Before the internet, our news came to us in newspapers and magazines, and typically had a lifespan of at least a day. But now, with a 24/7 news cycle, some articles don’t last longer than 10 minutes. In this virtual world where mouse clicks hold the ultimate power, my main concern is that journalists will no longer be held to the same professional standards as before.
News websites and even social media outlets sometimes post inaccurate information in an effort to be first with the story, and as the abundance of stories rises these inaccuracies will increase along with it. Rather than dedicating a small section of the newspaper to misprints and corrections, the internet has allowed media outlets to edit posts with the click of a button. Since there is no waste of money or space, there is less incentive for journalists to obtain accurate information; timeliness will take over, and there will be no balance of journalistic principles. Though our access to news is incredible and often useful, I worry there will come a point where the pressure to be “first” to break the story will become more important than reporting accurate and insightful information.
I do believe that journalists can keep up their professional standards on the web, but only if they can relinquish their desire to be “first” with the information; in our society today, there is no such thing as a breaking news story on the internet because everything is breaking news. On Twitter and Facebook everyone is a journalist, and now the people directly involved in the news story can report it themselves. Rather than having a journalist as an intermediary between the news and the public, the public is getting their news directly from the sources. Though this may eventually have repercussions and accuracy will always be an issue, the evolution of news is becoming more personal and individualized, which could only lead to a more educated society overall.