New tools in the news!

What is news? Deciding what is newsworthy is not an exact science. News values are formed by tradition, organizational policy, and economics, and, more recently, by the digital revolution. Nonetheless, news is said to have five core elements that characterize new that is worthy. First it is timely. Yesterday's news is old news. No one really wants to hear about what happen yesterday but what happened earlier that same day. Secondly, its proximate, readers and viewers want to learn about their neighborhood, town, or country. Thirdly, news is prominent, the more important a person, the more valuable he or she is as a news source. Next, news is consequent, events that affect a great number or people have built-in news value. And lastly, it holds humans interest, those are stories that arouse some emotion in the audience--stories that are ironic, bizarre, uplifting, or dramatic.

The way news works in today's age is different from the past. As pointed out by Randy Reddick and Elliot King in The Online Journalist, in the past elite media organizations would send reporters to power centers and other locations where news usually happened to cover events. Today's reporters can sit at his or her desk and instantly access documents, databases, government records, and expert sources. There is really no more going out to look for news when they can just receive it at their desks. New skills are needed in order to make the most efficient use of the new tools. For example, the 21st century journalist must be able to perform Web searches, download data files and analyze them with spreadsheets, set up listservs, and use geographic mapping software. Those skills are generally lumped under the term computer-assisted reporting. Although the changes brought by the move to digital media are extensive, there are still some constants.

In my mass communications class we went to interview someone at a news station. Our interviewee gave us a tour around the place. In the production area we saw all the buttons on the production board. Tools that use to be used in the production room have changed or improved compared to what is used today. News stations now use the internet more than it use to be used. Most of all news stations have an online website. As for the news channel that I watched it did not seem biased or stereotypical. Now what news stations can do is report more news that people need or want to hear. Here's and research article on the topic: New news, old news.

MC in Today's Society???

In today's society there are so many new methods of Mass Communication developing daily. Its role in society now is still similar to what it was in the past. The difference is that there is now a variety of ways to get the message out to the people. Once newspapers were a big way of getting information out to people but now it seems like the newspapers is slowly disappearing and being taken over by the internet, blogs, news websites or other new media. Sometimes I worry about the future of journalist, print production and even publicists. With so many new ways to do things there are no reasons to use certain things that were necessary in the past.

Although, new ways are coming out Mass Communication would never die. I say that because without Mass Communication no society can exist, must less develop and survive. Mass Communication is the technological means of sending information, ideas and opinions from a mass communicator to a complex audience. It is also defined as compromising the institutions and techniques by which specialized groups such as broadcasters, film producers and publishers employ technological devices to disseminate symbolic content to large heterogeneous and widely disperse audience. When it comes to the future of newspapers or any other old media vs. new media an article titled, WSJ: The Future of Newspapers made quite a few good points. In my opinion old media will never fully die out because there are still people who do not have the skills or the technical knowledge to use the new media so they still prefer the old media better.

No matter what Mass Communication still holds a great big importance in our lives. It is the root of everything that we do on a daily basis. When it comes to fashion, movies, music, TV shows and even school Mass Communication plays a part in it. Many eyebrows may raise when they read 'school' but yes it does play a role in it too. As I learned in my textbook, scholars study it to better comprehend the process and to develop theories that explain and predict how the media operate. People make careers out of it. For soceity to exist period, certain communication needs must be met. Here's another link on James Love, Director of CPTech elaborating on the gradations of credibility between old and new media.