Journalism Democratised Through

 Journalism Democratised Through Internet[/b]

                                      Parmanand Pandey

As the Gregorian calendar has divided the modern times into parts, that is, BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini), in the same manner, the journalism also now stands divided into two periods, which is journalism Before Google (BG) and After Google (AG). Internet and Artificial Intelligence, which are inextricably linked to each other, have changed the journalism forever. No one can now think of pursuing journalism as was practised even as late as the end of the twentieth century. The internet has not only changed the methods of journalism, but also people’s perceptions of news media. The shifting balance of power between journalism and its readers and audience has indelibly altered its landscape.

The two largest changes in modern journalism strike at the heart of traditional notions and they are the rise of the blogger and user-based journalism and the nature of the internet has given rise to content aggregators like Google News that no longer rely on individual journalists to provide news, but instead, depending on their ability to gather and collect information into a single location where users can access it. Together they are altering society’s traditional ideas very swiftly regarding journalists and news.

Gigantic Progress of Social media 

  The very existence of the print medium has been extremely squeezed. Newspapers, magazines, and books etc are now available on WhatsApp or on other platforms of the internet. Apart from the Print medium, the scope of the electronic medium has also been shrinking amazingly fast. The galloping space is being increasingly filled by the Web medium or portals. Social Media has made gigantic progress during the just gone- by decade. Facebook. Twitter and WhatsApp have now become the part and parcel of the life of most of the people. It has happened more because of the deep, wide, and comprehensive penetration of the internet.

    It is also noteworthy that Social Media, which is also the form of digital media has made it more democratic than it was at any point in time. Now anybody and everybody have got the full freedom to ventilate his or her feelings and views without any barriers whatsoever. Earlier the publication, telecasting or broadcasting was in the hands of the selected few, who were elites by virtue of the resources that they controlled. Now there are no such barriers.

   However, there are many demerits also in this unhindered freedom. Since there is nobody to check or regulate, it has led to enormous anarchy. It has also resulted in a deep crisis of credibility. Therefore, for ensuring the credulity of journalism, it has become essential that some regulators must be at the threshold to ensure that unverified, vulgar, abusive, perverted, and tendentious contents do not find their way in the media.

Greater-Scope of Creativity in Digital Media

   Digital journalism, as also known as online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the internet, as opposed to publishing or broadcast. The main reasons for its tremendous popularity are extremely low distribution costs and diverse computer networking technologies. It has, as already stated, democratized the flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including newspapers, magazines, radio, and television.

 Some experts are of the view that a greater degree of creativity can be exercised with digital journalism when compared to traditional journalism and traditional media. 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. Digital journalism is influencing the uprising of citizen journalism. Because digital journalism takes place online and is contributed mostly by citizens on user-generated content sites, there is competition growing between the two. Citizen’s journalism allows anyone to post anything, and because of that, journalists are being forced by their employers to publish more news content than before, which often means rushing news stories and failing to verify the source of information.

  Disadvantages of Unchecked Internet Media[/b]

   There are great advantages to digital journalism and the new blogging evolution that people are becoming accustomed to, but there are disadvantages. For instance, people are used to what they already know and cannot always catch up quickly with the new technologies in the 21st century. The goals of print and digital journalism are the same, although different tools are needed to function. The increased interaction between the writer and consumer is new, which can be credited to digital journalism. There are many ways to get personal thoughts on the Web.

   During the time of Corona pandemic, digital journalism has leapfrogged.  Let us hope that the technology will also provide enough strength to journalists to disseminate the good and valuable news to the people and at the same time the employment to more persons.

[b]Leapfrogging of Digital Journalism in Corona Time

  The limitless growth of Social Media has also brought limitless problems and difficulties for the journalists as hundreds of newspapers, magazines and other media houses have shut their shops rendering thousand od journalists and non-journalists working for them jobless. The basic principles transparency of journalism like transparency, trust and inclusion have also suffered a great deal in the time of Corona. The role and need for journalism will, however, never diminish as people will always have the thirst for information as it has become a need like the food, particularly in modern times.  

 One of the basic needs in the face of the global spread of the Covid-19 disease is access by as many people as possible to reliable, credible, unbiased, and understandable information on all aspects of such a crisis. The first need is for public service, medical and health information on the virus and how to protect oneself from it. It is a question of informing, but also of countering the disinformation that is spreading faster than the virus. A journalist cannot afford to ‘dip the pen in the wound’ in times of crisis. Striking the right balance, therefore, between emergency information, public service information, constructive information, and uncompromising investigations into the responses of the governments and administrations concerned will continue to be is always valid.