Positive and Negative Factors of the Internet - Essay Example

Running head: IS THE INTERNET A POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE DEVELOPMENT FOR NEWS REPORTING? Is the Internet A Positive or Negative Development for News Reporting? [Writer’s name] [Institution’s name] Is the Internet A Positive or Negative Development for News Reporting? Introduction In this essay the answer to the question” is the Internet a positive or negative development for news reporting?” will be answered. Now days when all news papers have websites, it becomes difficult to answer this question. In order to investigate this essay will analyze the benefits of news on internet while also keeping in mind the disadvantages of the traditional method of new reporting. Thesis statement The internet is a positive development for news reporting. Analysis Detail and Accuracy Detail and accuracy are obviously the first criteria that come to mind when judging the coverage of a news story. Every detail, answering every possible question, who, what, when, where, why and how is obviously top priority. A story missing critical details is certainly not news worthy; but even stories which leave out small pieces of information, can easily be looked upon as weak coverage. “Often traditional media is forced to omit particulars due to time or size restraints, and in these cases bias can play a huge role” (Yonghoi 2007). The Internet, on the other-hand, has seemed to flourish picking up on the traditional media's downfalls. Further explanation of this point will surface again during the course of my comparison. Answering the reader's questions about a story is also a valuable asset to any well-covered news. Again, if there are any unanswered questions the reader feels left in the dark, sometimes agitated, feeling he or she wasted their time on a story. News should be above all informative and if a reader is forced to look elsewhere for answers to their questions, then the reporter has failed to do his or her job. This tie into my third point on being under informed. “No amount of information is too much information, but, for example, we can't expect to see the complete history of the 'Taliban' in every news story regarding September 11th” (Allan 2006). This is an agonizing reality for traditional media such as the newspaper, but a reality that the Internet seems to thrive on. Nothing but frustration can come from not knowing pieces or background information of a story and surely this is a substantial factor in deciding what 'good coverage' really is. Best-Coverage Now that we have a formal definition of good news coverage, we can properly compare the two mediums and make a decision as to which provides the better coverage beginning with the most obvious, but possibly one of the strongest arguments. . There is no certainly no doubt that the second a story unfolds you will be able to read all about it on the Internet. Particularly, 'technological' news can be accessed within moments of its release; the major reason being because this is where the source of the news originates. For example, a worm called 'klez' was discovered on April 17th, 2002. Within seconds of its discovery a major distress call was sent out over the Internet warning users of its vicious nature. Websites such as symantec.com and technews.com had documentation and cleaning instructions almost instantly available for public use in order to prevent the spread of the worm. But for some reason the 'klez' worm has become the most widespread and troublesome email virii to date. Why did this happen? Was it because the code for the worm was exceptionally well written? This is very doubtful. Was it because we didn't know about it? Well for some of us that may be true. “After what seemed to be an endless search I found little to no information posted in any of my local newspapers. This is news, and big news. Months later the worm is still causing problems for millions of people around the world “(Randal 2004). This leads me to believe one of two things: they don't care about it, or they don't know about it; the second being the most likely. But why don't the people who are infected know about it? For a simple reason, no one told them. I'm positive that anyone who gets their news from the Internet was well informed of the problem, which makes it easy to draw the conclusion that the “people who are infected simply weren't informed of the problem by their traditional means of news retrieval, and if they were it was far too late” (Meyer 2004). Other perks of this 'real-time' news delivery, which are unrelated to technology news but still worthy of mention, are things such as stokes quotes, sports scores, and classified ads. One can almost cringe at the thought of pages and pages full of static stock quotes from the day before whose true values are more than likely to be way off the mark compared to their current prices. I think the arguments form themselves for these and other dynamic news items; the Internet is the place to find the 'best-coverage' for these topics. Vast Amount of Information Another topic, which would support my thesis statement, is the vast amount of information on Internet and how it plays a huge role in the quality of news that we encounter. For a few years now I have been following the news about the Microsoft anti-trust case. Unlike our local or national newspapers, the Internet has seemed to have something new almost everyday about the story. If the actual news content had no new updates, the on-line sites seemed to adequately compensate for this by sparking the reader's interest in related or background information. This type of news coverage if often referred to as interactive reporting. It gives the reader more control over what he or she