Column

Bytes and Bits

New Media signals the beginning of a digital age which, if you know your science fiction, is just one more step towards that city of tomorrow. The city will be peopled by media consumers whose attitudes may not differ much from today’s current generation who are growing up using the television and to a lesser extent the internet, and not the radio or newspaper, as their primary source of news. It will be peopled by city people – whose time is limited and schedules are fixed around a great centralized time device. And they will expect media to keep up.

The Digital age, as differed from the electronic age of television, is one of innovation in technology, threat to the practice of old media and a matter of convenience. Certainly, journalistic principles and ethics are still important. But boundaries – topical and geographic not to say the least – will be and are being crossed.

"What of the news then?", we must ask ourselves in the midst of change in direction and thrust of online media outfits and the development of new technology such as microblogging. These developments, after all, do affect the practice of journalism because of the matter that it can be used to deliver opinion "fast", and as such may become another tool in the Journalist's toolkit of the future.

The newsmakers, the reporters, the stakeholders, those who appear in, work for and those who pay for the news to be published are changing platforms at an accelerated pace. Even with this migration to new media, certain corporate practices are still in place. Advertising online is good and alive, in the presence of outfits such as Google AdSense.

Journalism in the new media however, suffers from a paradox brought about by the practice of online journalism. While the news is uploaded in record time, it sacrifices the in-depth reporting available in the broadsheets. Online news takes on the temporal effect of television and radio. In addition while it is easier than ever to check data online, questions on it's integrity still abounds.

At the end of the day, however, journalism at its core is not changed. The need for integrity, the need to get the facts straight - to be accurate - and to do it in even less time than before is there. That's the challenge. New media gives us the chance to eliminate the idea of a morning and evening edition, the updating option is always on and feedback is instantaneous. Giving us the news and views bytes and bits at a time.

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