Week 7

Its fair to say that online journalism has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the early eighties. Many thought that the internet boom would die away over time. But as we have seen the evolution through the internet, the internets upgradeable and a potentially interactive format is not something that is available in other mediums. This has seen the internet go from strength to strength. Time has made it stronger through the addition of more advanced technology and software.

The internet has become available to a wider audience through a lowering of the cost of the technologies and software. This has made the potential interactive nature of the internet possible. While we can certainly see some great examples of the internet used in an interactive way through you tube, blogs and other forms many see the main media establishments as dragging their feet over embracing the new technologies to deliver a more comprehensive media package.

It is likely over the next period we will see a slight change in who provides the news. Media outlets providing larger resources towards sorting will be complemented a growth in the pool of freelance citizen journalists used by media outlets to provide a greater part of the networks coverage.

Week 6

With the popularity of blogs growing by the day the biggest question amongst journalists and media outlets is what they mean for the media landscape. There is no doubt they are polarizing opinion between those that think it’s a flash in a pan and others who see it as sparking a new age for the citizen journalist.

The fact remains that blogs can’t be ignored. Most blogs however attract minimal attention so the role of modern journalism should be to highlight the best in order to broaden coverage of events. Using the power of users to broaden the networks content and provide greater perspectives on events should be the aim of any media outlet in the new age. To do this requires professional journalists to go through the submitted content and blogs and use it to create broader and more inclusive media content base that will be of interest to todays consumers.

Week 5

OhMyNews provides news in a way that takes advantage of the interactive nature of the internet. Traditional media believed that exclusive content would woo consumers to their websites. But OhMyNews is showing traditional media outlets that there is not only an audience but also a contributor base in cyberspace.

Traditional media outlets have only recently began incorporating user generated content in the forms of article comments, story/photo/video submission and blog sites. However, OhMyNews promotes its users to the centre of its reporting and therefore is more thoroughly making the citizen reporter a central part of their model.

It is likely that with growth in the availability of technology like video cameras and interactive phones, this will open up the interactive possibilities to a greater section of the population.

OhMyNews is more advanced than a blog in that it is has a competitive form where stories are selected to appear to the site. Stories are then peer supported to provide compensation for their work. OhMyNews is therefore not for everyone and not for every kind of writing. It does however allow prospective writers to receive a guaranteed audience, recognition and reputation for their work which is vital for any aspiring journalist.

Week 3

The biggest question many people have about citizen journalism is if it is serious business or not. Could it overtake the mainstream media as the medium of choice for consumers?

The fact OhMyNews is now one of South Korea’s top ten media outlets shows that a certain amount of change is happening in how people receive their news.

These consumers clearly see the new user generated content, provided by sources like OhMyNews, as offering something they can’t get from the mainstream press.

A niche is clearly growing for news from different perspectives which have become more accessible in the internet age.

It is very possible this has been caused by disillusionment by at least a segment of the community, who see the mainstream media as being undermined by its market orientation and therefore bias.

The question is how the mainstream media will respond. We have seen this in small ways through user generated content used for stories.

It is likely that this could be increased in the future, but whether this grows or limits the access to a wide range of perspectives is still to be seen.

News today has changed from being restricted to cut off times for the morning papers or nightly news into a 24 hour cycle. With Blogs becoming increasingly popular, people are now expressing their experiences of major events to a worldwide audience.

This has lead to major media networks, taking advantage of the new technologies to let their viewers become part of the news making process. This process is sure to advance in the future with technology like mo-blogs (mobile phone blogs, v-blogs and podcasts) all gaining popularity).

With the increased popularity of the technologies, media companies, have began to increase funding towards taking advantage of the user generated content. The BBC, for example, has created the UGC (User Generated Content) desk to work out which content should go to air.

But with media companies increasingly taking ahold of user generated content producers. It is likely for the majority of the public will see simply see the user generated content that that particular company thinks is important, while the rest will only be seen by those who seek out the sources of such content.