Digital communication technology, particularly blogs and
social media, have provided a platform for average, everyday individuals to
share their stories or advocate for causes. Before the advent of the internet,
activists were only able to share their messages with national audiences when
they received attention from the traditional media (Häussler, 2021). Now,
anyone with a Twitter account can use it as a virtual megaphone to blast their thoughts
and opinions on any subject. While this can be beneficial to the flow of
information among citizens, it brings a variety of issues professional
journalists must tackle.
One benefit to the accessibility of online journalism is the
opportunity for activists and community organizers to utilize digital
communications to push for societal change. The civil rights movement, women’s
suffrage, and LGTBQ pride all achieved great strides for human rights thanks to
organizers and activists. Today’s generation marching for climate action, gun
control, and Black Lives Matter have the advantage of being able to network and
organize with one another from across the country as well as engage directly
with the public (Häussler, 2021). Journalists covering these stories are able
to connect with key players of the movements to get their perspectives and
information much faster than they could before.
A major drawback, however, is the opportunity for
misinformation to spread at breakneck speed. Like a massive game of telephone,
stories are shared user-to-user and become more distorted in each retelling. Well-meaning
amateur (or even professional) journalists can spread false information when
they fail to check sources or assume that the source was reliable. One mistake by a reporter on Twitter can spiral out of control making it hard to correct the error. This issue requires members of the media to be educated in the spread of misinformation, how to spot it, and how to address it. Training journalists to be on the front lines in the battle against "fake news" is a key strategy to minimize misinformation and the harm it can cause.
Reference:
Häussler, T. (2021). Civil society, the media and the Internet: changing roles and challenging authorities in digital political communication ecologies. Information, Communication & Society, 24(9), 1265-12582. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2019.1697338
Mass communication professionals have been a critical function of society since the advent of the printing press. The Age of Enlightenment was spurred on by the availability and affordability of reading materials and by the increasingly common literacy among lower classes (Sámelová, 2021). Print media continued to develop and refine for centuries, eventually followed by the introduction of radio and television media. The 20 th century brought new technologies that forced communicators to shift their practices to take advantage of audiences hungry to experience these new and exciting inventions. Radio broadcasters could no longer rely solely on their words to convey a message, they now had to consider tone, delivery, and speed. Likewise, television required everyone from news anchors to talk show hosts to be both informative and entertaining, giving birth to the concept of “infotainment” (Sámelová, 2021, p.25). The dawn of the new millennium ushered in the age of online technolo...
The many benefits of modern digital communications are undeniable: connection to family, opportunity to meet new friends, visibility for businesses, and access to the collection of human knowledge, to name a few. With these advantages, however, come limitations that create problems for society. Some of the most prevalent challenges include big data and cybersecurity, the spread of misinformation, and unrealistic expectations caused by social media. There are concrete steps that both individuals and institutions can take to improve these limitations. Big data is typically used by corporations to learn more about consumers in order to turn larger profits while cybersecurity threats are often carried out by bad actors attempting to access and steal private information. Individuals can be safer by educating themselves about how they are tracked and how their data is used by companies. Then they can make choices that protect their information like deleting browser cookies and restricting...
Comments
Post a Comment