- In an effort to engage more people in following the news, papers and broadcast stations have turned to citizen journalism efforts, which includes a range of activities from having audience members send in weather photos and comment on stories online to having “expert” readers do some of the reporting legwork on a story (several Gannett papers do this) or letting reader suggestions guide much of the news coverage. Among the trends in news that are aimed at drawing readers, which are adding to the public good? And are there trends that may be harmful to the news industry or the concept of an informed public? And why??
Reviewing the history of more than one hundred years, the media development has passed through different periods and different formats, from the earliest newspaper to radio, to television and then to the current internet. However, whatever format by which the medium displayed for the public, how to attract a large number of readers or audiences is always a thought-provoking problem for the medium operators. For the newspapers, the director’s main focus is the circulation, while for the televisions, the key point is the audience rate. Nowadays, the clicking rate becomes the first consideration for the operators of the websites, a mushrooming format of media which has already became an inseparable part of our life. In an effort to engage more people in following the news, papers and broadcast stations have turned to citizen journalism efforts, which includes a range of activities from having audience members send in weather photos and comment on stories online to having “expert” readers do some of the reporting legwork on a story (several Gannett papers do this) or letting reader suggestions guide much of the news coverage. This is the main stream for the medium development now, with the advancement of technology, more and more readers and audiences involved themselves into the reporting work. Some people contend this interactive way will definitely generate big influences on attracting more readers and audiences. However, there are also people hold the opinion that the involving of readers and audiences into the reporting work will damage the basic values of journalism like fairness, justice, reality,…since journalism should not be guided by the audience. In my opinion, such interactive ways are the vantages for both the audiences or readers and the medium themselves.
For most print medium, like the magazines and newspapers, the most traditional way to get reactions from the readers is the criticism wrought by people from various areas, usually the experts or authorities. This is the prototype for the participations of readers into the reporting work. But such reactions are limited, since the limitations of boardtype and the publishing period. The emerging of the internet breaks the space and time limitations, the group of reactors are expanded tremendously. No matter whom you are, professors, layers, engineers, even general civilians have the freedom to express their own opinions on different journalistic events anytime and anywhere, what you need is just a computer which is online. The voices come from different social classes can be reflected. The combination of newspaper and internet promotes the liberty of speech in our society. Based on this consideration, there are some people contend that the participation of readers into reporting work damages the basic values of journalism in terms of authenticity, fairness, objectivity and so on. They contend that since the educational level of readers are quite different, some of the criticisms even demonstrated to be wrong and cannot reflect the authority. If such criticism guides the reporting work, definitely, the authenticity, the fairness will be influenced. However, I contend the criticism cannot damage the basic values of journalism, on the opposite side, it can improve them. We should remember that the truth gets more obvious with more intense debate. No matter the opinions are right or wrong, scientific or unscientific, they represents the whole aspects of the journalistic events. Just because of the conflict of these opinions, the final decision will be much reasonable and scientific as the whole aspects have been taken into consideration.
Take the Casey Anthony trial as an example. The Florida Court eventually judged Cathy Anthony, who was accused of killing her two years old daughter to be innocent and released her with freedom. From the beginning of this case, the medium placed high attentions on reporting this story. Also, there are a large number of readers participated in the reporting work. They expressed their own opinions through different ways on news papers and on the internet, from the member of jury to the general citizen. Innocent or guilty, justice or injustice, we hear almost every kind of voice. After the intense debate on this issue, the final decision became more obvious. There is no direct evidence to prove that Cathy has the suspicion of killing her daughter. In consideration of the jurisdiction and social morality, Cathy eventually retrieved freedom.
Some people contend that the interactivities between the audience and television station is limited. The format of reaction just limits on the hot-lines and sending short messages. However, the combination of television and internet improved this situation, the number of reactors are expanded tremendously. The function of the interactivity I have already analyzed above. Here I want to emphasize another important issue: we need to take good advantages of the combination of television and internet, especially for the talking shows which can reflect the main stream in our society now.
As is known to us, the number of the audience for the television is inherently big compared to the print medium, since the requirements for the audience of television is relatively lower, people in different ages and different educational background can accept the opinions transmitted by the television. In this regard, the television plays an important role on shaping the public opinions. Especially the shows which are presided by the celebrities or involved the celebrities, the celebrity effect itself can be considered as a better interactivity between the program and the audience, their figures on the television will attract more sight and attention, this is the original advantage. While the combination of the television and the internet expanded this advantage, since the website provided the audience a better platform to express their own opinions and to contact their admired idols. Thus the effect of the combination of the television and internet is of great significance on keeping a better balance among different social classes. In general, with the guide of the celebrities or authorities, more public opinions and social values will be led to a promising direction because of the celebrity effect and the wide participation of the audience.
Mike Wallace, a very famous talking show anchor, he and his program witnessed the tremendous progress of the development of the American society during the past 38 years. Still today, his show CBS’ 60minutes attracts a large number of audience around the world. The guests of this show usually were the elites or prominent celebrities worked in various areas, they talked about the current top topics in our society, criticized the government policies and discussed the current international situation. He and his guest always stood in front of the advanced social ideas, and guided a large number of audiences to recon on our current social issues. The celebrity effect of his show generates a big influence on shaping the social values, while the opening of the website of this show brought this program into a new period. With the participations from various social classes, all opinions are reflected and all voices are expressed, this platform gave the general civilians more opportunities to communicate the influential celebrities. Such interactivities provide a deep understanding of the journalistic events for the audience, while for the television, combined with the internet, their audience rate got much higher compared to the print medium. In addition, because of this celebrity effect, we need to make better use of it, more health and positive opinions should be propagated.
I have been working in this company for about three months. My director always told me that as the media workers, we hold a special mission in our shoulder. We need to take this responsibility. In our television, we also have some famous shows which are anchored by celebrities. We know how big influences our program will generate on our society, thus every time we decide the topic and invite the guest, we will do lots of research work, and make sure that our program can reflect the most recent social value in our society and help to lead the public a deep and positive perspective.
All in all, the participation of the audience into reporting work is better choice for both medium and audience. For the audience, they can keep up with what happens in our current society, while for the medium, they can get a much higher circulation, audience rate or clicking rate. Combined with internet, I am sure that the future of the print and broadcast medium will be much promising.
