Social media and our now digitally saturated lives mean the core of journalism has been forever altered, and largely for the worst I believe. We expect news updates fast, and will tolerate articles packed with he said, she said while accuracy falls by the wayside.  Opinion and fact are interchangeable and information is fast and easy to come by, investigation is as easy as tapping away on a keyboard and smashing some search terms into google. The prevalence of Facebook and news apps on our smart phones,  as well as Instagram and Twitter mean our demand has changed, we digest media differently and expect news stories, gossip stories, opinion pieces, rumour and salacious stories fast and updates almost instantly. Like naughty teenagers the motto of the day is “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness, than to ask for permission“. News media outlets now battle it out to bring you the “news” first… not the news most well written, or news most well thought out. Speed is the most important part of journalism now… not whether the material reads correctly, or that credible sources have been quoted or that it’s even news. We deal now in “content” which we expect constantly, rather than the […]
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