Week Six Seminar Report
Rachel Morris announced that Rupert Murdoch will start charging for online content within the next 12 months. In her seminar about Online Journalism today, Morris stated that News Corporation will abandon a ‘malfunctioning business model’. This move suggests that Murdoch has identified the changes occurring within the media industry.
Since the emersion of newspaper in the 17th Century, they have created a huge impact on government, social change and fashioned an increasing demand for instant gratification. No doubt this need for instant news and entertainment lead to the success of broadcast mediums; radio, television and now the internet. Perhaps Murdoch’s new payment plan is a sign of the shift from traditional journalism to online journalism.
The Internet has significantly changed the media industry; Morris suggests that online journalism has created the ‘multi-skilled journalist’. Today’s graduates need to be trained in photography, audio, video and website development whereas traditionally the key focus was quality writing. These skills are inherently linked to the audience that is increasingly evident on the computer screen.
Within 2009, as Morris asserted, concepts such as convergence and citizen journalism were acknowledged. Media companies such as News Corporation have engaged in convergence by supplying their readers with additional online information. The trend from paper to online has created the citizen journalist. With the incline of online news and the decline in newspaper subscriptions, the cost cutting hasn’t been surprising. However, even the lowest budgets can afford a citizen journalist, and many are.
Quoted by Morris, James Murdoch stated, in a 2008 debate, that “we live in today, societies that are constantly connected.” This connection makes it harder to market and harder to sell a product. However, selling news to a generation that is predominantly online seems too easy. It is undoubtedly obvious that Murdoch’s move will be duplicated and predictions for an online news world seem quite founded.
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