentator points out some interesting flaws in Bezos' arguments. The main flaw that Ingram points out is that the move from print to digital is more like going from cars back to horses. We used to get our news in a much less aggregated way and digital mediums are again making the individualized new more possible.
One of the new workhorses of journalism is Twitter. If you were following the #WestgateMall incident in Nairobi, Kenya this week you will have an idea of the impact that Twitter is having on journalism at all levels and events certainly seem to support Ingram's criticism of Bezos's horse metaphor. In the mall incident both the attackers and the Kenyan security forces used Twitter extensively. They took their message directly to the world through Twitter rather than rely exclusively on conventional news outlets. In a post-industrial age the news has become disaggregated.
The use of social media and Twitter, specifically is attracting a scholarly attention.
Alejandro, J. (2010). Journalism in the age of social media (Fellowship paper) (pp. 2009–2010). Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved from https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Publications/fellows__papers/2009-2010/JOURNALISM_IN_THE_AGE_OF_SOCIAL_MEDIA.pdf
It also attracts silly attention.
2. News of the week. Discussion of blog posts, your observations of news events, local, North American and International. Were you able to identify news values in the articles you read?
Local politics anyone? http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/25/rolf-dinsdale-facebook-manitoba-liberals_n_3989551.html
@cmpmb Facebook hired Segal to launch and run their business in Canada prior to opening their own office. I ran that business in 08/09.
— Rolf Dinsdale (@RolfDinsdale) September 24, 2013
How do you cite a Tweet?
A new service called Tweet2Cite makes it easy.
MLA style
Dinsdale, Rolf (RolfDinsdale). "@cmpmb Facebook hired Segal to launch and run their business in Canada prior to opening their own office. I ran that business in 08/09.." 24 Sep 2013, 20:38 UTC. Tweet.
APA Style
RolfDinsdale. (2013, Sep 24). @cmpmb Facebook hired Segal to launch and run their business in Canada prior to opening their own office. I ran that business in 08/09. [Twitter post]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/RolfDinsdale/statuses/382605007134023680
3. More of the Basics of News writing.
- Objectivity and Fairness
- The Lede
- Nut Graph
- Transitions
- Endings
