Modul Mata Kuliah Journalisme Online - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

However, an increase in competition also has led some news organizations to distinguish themselves
from less responsible outlets by being more transparent about how they do their work. Journalists who
want to set their articles apart as truthful and comprehensive have begun giving the public access to
their sources. Studies are equipped with margins of error, assertions are backed by supporting web
links, and anonymity granted to sources is thoroughly explained.
While some journalists turn to transparency to justify the claims in their reports, others have resorted to
a much more careless form of writing, dubbed “journalism of assertion.” Many blogs and independent
e-zines, lacking an engrained sense of duty to the truth or to readers, have developed a journalistic style
of unsubstantiated opinion. Ideas are accrued and then restated, without regard to their origin or
factuality.
The fact that information can be so easily accessed and then redistributed on the internet has lent itself
to yet another trend: questioning the value of copyright. According to Piers Fawkes, co-creator of PSFK,
a collaborative trend-reporting site, copyright has lost its value. “A blogger’s job is to spread ideas,”
proclaims Fawkes. “They may be our ideas or the great ideas of others – but blogging gives an
unparalleled way of passing those ideas on to others . . . the reason we write is not to control our ideas,
not to look clever. We write to add our ideas to the global discussion.”
Changes in news media audiences
The proliferation of news outlets means that audiences can read and watch their news on various
channels and web sites. In other words, media audiences have fragmented. No longer does an
overwhelming majority of Canadians sit down in the evening to watch one or two major TV newscasts.
People get their news updated throughout the day, when they want it. They surf the web to find the
stories that interest them. Some describe these niche audiences as impatient, “remote control”
audiences, who want the information they’re seeking without delay and without additional, unsought
news.
In response, more and more news outlets cater to smaller and smaller demographics or “niches.” The
risk is that journalists will no longer seek to provide the public with comprehensive accounts of the day’s
top stories from many areas of life, but will focus narrowly on “niche news” that is of interest to narrow
sectors of the population. An additional danger is that the public will no longer come together, through
the news media, to deliberate over common issues. Instead, the public will fragment into many specialinterest
audiences.
Convergence of media
The fragmentation of the news audience has prompted some major news organizations to attempt to
“re-assemble” a large news audience by providing news across many media platforms. Major
organizations such as CNN in the United States and CanWest in Canada seek to own and provide news
via a convergence of their newspapers, television stations and web sites. Meanwhile, journalists are
urged to embrace multi-media reporting -- the ability to report for print, broadcast and the internet.
Business Values
As newsrooms become small parts of large corporations, there is a danger that profit-seeking and
economic imperatives may cause newsrooms to compromise their ethical standards. Business values,
such as the need to meet the demand of investors and advertisers, may trump journalistic integrity.
Since many news companies are publicly financed corporations, newsroom owners or their senior staff
may feel the pressure of investor-friendly quarterly reports. Inside the newsrooms, journalists may find