Changes in Future Writing as Journalism Goes Online - Essay Example

Sur Changes in future writing as journalism goes online Technology is replacing the Stone Age news writing transforming them to a new phenomenon. In this, the newspaper or magazines once cherished are fading away in this new era of digitalization. Besides, simple, accessible online news both free and for subscribed services are replacing the piles of papers a person had to read to be fully conversant with the news. Online writing is emerging as a site where the majority of the empowered audience goes to search for news rather than the old way of using newspapers. In this, the articles writer is not lagging behave not been left behind, they have altered in the types of feature to fit the demands of the growing online population. Alongside this, numerous changes for the writers to continue holding the impacts hey had in news writing have emerged. The wave of the competitive nature of the writing in the online age is mainly changing the old writing transforming them into new. To reach and maintain the current audience, feature writing has improved substantially to fit into the modern era of media where writing of news and articles is online. When talking about online feature writing the first noticeable drastic change is the use of media in articles. It is a necessity for writer of any feature to accompany it with appropriate media. This is in most cases the captivating photos making the news interesting attracting masses to read the article (Karlsson and Strömbäck 23). In the online era, people need what will capture their eyesight and prompt them to attempt to read an article. If the feature is a research article the audience will read it to the specifics even if it lacks the attachments, otherwise they will just assume that it was a supposed to be read. Therefore, the writer needs to be extra creative and come up with graphics and appropriate media (Karlsson and Strömbäck 24). Previously articles appeared in papers where any person who bought the paper could easily locate the article. In this, therefore the much media to attract the readers to the article was not that necessary. Either in the newspaper era, those much media could have taken place preserved for the advertisements as the size of the newspaper did not allow for other more media as it could make it look bulky. Matching of article with media has made many writers form an association with the popular freelancers. This creates a symbiotic relationship where the photographers and the writer both form a crew selling the news and the media to the audience at the same time (Abdulla et al. 13). This move, however, is more beneficial to the writer who perform the dual role or a photo man and a writer (Purcell et al. 23). Apart from the fact that these people can attract people to read their articles, they provide them with a vivid description using photos, with the ability to describe the feature (Purcell et al. 34). This is more in areas where photos are desirable. With the rise of more media, the articles have made the description of the articles to be more appealing and dramatic. Not many readers could avoid reading such articles. Usually, photos form the front part of the paper followed the news (Purcell et al. 34). The writers organize their content in such a way it will fit in the limited space they are given. Secondly, the language of writing the articles has significantly changed. Writing feature online targets more audience than those initially targeted by the newspaper (Radev and Otterbacher 67). Therefore, to meet the demands of the growing population writers have invested in a more appearing language like simple and clear English but yet captivating. The era of complicated vocabulary is gone, as people will not struggle to read what they will take the time to digest (Riesch 45). Either, there is economization of words in the online language as opposed to the newspaper where the writers could write a lot as online needs a brief summary. This is because even if the article is captivating people will have a lot to choose from; in this case, people will decide what looks simple (Radev and Otterbacher 23). Therefore, the digital era writer writes short articles summarizing the whole story with appropriate media. However, there is another news if further shortened they lose meaning. To make these features attractive, the current writer has adopted a version where they first write a summary followed by the real story (Radev and Otterbacher 23). In this, the brief summary compels the audience to read the whole article. Therefore, even if the writers of online era have a lot of space to write (not limited as in newspapers) they have to attempt to avoid temptations of writing junk (Radev and Otterbacher 65). It is evident that with the writing going online the audience has expanded drastically. The writers have to address the expanded audience. Consequently, this has changed their stand to accommodate the larger perspective of the audience in terms of diversity, religion and culture (Purcell et al. 45). The writing is to the world as a global village rather than the local as it used to be. The articles address the general population rather than the local population (Purcell et al. 45). Likewise compared to the past where the local news focused on the local events only, local online news has a wider area of concern to provide for the larger world populations. Either the stronger attitudes towards the unnecessary religious, political and economic views have declined as writers move to meet the needs of all consumers equally (Purcell et al. 34). In this, they have embraced a variety of news and articles in which accommodates the views of every individual. By attaining this neutral stand, the writers believe they will reach many readers On the other hand, in the writing the writers have expanded