New Trends in Journalism

chillibreeze writer — Shreya Ramakrishnan

Restlessly flipping through innumerable news channels on a lazy Sunday, I found myself seeking more. More than that, you ask? Yes. Information explosion does occasionally lead to repetition, and eventually saturation. While alluringly packaged, quick news bytes are easy to register on the fly, it’s superficial, robotic nature doesn’t suffice info-junkies. Instant gratification, being the name of the game, this news condensation seems to cater to majority of its audience though.

Exponential advancements in information technology have resulted in the expansion of modes of journalism. Sensationalism has emerged as a means to survive. However, good journalists and journalism still stand out despite this hunger for TRP ratings.

In the process, the profile of journalists has witnessed an increase in band width and skills to survive in the virtual world. Since media corporations tend to give out news flashes on the current hot topic, which could range from international politics to local sports news, journalists who are able to transcend the boundaries of the virtual and real world, grasp the essence of the news point, and maintain a connect with its viewer/reader are desired.

New means of dissemination of information such as blogging, micro blogging, RSS, e-papers have opened up this sector to the general public in addition to constantly updating its viewers on world events, while they are on the move. “Citizen journalism” allows amateurs to speak up their mind. Though one might argue that the assortment of views presents an array of choices, it could also lead to confusion. This may have taken the concept of freedom of speech to a whole new level, but it could also be used by people to influence and sell their propaganda. Also, authenticity of the information is rarely verified.

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This new burst in the fourth estate of democracy has definitely increased its power in terms of its influence on politics and policy making. However, the people on the other side of the fence raise issues of ethics, in terms of excessive lowering of standards in the name of “investigative journalism’’ and “trail by the media”.

According to me, authentic, in-depth news analysis comes in the picture at this point. Till date, I crave for a fairly good presentation of facts, history and logical analysis much like some of the opinions in The New York Times and The Time magazine.

Having broadly discussed the trends that have emerged in journalism, let me now get down to the brass tacks, in true blue “news-byte” style! Here is a slightly humorous take on the top trends, and words in the world of media which have been redefined:

Headlines! : Any eye-ball grabbing event ranging from a certain Ms. Sawant’s cosmetic enhancements to the grotesque Nithari killings.
News Channels: 24 hour black holes, consuming and incessantly repeating anything, news worthy or better still-not.
Blogging/micro blogging: A race for gathering fans. Fans, who subscribe to being updated on every waking, momentary, narcissistic act of a self-proclaimed star.
Investigative journalism: Biased, politically motivated sleaze-TV, with ethics clearly thrown out of the window.

Now that I’m done concisely presenting my points, I am going to get back to the tedious task of picking the least superficial news channel of the lot. Happy viewing!

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Chillibreeze's disclaimer: This is a contributed article and was published on Chillibreeze in July, 2010. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of Chillibreeze as a company. Chillibreeze has a strict anti-plagiarism policy. Please contact us to report any copyright issues related to this article. The relevance of the facts and figures cited (if any) could change after a period of time.

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—About our writer:

Shreya Ramakrishnan is currently pursuing law (B.A. L.L.B.) from the Gujarat National Law University. She is actively involved in writing, research and analysis on a variety of topics including philosophy, legal issues and current affairs. She finds writing articles and editorials on current affairs intellectually stimulating. She views freelancing as a rewarding parallel career, at this point of time, as it gives her ample amount of freedom to pursue her other interests.

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