Journalism and Freedom- In response to Rupert Murdoch

In the opening line " Government assistance is a greater threat to the press than any new technology..." I completely agree.

Through out history things have changed and evolved in every aspect of life. In journalism there have been many changes. Information used to be handwritten, then the use of a type writer came about, there were paper boys that rode their bikes to deliver the papers. Now there are better computers, faster ways of presenting and distributing information and other forms of communication that didn't exist 50 years ago.

Murdoch says that " newspapers have prospered for one reason: trust." Which I agree. If people that read the paper do not trust what is being told or shown, they are going to stop reading it, plain and simple.

This article here, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/apr/14/studentmediaawards, discusses that with the changes of journalism, the old rules still apply. Sources still need to be attributed, truth still needs to be told, legal issues, grammar ...etc.

In Murdoch's article, he is basically saying that with the emergence of e-books and online papers as well as the internet in general, journalism is going to change, but it is not going to be different. It has changed time after time and the concept is still the same, give the news that people want. Report on a story and tell people what is going on in today's society.

The government seems to be the "problem." He is saying that the government regulations have been making the way of spreading information difficult, where in the past it was not this hard. The government was never so involved in past, where today it most definitely is.

Murdoch also says that "technology now allows us to do this on a much greater scale." Meaning that we can reach billions of people in a number of minutes. Information can much easily be distributed nowadays.

I also agree with what he says that the digital age is not at fault. I think that it has probably even helped. People want things right away. People want to see pictures, they want video and all other things included in their news. They don't just want a piece of paper with 500 words telling what happened. People want to feel involved.

This is an interesting clip of Murdoch talking about how technology has changed media.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQSKRWXyFw8

In the ways that journalism has changed with the internet and new technology, the government also needs to adapt. News is more competitive now. The government needs to assist reporters and journalists as opposed to making it harder for them to gain access to information.

The government also wants to start charging for information online, which I believe is ridiculous. College students and other people with a lower income are not going to be able to pay for everything that they can get online. Since it is free, this is why people use the internet in order to gather most of their news and information.

Murdoch closes this article with this statement, "Whether the newspaper of the future is delivered with electrons or dead trees is utlimately not that important. What is most important is that the news industry remains free, independent, and competitive."


This is the article in which I have referred to: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107104574570191223415268.html

In addition I found this article from Harvard, which seems to state the opposite. It talks about how technology might make journalism go back to its roots. It might allow it to be the way that it once was, which I thought was very interesting.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=101069