The Technological Impact.

Pavlik, J. (2000). The impact of technology on journalism. Journalism Studies, p229-237. Retrieved from Sage Database.

The impact of technology on the field of journalism has been great, John V. Pavlik says, professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the School of Communication and Information for Rutgers University. Since the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, the spread of literacy has enabled widespread communication. Pavlik argues that along with technology bringing about the advent of journalism, technology has fundamentally changed journalism in four distinct ways. Technology has changed the way journalists do their job, the nature of news content, the structure of the news industry, and the nature of relationships between news organizations (convergence). Pavlik says, “Although the best reporting is, and always has been, so-called ‘shoe-leather’ reporting, or news-gathering when the journalist is on the scene, more and more journalists spend increasingly less of their time out in the field observing directly the events and processes on which they report.” Pavlik attributes this shift in technique to the ability to conduct interviews over the phone and even through emails. Reporting during non-business hours has also been made possible through websites and various blogging sites. Pavlik sites a case study detailing the before and after effects of the use of video for news broadcasts. Before networks used video, narrative as slowly paced and reports  had fewer camera shots. After networks began to use video in their broadcasts, edits became fast paced, the narrative was quickened and camera shots were shortened. Now the internet is changing the landscape again, Pavlik argues. News can reach anyone and anywhere in a matter of seconds which can influence everything from what to wear and when to sell your stocks. Changes in technology are greatly influencing how the news industry is structured. National news organizations are growing in size but decreasing in profitability while local organizations are decreasing in size and profitability. Pavlik argues that this is actually good for the consumer because now they have thousands of choices of where they can get their news with so many organizations competing in the same space online. This has led to a converged newsroom where stories are assigned to a reporter who gathers all the necessary info which is then packaged for distribution to any media outlet (television, radio, newspaper, internet). The nature of relationships between news organizations and the public was relatively unchanged for almost 500 years since the Gutenberg printing press, Pavlik argues. The traditional relationship was broadcast; news from few to the many. Now the internet has enabled a two-way flow of information from the few to the many and vice-versa. Pavlik says, “The advent of the digital, networked world of communication is fundamentally altering these models of twentieth-century journalism. No longer can most journalists and editors be content merely to publish the news. Instead, the process is becoming much more of a dialog between the press and the public.”

Pavlik makes several good points for this new era of journalism. He points out that the face of journalism and its function has been an ever-changing since Julius Caesar first published the Acta Diurna in 59 A.D. Since then, various inventions and forms of literature have emerged to push journalism into its current state. We are now simply witnessing the next phase change of journalism from past to future and all the turmoil that comes with it. Current forms will go by the wayside and new forms will take their place until the next big change comes upon us. While technology is changing how news is being delivered, it is also changing the form of the news. Pavlik describes this trend towards an interactive dialog between organizations and the masses rather than the one-way news street by saying, “Digital technology is also transforming the nature of storytelling and the presentation of news online. The once basic inverted pyramid news-writing style is becoming obsolete in the online news world. It is being supplanted increasingly by immersive and interactive multimedia news reports that can give readers/viewers a feeling of presence at news events like never before.” Journalism as we knew it is nearing the final stages. The need for quality storytelling and news-gathering will remain but the media’s monopoly on news is quickly fading into a much more interactive and engaging form of journalism where its readership will have a voice and an ability to supplement the news for a more enriching news experience.