Media Covergence is the future
This blog is a response to the Stephen Quinn reading “Why and how convergence is emerging.”
There is no doubt that journalists are under more pressure than ever to meet deadlines because of the growing popularity of online news.
However, time is not only a problem for journalists.
As Quinn notes, “time is becoming more scarce than money.”
The internet is becoming the most quickest and convenient opinion to obtain the latest news headlines at the click of a mouse – and for free.
While this may not necessarily mean the death of the newspaper, people who are on the go or at work might find online news the easiest opinion than a bulky newspaper.
Of course, online reading can lead to sore eyes and the leisurely benefits of reading the morning newspaper, personally, cannot be beaten.
However, technology is not only changing the way that people obtain their news but also how news is gathered.
No longer, do reports need bulky equipment and a large camera crew.
The future is in the lone journalist with a single piece of equipment.
Blackberries, PDA’s and even mobile phones are helping cut down the bulk.
A phone such as the Nokia N95 is capable of taking quality pictures and sending emails from reporters directly to the editors’ desk, ready to be published.
Reuters has even equipped its journalists with a mobile phone kit that includes a keyboard, microphone and tripod.
Now journalists are expected to be multi-skilled and born here is the VJ (Video journalist).
Quinn suggests that the VJ is just a single person in the field who reports, shoots, writes, edits, and transmits stories.
The industry is calling for journalists to be multi-skilled in all fields of journalism especially writing for online.
Being a journalist that specialises in only one medium of journalism such as print will soon realise that they are about to be extinct.
This article on the Inquirer.net highlights why journalists should be multi-skilled:
* I obtained this picture from this website:
http://www.personalizemedia.com/media/converge_full.jpg
