I have become convinced that understanding how networks operate in our lives is an essential 21st century literacy. This piece will discuss how the structure and dynamics of networks affect participation in the creation of culture, and more specifically how the field of journalism is influenced by its fast progressions.
The meaning of network literacy has advanced rapidly over the last decade. As Adrian said, it is not merely acknowledging it, it is the implementation of it that we can understand literacy as an applied knowing. Network literacy is a vital requirement for us to participate in the networked society. It has become ubiquitous in the modern society and an understanding of network systems (the Internet) and devices (smartphones) and much beyond that. The wide use of network literacy varies from the growth and value of networks, operating principles of digital communication networks, to network security and performance, as well as knowing online rights and responsibilities.
The amount of media consumption among individuals is increasing as new technologies are created. According to phys.org, there was a new study done by a researcher at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at the University of California, that says by 2015, the sum of media asked for and delivered to consumers on mobile devices and their homes would take more than 15 hours a day to see or hear, or equal to watching nine DVDs worth of data per person per day. With social media networks rapidly growing such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, our world of media consumption is reaching a younger and younger age group, making our consumption that much more larger as a country. With mobile devices such as iPhone, news, entertainment, shopping and buying is all now at the tip of our fingers, anytime, anywhere.
What does this mean for journalism?
Such advancement comes with great sacrifices for the media/journalism industry. A sardonic term ‘Junk food news’ is on the rise, which essentially refers to news stories that deliver “sensationalized, personalized, and homogenized inconsequential trivia” stories (Jensen, 2001), especially when such stories appear at the expense of serious investigative journalism. It implies a criticism of the mass media for disseminating news that, while not very nourishing, is “cheap to produce and profitable for media proprietors.”
The term was first used in print by Carl Jensen in the March 1983 edition of Penthouse. He had frequently faulted the media for ignoring important stories:
“…news editors and directors…argued that the real issue isn’t censorship—but rather a difference of opinion as to what information is important to publish or broadcast. Editors often point out that there is a finite amount of time and space for news delivery—about 23 minutes for a half-hour network television evening news program—and that it’s their responsibility to determine which stories are most critical for the public to hear. The critics said I wasn’t exploring media censorship but rather I was just another frustrated academic criticizing editorial news judgment.”
‘Yellow Journalism’ is also the result of technology advancement. It defines a type of journalism that presents little to no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques are often well exaggerated coverage of news events, scandal-mongering. or sensationalism (Campbell, 2003).
This brings us to the great debate of interactive narrative v.s. print narrative. Yellowless-Douglas talks about “hypertext” fiction and discusses how interactive narratives differ from print narratives. She defines hypertexts as “non-sequentially writing with reader-controlled links” (Douglas, 2001). She raises questions about how exactly readers can participate in something non-sequentially, considering that language is inherently sequential. Hypertext can indeed be read non-sequentially, but the inevitable story that is comprised via the reader’s choices is linked electronically and becomes some sort of storyline. She claims that since hypertexts play with the traditional forms of chronology and ‘completeness’, they cannot possibly privilege one reading over another. She believes interactive narratives have no singular, definitive beginnings and endings. Unlike print narratives, where one cannot hope to understand the story if they start one-third of the way through, hypertexts allow one to begin in medias res and explore the text from a variety of points. On the other hand, printed texts dictate the reader’s gradual progression from beginning to end in the way the writer wants him/her to.
It is crystal clear that the advantages of interactive media had a remarkably negative effect on the publishing industry. Declines in the revenues and budgets of newspapers, magazines and books made print seem old-fashioned and maybe even obsolete. Nowadays, most content is created by the publics in the form of blogs and videos, meaning the money has to be spread out over a larger group of ‘journalists’. The financial crisis also had significant effects on the profitability of publishing companies, as the money predominantly flows to smartphones and iPads instead of the publication. This print-to-digital movement calls for new businesses models and strategies for the print industry that are of great difficulty and compromise. Lower revenues are inescapable.
Will there be a future for print media in a world where everything is already digitalised? In my opinion, highly unlikely… but it wouldn’t become the past either. I wonder at what point do we recognise the illusion of progress and start to recognise the quality of the choices we make.
So, what now?
Philip Meyer’s exceptional articles on the changing nature of journalism argues that technology and innovation have thickened the plot for journalists and traditional media outlets. That couldn’t be more true. It seems as if anybody can become a news producer these days. Whether it is news on YouTube or news by cell, citizens are our very own reporters and journalists are no longer the messengers, neither the only information source. ‘Public’ journalism has taken over. As Meyer argues, “One measure of the discomfort that journalists feel over the concept of public journalism is the great variety of names given to it, e.g., civic journalism, citizen journalism, community journalism, or communitarian journalism.”
We are in a new, digital era of news coverage and storytelling where digital communications have taken the notion of ‘public sphere’ into a new level. Journalists and mainstream media are actually forced to change as it is now the publics who decide whether something is ‘newsworthy’, we simply feed them what they want. Nevertheless, citizens seem to be enjoying being parting of the innovation game, with more and more young audiences becoming important and influential figures of our days.
References
Jensen, Carl (2001). “Junk Food News 1877-2000”. In Phillips, Peter. Censored 2001. Seven Stories Press. pp. 251–264.
W. Joseph Campbell, Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies(2003) p. 72
“The End of Books by J. Yellowlees Douglas”. 2001