Credibility Of Traditional And New Media For Journalists And The People

Credibility of the new media for the people and journalists

Discuss about the Credibility of Mainstream and Citizen Journalism.

Both news media and journalism are built on credibility. The rise of the new media has given to tough competition for the traditional media in terms of journalism and the people. As commented by Scott (2015), the majority of the people use the internet in order to surf news and remain updated. The online news and media platform are considered as the new media whereas the news telecasted in the television and printed in the newspaper are considered as the traditional media. The credibility of the new and traditional media highlights the level of trust the people and journalist can have on them in terms of the news telecasted or printed on them. At times, the news printed or telecasted on the new and the traditional media fails to provide an authentic source. The people and the journalists depend largely on the news telecasted. At certain instances, the people do not even take an initiative in verifying whether the news is credible enough to consider. However, on the contrary, it can be said that the news printed and telecasted in the traditional and new media are absolutely credible for the people and the journalists (Westerman, Spence and Van Der Heide 2014).

Reports suggest that traditional media outlets are still the most trusted once over the new media for the people and the journalists. As a result, the PR professional use the traditional media as the key and reach out to the people. The traditional media are still the most trusted ones because of the impression it has built successfully over the years on the mind of the people. The fact that the news is printed in the paper before being released for the people and the journalists are the major reason that it is still trusted. However, on the other hand, in spite of trusting the traditional media, the population fails to consider the growing importance of the new media platforms (Carr et al. 2014). The emergence of new media is affecting the newsroom largely, as the people are reading the news in apps and on social media. In the case of new media, the news is telecasted within minutes after the happening. It has also been seen contradictory news are also telecasted on the new media in minutes apart. This tends to confuse the people and the journalists, as they are clueless regarding which news to consider correct and incorrect. However, both traditional and new media print or telecast news that lacks complete credibility due to external pressure and factors. As a result, some levels of manipulation are there for both traditional and new media in terms of the news for the people and the journalists.

Advantages of new media for the people and the journalists

This question will help in understanding the credible sources of the new media for the journalists and the people. This is because the sources of new media include newspaper apps, social media and various other internet sources. Thus, determining the most credible sources of new media is essential, as people believe what they have seen in the new media platform.

This question will help in understanding the potential advantages using the new media for the people and the journalists. This is because the world is moving at a fast pace and every minute creates new news that is essential for the people to know in order to remain updated.

This question will help in understanding the ability of the new media to reach out to the people and the journalists. The effectiveness of the new media will help in determining whether the news through new media is credible enough for the people to believe or not.

This question will help in understanding the credible sources of the traditional media that the people and journalist can consider. This is because the traditional media used various platforms such as television, newspaper and radio for reaching out the people. Thus, determining the most credible traditional media is necessary as the people believe it.

This question will help in understanding the benefits of traditional media over new media. This will also help in understanding the reason traditional media is still existing and still preferred over new media in spite of being highly demanded.

This will help in understanding the effectiveness of the traditional media in reaching out the people and the journalists in comparison to the new media. This will also help in determining the reason why traditional media is still preferred though new media has several advantages over the traditional media.

This question will help in understanding the extent traditional and new media are credible for the people and the journalists. Having an understanding regarding the credibility is important to the people and the journalist believes in what they see thereby, influencing their decisions, mindset and perspectives largely

It has been seen that the news in the traditional and the new media are not completely authentic. This question will help in understanding the credibility and authenticity of both traditional and new media.

At certain instances, it has been seen that political pressure is one of the reasons due to which the raw truth is not presented to the people through traditional and new media. This question will help in determining the impact of external pressures on the credibility of the news for both traditional and new media.

Effectiveness of new media in reaching out to the people and journalists

In the aforementioned section, tentative questions have been developed that provides an opportunity to develop an in-depth understanding of the above scenario. In addition to, each of the questions was developed in correlation with the other question that allowed to clarify, rationalize and deny the acts that have been mentioned in the following questions. For example, RQ 1.1 and RQ 1.2 are developed in correlation with each other and also considering RQ 1. This helped in understanding the credibility of the new media. Determining the credibility is essential as the news seen in the new media has a huge impact on the decision and mindset of the people and the journalists. On the other hand, RQ 2, RQ 2.1 and RQ 2.2 analyze the advantages of the traditional media thereby, judging the credibility of the news that is presented there. It has been seen that in spite of the growing benefits of new media, traditional media is still preferred and the outlets are working successfully. As traditional media is still preferred, judging their credibility and effectiveness is essential as people rely on the news presented there.

RQ 3 is developed with the aim of determining the credibility of both the traditional and new media. This is because in certain instances the raw and bitter truth is not presented to the people by traditional and new media, as it is predicted to create a massacre. The news is presented in the new media and the traditional media keeping in the entire population and the people. Thus, the developed questions help in understanding the extent the news is compromised due to external pressure thereby, hampering the credibility of the news.

In this assignment, the research questions have been developed in the pattern that it provided an opportunity to determine the credibility of the new media and the traditional media for the people and the journalists. As commented by Hedman and Djerf-Pierre (2013), the media is one of the biggest platforms that is used for ensuring that the world news reaches the people on time. The people are aware of the things going on around the world due to the media that is used for spreading or presenting the news. RQ 1.1 and RQ 1.2 have helped in determining the underlying reasons that have seen the emergence of new media for presenting the news to the people and the journalists. However, it has been mentioned before that the emergence of new media is highly facilitated as the majority of the people are present on online media and get news instantly through the new media (Takahashi and Tandoc Jr 2016). On the other hand, it has also been seen that in spite of the growing demand of the new media, the traditional media is still preferred by the people and the journalists. According to Spence et al. (2013), the use of traditional media is still preferred and its credibility is hardly judged because of the trust it has been able to build and maintain over the years by providing authentic news to the people.

References

Carr, D.J., Barnidge, M., Lee, B.G. and Tsang, S.J., 2014. Cynics and skeptics: Evaluating the credibility of mainstream and citizen journalism. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 91(3), pp.452-470.

Hedman, U. and Djerf-Pierre, M., 2013. The social journalist: Embracing the social media life or creating a new digital divide?. Digital Journalism, 1(3), pp.368-385.

Scott, D.M., 2015. The new rules of marketing and PR: How to use social media, online video, mobile applications, blogs, news releases, and viral marketing to reach buyers directly. John Wiley & Sons.

Spence, P.R., Lachlan, K.A., Westerman, D. and Spates, S.A., 2013. Where the gates matter less: Ethnicity and perceived source credibility in social media health messages. Howard Journal of Communications, 24(1), pp.1-16.

Takahashi, B. and Tandoc Jr, E.C., 2016. Media sources, credibility, and perceptions of science: Learning about how people learn about science. Public Understanding of Science, 25(6), pp.674-690.

Westerman, D., Spence, P.R. and Van Der Heide, B., 2014. Social media as information source: Recency of updates and credibility of information. Journal of Computer?Mediated Communication, 19(2), pp.171-183.