Online Journalism Structures

In the new digital age, anyone can become a sort of Journalist by posting news, gossip, photographs, etc. at any moment. This can cause the spread of misinformation and unethical reporting as these influencers, regular citizens don’t have the proper media training necessary to be a Journalist. They also can break a story much faster than news outlets sometimes, as they aren’t required to do proper research unlike a reputable news company. Now, instead of waiting for the newspaper print, news is constantly being reported and updated on, making it hard to keep up. Because news is expected faster, and news companies are monetarily rewarded when they are the first to break a story, they often rush to get it out as soon as possible, leading to potential mistakes or misinformation that would have been avoided in a print issue that takes a week to make. With all medias of journalism and reporting (video, text, photos, etc.) combining into multimedia news packages, Journalists in specific niches are forced to adapt and learn new skills, and are expected to produce much more content across different mediums. With attention spans low due to constant screentime amongst other things, it can be hard to make the news palatable for audiences, especially younger generations. Journalists are now learning how to reach those audiences, by altering how they tell information and how long articles are.