Varying Mediums and its News Representation

Whilst researching for my research briefs, I got into thinking that perhaps the method in which news is served up actually determines how one might view the news. As Bill mentioned in class during our seminar on ‘Research and Reporting’ in the first few weeks, stories are only uncovered when indepth discovery is delved into.

Alright, so maybe it was not entirely in those exact words, but rather, if we look for news whether in the council minutes or even in police reports; there would be a story waiting to be written.

What this means is simply that the medium is actually the message. This was also part of what I took away from the series ‘Mad Men’ but… the point here is that the shift away from traditional media into ‘new media’ has seemingly changed how the message is portrayed to the public. Finding the source was not the end (e.g. politicians and MPs might have an agenda and simply engage in feeding information, as mentioned in Week 5), but rather what the eventually message was – what was taken and conveyed to the public.

For instance, visual mediums – broadcast and video interactive dialogues via television and online digital media – would result in different impressions as opposed to listening to the radio whilst heading to work, or reading a more professional stylized medium, e.g. broadsheet print.

And this got me thinking further, as to where traditional newspapers shift would be in the near future, what with their shifting part of their core businesses onto the internet (Flew, 2002). Where, does this place print media in the ‘obsolete’ department, and would this mean that it would inevitably lead to its demise?

This can be seen in Rupert Murdoch’s much desired implementation on a ‘charge-per-click’ system for his online newspapers; where exactly is the media heading, and what message is it trying to deliver to its public?

Interesting questions we could ask ourselves revolve around how some have argued that the shift from traditional media stems from a deeper problem. One created from the distrust in the voice of the ‘medium’ – the journalist/ news media. Hence, the rise of Alternative Journalism, which became rapidly widespread with the opportunity that digital media provided.

Also, whilst working in a real media, pressure cooker situation; namely, deadlines and interview constraints, it is often hard not to subscribe to what the mainstream media would desire as apt (Bacon, 2006: 147-57). A fast turnover time-lapse have removed the luxury of in-depth analysis and often times, news is dependent on hearsay information. Perhaps after considering the following, then the best form of media could be selected to effectively communicate with its public audience. For instance, setting up a blog site and gathering a following would be a great way of starting off a hyper-local communication platform.

Hence, I would perhaps say that, to me, the prolific nature of ‘new media’ is best thought of as currently residing in its formative stage. Growth would have been impossible without the strong foundation that traditional media has built for it, and perhaps print media would not simply die out but evolve into yet another form, for instance, e-magazines.

Reference:
Bacon, W. (2006). ‘Journalism as Research?’, Australian Journalism Review, (pp.147-57). vol.28, no.2.

Flew, T. (2002). New Media: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.