the kind of articles to provide for holistic wants of people. This is because online papers provide the reader with all their needs in one paper. Unlike in the past where there were political, health, sport and business papers, online documents contain all the articles in the same paper (Karlsson and Strömbäck 54). They organize the articles in an activating manner that will draw the attention of the writer. Therefore, the articles should provide the audience with abundance. In this, the writer aims at equipping the readers with the latest local and world news on the financial status, they also should focus on the health, politics, and the so loved sports (Liu, Dolan, and Pedersen 53). Apart from providing the audience with a variety, the digital papers are all about marketing the content of advertisements. Therefore, the writers write from all spheres of life in an attempt to fit the adverts. Without adequate market share in the advertisement, the writer will not get the much-needed support by the sale of the adverts they risk losing the financial assistance (Liu, Dolan, and Pedersen 54). Therefore, the feature writers write with two aims in the head, to attract and satisfy the readers at the same time meet their obligations to the advertisement. Similarly, placing of the articles in a paper is also changing. In the old era, features were arranged in the manner, the editor of the paper liked or according to the nature of the article. For instance, sports papers started with sports news then preceded with any other news. However, in the new digital era that news that will catch the attention of the reader is put in a strategic place where people can see them (Hermida et al. 43). In other words, the attractive and interesting articles are in the first pages to attract the readers. Consequently, this has increased completion among the news writers in attempt to dominate in the front and strategic pages where their article is visible. The writer has a competitive in the search for articles that is in line to the attention of the audience of the paper and then do competitive write ups which has resulted to better and relevant news (Kautsky and Widholm 43). Besides, it has provided people with a variety of news drafted in the best competitive interest of the writer. On the other hand, the writers have benefited a lot in terms of experience (Kautsky and Widholm 23). The writing has enlightened them providing insight and a sense of good general being Another major advancement in the online era, the journalists and bloggers are replacing the media houses. Even if this has not yet occurred wholly, it is common to find a particular writer or blogger trending just like the media houses (Hermida 43). In this, the writer does not have to fear the editor who will trash the article if it does not meet its standards (Hermida 44). Online Article writing has given the writers a free will to write and publish the article online on the demand of their readers rather that their editors. Either, it has given autonomy and freedom to the writers to express themselves better as the tradition writing limited the right of expression of the writers (D’haenens, Jankowski, and Heuvelman 1). The editor had to approve all the work, which made wonderful articles discarded because the editor shows them not fit for the audience (Abdulla et al.). Either in the past media houses seemed to alienate to some godfathers (Michael Karlsson and Strömbäck 1). In this masking, their wrong deeds were a norm. However, with the sphere of influence by editors significantly limited, this remains to be outdated. As the audience leaves media houses for other online platforms, the social media is gaining momentum as a site for publishing the posting articles. It is popular these days for the free writers to post their articles online (Hermida et al.34). The feature writers write their articles targeting the vastness of their followers online. Therefore, the articles are brief to the point to fit these contexts. The most preferred sites remain to be Facebook and Twitter (Hermida et al 54.). The articles have raised the popularity of these sites to appoint where they threaten to dismantle the media houses (Hermida 12). Besides, the bloggers are taking over from the former news houses. The writers either these days write articles for their blogs are their social site. Even though the corporate writing still exists the personal writer are on an increase, and they are gaining more popularity (Karlsson and Strömbäck 1). However, the shift does not leave the media houses empty; they still provide news for the clients who still follow their sites. However to match with the moving wave they have largely gone online and most of them embraced paperless articles and transmission (D’haenens, Jankowski, and Heuvelman 23). As the social media becomes the site of prevalence for many, the media houses have also advanced in a struggle to presume their former influence. However, the most notable changes in in the social media feature writing are the rise of citizen writers. In this era of digitalization, people are empowered with digital gadgets like smartphones, tablets and cameras that can capture the events (Reich 1). People are more educated than the former days therefore they have the ability to make an article out of events. Besides, events take place where people are, the first people to note the events are likely to report them better than the secondary people do (Reich 1). This has made the citizen first-hand writers dominate in the field of journalism than the old days. This new journalist reports the events as they occur without leaning to any side thus making the news more appealing (Reich 1). Besides, the live videoing of the scenes and the photos make the news lively. This type of journalism has attracted attention to the events not previously considered crucial. This