Internet and Journalism, can they actually co-exist?

Welcome to my 10th Blog entry which will discuss about the capability of the Internet and Traditional Journalism being able to co-exist with each other successfully.

The Internet, Web 2.0, the dawn of Citizen Journalism has created concerns for the Professional Journalistic Community. Some professional journalists are threatened by the fact that they have a higher chance of losing their jobs, and printing companies are afraid that they might be losing or running out of business due to the decrease in demand for printed news or newspapers.

Do watch this cartoon which highlighted the concerns and benefits of the new form of Journalism; this is being portrayed by two characters, the traditional newspaper and the computer. Its pretty funny, that's what I think.



What are Citizen Journalists?
Citizen Journalists are people like myself who post the latest news, our viewpoints, and encourage comments from people from all walks of life as long as they have access to the internet, on our blogs, etc.

Why Does the Pro-Journalism Community React the way they do?
Since the professional journalists were the ones who held the monopoly on international news, I can totally understand why they are not yet ready or willing to give some of their "written prowess" to the unprofessional citizen journalists/bloggers.

My View
However, I think that they are making too much of an issue of this revolution, because in days before the World Wide Web, I believe that as a pro-journalist, they were already integrating new technologies into their news-gathering techniques as time changes and technology advances; they should stop whining and adapt to this change.

For instance, previously news was recorded with a pen and paper by the journalist who was at the scene, then tape recorders emerge which helped a typical old-fashioned journalist to not miss out any important points for a particular story that he or she was covering, and so on. Today, news reporters/journalists still continue to utilize this piece of equipment.

My point is that the Internet is just another tool which pro-journalists can use to distribute unbiased, accurate and updated information at a much efficient and quicker rate to the citizens of their respective countries and contribute to the global "news pool".

Moreover, professional journalists come and go, newspaper companies are profit-motivated, so it should not be of any surprise if such journalists were fired or retrenched for not having good column ratings or not being able to get interesting news.



Beware of News Online of Citizen Journalists
Citizen Journalists/Bloggers tend to write their post/news from a very personal viewpoint which has a higher tendency to be biased as compared to the pro-journalists.

However, citizen journalists do allow other perspectives to surface which to be honest is not a bad thing, because it encourages readers to have a much more wider understanding and perhaps call for certain actions to be carried out to address "grievances". A good example would be the Foreign Workers issue in Singapore.

Conclusion
All in all, I feel that the Internet and Journalism can exist together, and that this revolution should be viewed in a more optimistic way.

Additional Information
This video shows varying viewpoints on the Journalism Revolution