The new media future for journalists
Posted by: Ellie on: June 1, 2009
Absolutely nothing to do with KCB201 assessment but I thought it would be relevant to people’s interests anyway.
EDIT: Fixed HTML fail for Tiara’s website. Please check it out!
On Thursday last week I attended the Walkley MediaPass Student Industry Day. It was an opportunity for journalism students to talk to working journalists, freelance writers and news editors of major news networks.
I learnt a lot from that day. As I sat with what I called “The QUT Journalism Student Twitter contingent” (we organised to meet up for the day via Twitter, oh how geeky), I noticed a heavy emphasis on the role of the internet and new media in journalism right from the get go.
- Journalists must now be able to demonstrate multimedia skills and work across a variety of platforms. Not only do we have to know how to write a story, but be able to document it for audio and video, edit and upload it online. ABC Online News is a great example of multimedia journalism. Their swine flu page shows a feed of related news stories, video, audio and a photo slideshow at the bottom – a comprehensive guide to a newsworthy topic.
- There are certain economic implications of online news media – apart from advertising revenue, how will future online journalists make money? Fox news media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently proposed to start charging people for reading his (otherwise free) online newspapers. His fears of online media dominating others accurately reflect its phenomenal impact.
- But Clare Fletcher from the Walkley Foundation said there also exists new opportunities for future journalists, like myself, who have grown up with internet technology and know how to use it. Aging journalists who aren’t up with using new media pave the way for new ones who do.
- And with those opportunities, an industry full of new media-savvy journalists just might create a new business model.
It also pays to have your own website. Hence why when I get a spare moment, I’m going to “renovate” my blog. It’s currently a fairly basic blogspot affair full of random rantings and ravings, but I plan to get a more professional WordPress-based online resume/portfolio/blog happening soon. I really like QUT student and creative extraordinaire Tiara Shafiq’s website which should give you an idea of what I’m thinking about.
Watch this space!
2 Responses to "The new media future for journalists"
June 2, 2009 at 4:50 am
It’s amazing how so much can change in a year. I was chatting to Adam Muir on Twitter – who used to tutor this subject – and he asked if we talked about Twitter in class. Last year he said about two people in his class had heard of it. I said this year that most of my class is a Twitter fan club, haha.
June 1, 2009 at 3:59 am
It’s amazing how quickly the times have changed. When I attended this event last year, new media was a non-issue for most of the speakers. While ABC News Director Bernard Bowen had a little to say on the topic, I was surprised to find the rest of the panelists had barely given the subject a second thought. Unfortunately, Brisbane Times Chief of Staff Tony Moore was scratched from the bill at the last minute, who I’m sure would have turned the conversation in a far more interesting direction.
When I asked a group of freelance writers and producers how new media and the internet had affected their careers I was shocked to receive three responses along the lines of “Well, I know people are using it… But it doesn’t really apply to me right now. I guess everyone is emailing now, that’s on the internet, right?”
I didn’t attend this year.