Journalism In The 21st Century

Many academics believe the role of the journalist has changed in the 21st century because of the internet and in particular social media. (Fincham, 2015) According to Gulyas, developments in technology have impacted journalism in three different ways; they have changed the relationship with the audience, journalistic practices and professional values. (2013) Before analysing how journalism has changed, it is important to define what journalism is and its function within society. The American Press Institute quotes Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel in The Elements of Journalism, saying “journalism is not defined by technology, nor by its journalists or the techniques they employ. The principles and purpose of journalism are defined by something

Christina Bohan, deputy editor of thejournal.ie told DCU’s Masters in Journalism class that the Irish news consumer is not dependent only on thejournal.ie for its news source but can look to The Washington Post or Al-Jazeera for their news. (2016) Though this means that news organisations are more tuned into what their audience chooses to read and not read, it can be questioned if a more involved audience changes the role that journalism plays within our society? If according to The American Press Institute, the purpose of journalism is to inform citizens and platforms like Twitter, have 288 million active monthly users (Statista, 2014) then this shows that the function of journalism is being fulfilled and perhaps even more than twenty or thirty years ago. With 75% of Irish journalists believing they are more engaged with their audience through the use of social media, (Boran, Harrower & Heravi, 2014) it could be argued that people are become more civically active within democracy. Social media is the platform where their voices are heard, not necessarily a poor change within journalism. Ulrika Hedman argues, however, that the majority of people who are active on twitter are “elite people like journalists, politicians and celebrities.” (2015) This shows that though there appears to be more engagement with the news and journalists through social media it is from the same elite who would have bought newspapers and listened to current affair radio programmes. Thus it can be questioned if their truly is a large change in audience engagement as these mediums are not targeting the sections of society who would not have bought newspapers participated in discussion before social