Traditional vs Online Media

by Tori Yantsos, September 22, 2021.

A lot of people within the journalism world have had to take a moment of realization to process the benefits and consequences of using online media as a source of information. Obviously when something is happening in our lives we want to know right away what it is and how it is affecting us. When the water crisis in Flint, Michigan was happening, “residents searched online news sites for information during the study period” (Wyss, 2019) before anyone nationally heard news of what was going on in Flint. Then “when the crisis spiked in 2016 bringing international news coverage, so did the Google searches” (Wyss, 2019). Now there are multiple ways for someone to read their news whether it is the newspaper, a google search, online articles, even social media. What is the difference between them all and how do readers decide which one is most beneficial? 

The online media presence has gotten bigger and bigger as more companies want to spread their news as wide and fast as possible. The consumer market is also growing for online media as “In the U.S. nine of out ten adults get at least some news from digital sources such as mobile devices or computers” (Wyss, 2019). There are so many efficient ways to post multiple stories online a day while also fact checking and keep audience engagement up. Even the Washington post has grown to be a phenomenon not only in a newspaper, but their online presence continues to grow. It was easy to not have a huge internet presence as recently as 15 years ago as “In the United States, the majority of phones were still landlines and a majority of internet connections were slow with unstable dial-up” (Melnick, 2021). 

two, person, holding, smartphones, texting, mobile phones, hands, text, phone, mobile

Credit: PX Fuel

Now in South America women run a majority of the new online news sites because the government can not put a restriction on what they are saying or doing. So these women are putting a lot of time and effort into researching the topics they feel appropriate, and developing it into a challenging story. 

The internet was not initially created to be what it is today. In 1969 the internet was invented “to communicate if a nuclear attack wiped out the conventional phone system” (Wyss, 2019). People had no idea it would turn into the modern day internet we now know. When people started to use the internet more, the more people began posting news on there to get more attention so “the realization of the internet’s potential as a news source in the U.S. occurred … on September 11th, 2001” (Wyss, 2019). After 9/11 online news sources were getting a few million views every hour wanting live updates of what was going on or videos to show the catastrophe of everything happening. This is when online news was seen as a growing source of information that was fast and easy to access. 

Traditional news quickly turned into old news because if people were still printing traditional news, but had a website, the news story was most likely already online and the print was coming out after the story had broken. This is when the term “shovelware” was coined because most people were shoveling out printed media while the story was already online for everyone to see. The companies were also extremely hesitant to print news “because news that has been sold at newsstands and through home delivery was now being given away free on the web” (Wyss, 2019). This also meant that news reporters had to begin to do more work because the online dates were coming at a much faster pace along with the printed version they were going to put out.  This also meant the term “backpack journalism” was coined because when both online and paper versions needed to be put out by a writer “they needed to have a wide range of skills” (Wyss, 2019). Writers have learned to write at an increased rate while keeping the story truthful with a lot of research behind it. Multimedia is a widespread practice now across most news outlets because they can give real time news, but also print longer, more detailed copies. 

Credit: Sophie Rotgeri (Journocode UG, Science Journalist and Trainer, Germany) and Kira Schacht (Journocode UG, Trainer, Germany) | 61 | Session | Data journalism skills training: Where to find data by Deutsche Welle

Online and traditional news both have their pros and cons, but in the current time we are in, both are acceptable forms of media to get the news out to people who want to know about it. Online news is a lot faster than traditional news, but traditional news has more detail and is not as rushed. 

Sources:

Melnick, Jeff. “Perspective | A Key Legacy of 9/11? The Way Conspiracy Theories

Spread Online.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 10 Sept. 2021, 6:00 AM, www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/10/key-legacy-911-way-conspiracies-spread-online/. 

Wyss, Bob. Covering the Environment: How Journalists Work the Green Beat. 

Routledge, 2019.