With the advancement of technologies, news can be access through a whole new medium – Internet. So how has this new medium changed the role of journalism ? With the Internet, we have entered a communication revolution where citizens themselves are able to practice what we call as citizen journalism (Allan, 2006; cited in Robinson 2009, p. 796). These citizen journalists report news via new media such as blogs, videologs (Youtube), podcast, Twitter and etc. Chartier (2008) reported that a new channel, “Citizen News” was set up in Youtube aimed to produce newsworthy content accessible to a global audience. Technology has thus, become a toolkit which is allowing just about anyone to become a journalist without needing great expectations, and in theory, with global reach.
While new media is still growing, it grants citizens a whole new world where there is freedom of speech. However, Youtube which is a video sharing website was recently banned in Pakistan for showing material considered offensive in Islam.
Chisamera (2008) reported that a cartoon video of Prophet Mohammed was published on 2006 by a Danish newspaper and it was posted on YouTube in 2008. According to Pakistan authorities, there were immediate protests throughout Pakistan and the burning of the Danish flag were becoming common scenes in Pakistan.
While citizens in countries such as America are granted with more freedom of speech where they can generally write blogs without harsh consequences, not all countries around the world offer this right to its citizen. . Maltoni (2007) states that we are "more and more in a collaborative story-centric approach of publishing". Media publishing will still continue to grow and evolve to suit people's needs, and it will be hard to guess what is to come in the future.
References
Chisamera, D 2008, Pakistan's ISP Block YouTube Access over Anti-Islami Videos, viewed 10 November 2009,http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Pakistani_ISPs_Block_YouTube_Access_Over_Anti_Islamic_Videos_14434.html
Gillmor, D 2004, We the media: Grassroots Journalism by the People for the People, O’Reilly Media, United States of America.)
Maltoni, V 2007, What is New Media?, Conversation Agent, viewed 10 November 2009,
http://www.conversationagent.com/2007/11/what-is-new-med.html
Robinson, S 2009, ‘If you had been with us: Mainstream press and citizen journalists jockey for authority over the collective memory of Hurricane Katrina’, New Media and Society, Vol 11, no.5, pp. 795-814.
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