reads, hears, or listens to about a particular subject. This is an extraordinary feeling, to have a somewhat unlimited access to all the information you could ever need regarding Microsoft as a company, Bill Gates as a head figure of the company, or any other Microsoft related story. Anyone would think this same rich feeling of freedom can ever be reached with a newspaper. “To get a good idea of what I'm talking about, think of the Internet and all its information being printed on 8.5" x 11" paper” (Pavlik & McIntosh 2003) In 1998, stacking these sheets of 'internet information' would have given us piles of paper high enough to reach the moon and back 50 times (Barrett. No matter what kind of detail or background a newspaper can try to give, it will never be able to duplicate the amount of documentation available on the net. We are now only beginning to see the early stages of this new form of interactive reporting, and I believe it promises to change the entire definition of news within the years to come. Online Distribution Seems To Be a Better Choice for the Press “The Pew survey is the latest study to indicate how our world is changing and, less directly, how to reach the people we want to reach. Based on these findings, organizations might want to rethink how to distribute their "news" to reach target audiences. The Net-newsers are the fastest-growing group, making up 13 percent of the U.S. public. They depend almost entirely on online sources for information” (Khodarahmi, 2008, P.12) Because of the widely use of internet it is more appropriate for the news agents to stop distributing by paper in order to please their audience as well as reaching them .The widely use of internet as a source of news is in fact helping the news publishers to reduce the cost of publishing. Size of Article and Complete Information Sometimes articles found in a newspaper are cut short due to size restrictions. This must be one of the hardest things for a news reporter to deal with, whereas on the Internet a reporter can use a seemingly endless amount of space. The reason being is that the net has absolutely no restriction on size.” A virtual paper can take advantage of this fact, whereas the local newspaper struggles to even provide all the information from a current story “(Michael etal 2005). In general I believe this affects the 'quality' of the news coverage, because here we can see how bias plays a large role. If traditional media is forced to omit information simply because of size restrictions, it is easy to see how a reporter's own bias can influence the information being printed. “Whereas the more I look at the big news sites on the internet, the more I realize that the tools and strategies they use are being implemented to help protect against any sort of bias”( Sandi 2000). Another key idea with information omission is that of who decides what news is “worthy” and what is not. Again, Internet news can take advantage of the downfalls of a medium such as the newspaper. In this case an unlimited amount of virtual space makes it easy for editors to print stories that may not have been featured at the newsstands. For the simple fact that theses Internet sites contain more stories, I see this as 'better coverage'. Even though maybe these stories will never be read, it's a step in the right direction. As I've already mentioned, no amount of information is too much information; just because it's there does not mean we have to read it. But the whole idea is that if we want to read it, we can, and with ease. This concept is crucial for building the perfect news medium of tomorrow. Online News and Reports Are Easy To Obtain It seemed that the Internet could overcome the limitations of the traditional media because of its virtually unlimited space and interactivity” (Kandachi, 2002, P.1) As a result of seeking news and information on the internet the press and publishers have found that the internet is an easier method to release their stories and news Conclusion. After analysing the question is the Internet a positive or negative development for news reporting? It can be concluded that internet is a relevant source of news. Soon everyone will be seeing some major changes in the way they purchase, read, watch, and consume the news. There are many reasons not to be purchasing a newspaper, but as time goes on and technology develops no one will even dare question the reliability of internet new. . Soon, it will be possible for everyone to get live coverage, rates of the stock market and score updates on practically all electronic devices. Internet and cell phones are already providing us with updates of the latest news. References Allan Stuart (2006); Online News: Journalism and the Internet, McGraw-Hill International. Kandachi, K. (2002); Traditional and Online Media. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from www.saasta.ac.za/scicom/pcst7/kandachi.pdf Khodarahmi, S. (2008); News you can use. Communication world. 25 (6), 12-13. Meyer Philip (2004); The Vanishing Newspaper, University of Missouri Press Michael Brian Salwen, Bruce Garrison, Paul D. Driscoll (2005); Online news and the public, Routledge Pavlik Vernon John, McIntosh Shawn (2003); Converging Media: An Introduction to Mass Communication, Pearson Randal Edgar (2004); Internet, cable television redefine journalism Providence Journal, The (RI); Sandi Mann (2000); internet new, Leadership & Organization Development Journal Volume: 21 Issue: 2 emerald group publishing. Yonghoi Song (2007); Internet news media and issue development: a case study on the roles of independent online news services as agenda-builders for anti-US protests in South Korea, New Media & Society, Vol. 9, No. 1, 71-92 Ewha Womans University, South Korea sage journals Read More