New Forms of Media Publishing

The latest trends in the media ecosystem today have improved the way people communicate and the speed of information retrieval, making the world a smaller place. These new trends include micro-blogging, social networking, blogging, vlogging and digital photography, just to name a few. Whoever has access to the Internet world today will have the power to broadcast their materials, share information and connect with people. These latest trends contributes to this benefit by allowing them to communicate information in more ways than before. Furthermore, the success of these trends has generated more softwares, websites and internet users to enlarge the network community (Naugton 2006 & Wherley 2009).

(brandingbrand.com)

The emergence of social networking sites and alternative online newspapers can be seen as a mark of the end of journalism, or a start of an evolution of a new relationship with journalism (Naughton 2006). Sites like Twitter informs users of what's happening in short sentences, to attract readers and making information circulation faster, hence the emergence of the popularity of Twitter. However, micro-blogging does not provide information that are as reliable as journalism. Journalism involves discipline, explanation, analysis and context (Bunz 2009), something Twitter doesn't seem to have (or at least not always). Journalism and social networking can complement each other in providing information to the public, which is what http://www.twitterjournalism.com/ is about.

(arkarthick.com)

Social networking is transforming politics, because it expands and improves the public sphere. Debates, statements, forums, influential pictures and videos can all be broadcasted o published on these sites. Politics can also use these sites to inform, discuss and announce. Freedom of speech is also enhanced, because people have the rights to post whatever they want (this differs in different territories), as thoughts, and expressions of an individual cannot be legislated, only behavior can. However, individuals should be cautious of what they post up in the open, because nobody will be able to tell what will go wrong when these information or materials are accessible to such a big audience (The Oracle 2009).

(http://www.markcrummett.com/mcart/notwands/pages/Freedom%20From%20Speech.htm)

References:

Bunz, M 2009, How social networking is changing journalism, as viewed 30th September 2010,<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/sep/18/oxford-social-media-convention-2009-journalism-blogs>.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging new media ecosystem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Oracle 2009, Social Networking's Freedom of Speech Implications, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://www.lockergnome.com/theoracle/2009/03/19/social-networkings-freedom-of-speech-implications/>.

Wherley, K 2009, Use Social Media to Reach your Ausience, as viewed 30th September 2010, <http://brandingbrand.com/blog/use-social-media-to-reach-your-target-audience/>.