by Lucy

Created on: August 04, 2010

Journalism is a fluid profession that is intrinsically linked with technology, and as our technology becomes more and more advanced, journalism follows suit. The most recent developments are the increased use of smartphones and real time updating from sources such as Twitter, and journalism has adapted in four main ways.

Acquisition of news

Whereas 30 years ago a news team would have to travel with a full camera crew, and a journalist would be armed simply with a notepad and pen, nowadays news in its various forms can be captured with the various new technologies. Most smartphones have very good quality cameras which can also capture video. This can be a great help in areas where it is impractical to have a full camera crew, such as a war zone, or if the news suddenly presents itself unexpectedly when the journalist is on their own or not ‘on duty’. Some mobile devices also transform into large keypads which mean journalists can write stories whilst they are at the site of the news. Finally voice recording means that if video is not possible, a journalist can still have an eye-witness account in their story thanks to mobile devices.

Identity of journalist

Journalism is also adapting through who exactly reports the stories. Thanks to mobile devices, anyone can be a journalist – this new era of journalism is known as ‘citizen journalism’ and it can result in some of the best stories, photos and video clips of major world events. Many of the videos of the 9/11 attacks were caught by people who just happened to be there at the time, and these clips went on to be used by major news networks. Mobile devices also mean that journalism can take place where it may be banned – a famous example being the events surrounding the Iranian elections. The Iranian people took photos and video clips and posted to Twitter using their phones, reporting what was happening when other news organisations were banned. This is also useful in countries such as Zimbabwe, where CNN and the BBC were banned until mid 2009, and Burma, where the BBC is still currently banned.

Speed of news

The speed at which news is now reported is a further way in which journalism has adapted to mobile devices. Rather than having to wait until the evening news to see world events, major events can be posted online through mobile devices within hours or even minutes. This enables everyone around the world with Internet access to know about a big news story, be it a terrorist attack, the results of an election or even a major weather event. Mobile devices also mean that this news can be updated regularly when events change, something which, for example, cannot be done with a newspaper.

Format of news

Finally, journalism is changing through the format in which it is presented. Rather than just newspapers or TV news reports, we can access the latest news events on our phones, through Twitter, through blogs and through other sites such as Youtube or even social networking sites such as Facebook. This means that journalism is far more wide-reaching and is much easier to access. It also tends to spread much more quickly, increasing the speed in which people find out the news, as referred to above.

So, in conclusion, journalism is adapting wonderfully to mobile devices, becoming easier to access, more far-reaching, and the increased prevalence of mobile devices is making citizen journalism more and more common. News is far more up to date and speedily uploaded, also making journalism more accurate. Therefore, we can say that journalism is definitely changing for the better thanks to mobile devices.

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