INTERNET AND JOURNALISM

Internet and Journalism

[Name of the Institute]

Introduction

Today, the media have become a useful tool which allows us to stay in constant communication with the various social, political and economic events, both nationally and internationally. Digital media like Internet has become an indispensable part of our society today. The new media play a major political role to monitor and control the different branches of government (judicial, legislative and executive) information. (Austin, 2002, Pp. 45). Internet in the modern age allow the journalists to access and share information (more easily and efficiently) regarding any event occurring in the globe, and provide the audience with a comprehensive analysis (Krotiski, 2011).

The internet has a major impact on the field of journalism since it provide the journalist and the news readers/viewers to obtain unlimited amount of information related to their interest without the threat of censorship by their governments. The ability of the internet to provide free access to its users to attain any kind of information in reality is wakening the power of the government over its citizens and empowering them to take more control of their lives.

Thesis Statement

The internet in a modern age revolutionized the way we receive process and understand news. It provided us the opportunity to become more aware about our surroundings and use unlimited amount of information to make informed decisions that give us freedom to acquire more control of our lives.

Historical Background

People exchanged news long before they could write. They were able to spread news by word of mouth on crossroads, at campfires or at markets. Messengers raced back from battlefields with reports on victories or defeats. Criers walked through villages announcing births, deaths, marriages and divorces. Stories of unlikely occurrences spread, in the words of one anthropological report, "like wildfire" through preliterate societies. The modern newspaper is a European invention (Picard, 2006, pp. 10). The oldest surviving European printed newspapers were both published weekly in Germany in 1609.

The news in regular newspapers is gathered and then written up by reporters. Photographers shoot pictures to accompany the stories and graphic artists contribute charts and diagrams. Editors assign reporters to stories, check over those stories, write headlines for them, determine where they will be placed in the newspaper and work on the paper's "layout" -- the arrangement of stories, photographs and art on each page (Rodgers, 2007, pp. 66).

Amusing Ourselves to Death

In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman compares the effectiveness of television and newspapers and said that the objective of the televised journalism is only to entertain viewers and limit their ability to indulge in rational argument that enhance their understanding of any socio and political issue in depth. One the other hand newspaper journalism gives us the ability to understand the given issue more in depth and to make rational decision based on valid arguments (Postman, 2006).

If one examine his argument in the age of the internet one would realize that internet is a form of medium which act ...