When I read an article AOL Moves to Build Tech 'Newsroom of the Future' from Business Week, I had some mixed feelings.
Journalism is changing. Many people stopped reading news papers, and most people get daily news from the Internet. AOL came up with this idea of tracking what people are talking about online, and use that information to write news articles that people are interested in, or what is popular at this moment. In result, more people will read the news and more advertisement income for AOL.
I felt a little bit scary, be honest with you, that this technology one day might make journalism a mare business. If journalists only write about what people would like to read, it loses its meaning. I work for a national TV and I cover mostly about politics. I know people don't necessarily love to hear about political news all the time, but I feel like that's our call to keep reporting about it. But if more people rely on Internet news source and AOL way becomes the majority, the news that is important but not necessarily popular will start disappearing.
Although it is important, that journalists get to hear readers' opinion too. It just shouldn't control what journalists write about. I hope the technology AOL came up with, will help journalists and readers communicate, instead of making journalism no more than money making business.
I agree with your concerns, which I also felt when I read this article. I just don't see where investigative journalism and feature reading will fit in this new model. It seems to only perpetuate the Daily Me.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I also agree with your point about journalism. I also like to read articles about celebrities. However, sometimes, politic world itself makes people do not want to concern about their world. I think it's the problem of politician.
ReplyDeleteIt is disappointing how the economic crisis has forced so many fine newspapers to either scale back or stop reporting all together. Everybody suffers when newspapers can't afford to have enough investigative journalists and reporters on staff
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