has caused enlightenment to the marginal area as they have gained popularity thus their development. Besides, the professional writers are picking the news and reconstructing the events from the previous reports in making their articles (Reich 1). This has made the work of searching for news comfortable as the writers have a starting ground from which to write. Either in the new online platform, news broadcasting has become a twenty-four-hour phenomenon. Reporters and article writers have resolved to report the events as they happen to the consumers directly without withholding the information (Abdulla et al. 12). The current platform allows for the continuous feeding the news and articles to the customers without withholding information. Previously, in the print media news where provided after 12 hours. Whereas few radio and television channels broadcasted their news hourly, most of the news took time before they reached the public (Karlsson and Strömbäck 32). This news delay is the thing of the past now. This has changed the feature preparation in various ways. First, it has made the media houses have reporters at the grassroots to capture the events as they occur. This facilitates fast and reliable source of collection of news and writing of the articles. Besides, this has intensified competition ensuring people get news while still fresh (Kautsky and Widholm 32). People have always alienated to the media part that readily provides fresh media, thus to attain appropriate audience the news are 24 hours with continuous updates. On the other hand, the digital news is available for the citizens to view after broadcasts. Initially, the news transition was once for all without consideration for those who were not listening to that particular time. With the emergence of social media like YouTube where people can share news worth information, it has been possible to for the media houses to store the broadcasted media for retrieval (Kautsky and Widholm 23). Besides, it is easier for an individual to capture the news worth video clips and send them to friends. This has acted as a store for the news and other media. Therefore, thus has shifted the attention of article preparation that will serve for a longer period. With the news are comprehensive and accurate as they can be used in future as a reference (Hermida 23). The news has greatly eliminated the writer’s attitude towards the news leaving them to be purely neutral without the propaganda. Furthermore, there has risen incidence of live media coverage transmitted openly to the public. Instead of waiting for an event to occur and report the proceedings, late people are showing the operations themselves (Riesch 1). The liveliness of the news intrigues the viewers to make their conclusions unlike the one-sightedness reporter’s views on the news (Hermida 23). Even though this is limited to specific events, it has formed as a basis for the viewers to judge on the sightedness of the events. This openness has been a motivation and a trend in the journalism as citizens follow major even like elections and football matches. The reporters only need a small summary that will not bore the audience, as the whole footage is available (Michael Karlsson and Strömbäck 23). Therefore, instead of the news producers planning on how to report for the after events, the focus has shifted to how they can make the whole news go online for all the audience to view. Sometimes, this has saved the writers many energies they to summarize the whole hours of a presentation to a few seconds news event in exchange of submission of the whole thing. Finally, there is the effect of the internet in journalism. With the advancement and provision of fast internet, it has been increasingly possible to transmit the news very quickly from the site point to the media houses (Radev and Otterbacher 43). This facilitates easy printing and reaching the people at a rapid rate. Besides, it has witnessed many media houses start online broadcasting for its viewers to get the news online in their electronic devises rather than the television sets or radio (Hermida et al. 23). This has simplified the way people get news as they can receive them everywhere they are. It is also the internet possible for people to stream videos straight to social media for others to view. Indeed, today journalism has significantly changed from the previous state to a different dynamic state. The digital online journalism is dynamic and accessible to the populations. People have adopted this type of technology to access news faster and efficiently. Consequently, there has been significant flopping of the print Medias like the newspapers that were a norm as the online papers take over. Besides, the televised media and radio media, while still relevant have been spiced molding them into videos that are easily shared with web sites such as YouTube and other forms of share media. The photos have become an essential component of news as they turn to cover for the diversity of human, informational needs. The spiced news summaries that are hot cakes have found their ways into the much-adored social media such as Facebook and Twitter attracting millions of viewers online to access the news. The writers have become bloggers replacing the traditional media houses while the remaining companies try to integrate the multimedia components into their sites. All these changes show a totality new media that replaces the old form of journalism with the modern ones that fit the majority of the consumers Work cited Abdulla, Rasha A Et Al. “The Credibility Of Newspapers, Television News, And Online News.” A Paper Presented To The Mass Communication And Society Division, Association For Education In Journalism And Mass Communication, Annual Convention, Miami Beach, Fla., August 9, 2002. N.P., 2012. Print. 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