In the 21st century, cyberspace plays a dominant role in a new media ecosystem. Instead of using the word 'replacing', the Internet is a complement to traditional media. According to Oyanagi (2010), 'traditional media are mostly push media ... while the Internet is a pull medium ... which means tactics to drive web users to the website is inevitable, and this often means using and mixing with other media/communication channel'. In the new trend of publishing, audiences are no longer just passive receivers, but they can consider themselves journalists by blogging. Will this phenomenon cause the end of journalism? Well, Naughton (2006) clarifies that 'a new organism has arrived in our media ecosystem and existing organisms are having to accommodate themselves to the newcomer ... relationships are emerging between the new medium of blogging and more conventional print journalism'.
Twitter (Smashing Editorial 2009)
Twitter is 'a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read messages (known as "tweets")' (Stassen 2010, p. 7). Twitter consists of short fragments of instant information and news, either it is from official or unofficial sources. It provides a platform for users to share the latest information and news happening around the world in short but concise form. For instance, news about 311 Japan Earthquake was updated through Twitter during the happening. Besides, it also enhances the interactivity among the users and media as people can track news by clicking 'follow', 'retweet' or giving comments. Somehow, it acts as a backup channel of information in journalism. According to Rao (2010), '91% of bloggers and 68% of online reporters "always" or "sometimes" use blogs for research'.
This phenomenon can be related to the concept of Produsage. Twitter serves as user-led space and it breaks down the boundaries between producers and consumers. As Snurb (2007) states, 'produsers engage not in a traditional form of content production, but are instead involved in ... the collaborative and continuous building and extending of existing content in pursuit of further improvement'.
The Prodeser (Snurb 2007)
Twitter is 'fundamentally built on the affordances of the technosocial framework of the networked environment' (Snurb 2007). The term affordance means 'what is made possible by the modes used' (Walsh 2006, p. 34). In this case, the content in Twitter is shared and not owned by any authoritarian. Users can share any information without waiting for the approval of gatekeepers (as what traditional media facing with). It extends 'the boundaries for the community of participants able to contribute to [Twitter]' (Snurb 2007). For instance, the dissemination of information causes a formation of citizen journalists, who do not exist in previous traditional media. However, there is still a controversy about social networking in journalism. Communicators need to be aware of this issue as it affects communication system.
References:
Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf>.
Oyanagi, M 2010, 'Vol.22-what distinguishes Internet/Web from traditional media?', Future Direction of Web 2.0 and Internet Marketing, blog posting, 21 February, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://megoyanagi.thoseinmedia.com/2010/02/21/vol-22-%E2%80%93-what-distinguishes-internetweb-from-traditional-media/>.
Rao, L 2010, 'Study: 52 percent of bloggers consider themselves journalists', TechCrunch, blog posting, 1 April, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/01/study-52-percent-of-bloggers-consider-themselves-journalists/>.
Smashing Editorial 2009, 'Tools icons, horror icons and Twitter icons', Smashing Magazine, 12 January, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/01/12/tools-icons-horror-icons-and-twitter-icons/>.
Snurb 2007, Produsage: a working definition, Produsage, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://produsage.org/node/9>.
Stassen, W 2010, 'Your news in 140 characters: exploring the role of social media in journalism', Global Media Journal, vol. 4, no. 1, viewed 21 August 2011, <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=2e15f1ac-add8-432a-b387-7ed312a6e851%40sessionmgr104&vid=2&hid=112>.
Walsh, M 2006, 'The 'textual shift': examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts', Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 24-37.
No comments:
Post a Comment