A change of environment

There digital news environment allows journalism to thrive, and there are some key characteristics that make this environment an ideal place to produce and distribute news. The most important characteristics are the unfiltered nature, the many-to-many model, the interconnectedness and the ability of of community members to participate freely.

Ultimately, the most important aspect of the digital news environment that differs from the legacy media system is the community/user-driven aspect. With the legacy system, news and journalism were mainly producer-driven, and there was really no way for the public to contribute to news being distributed to their respective communities. Today, with blogs such as this one, YouTube and sites like Demotix, it is fairly easy to voice your opinion and publish what you feel is newsworthy. Since the many aspects of the digital environment, such as the Internet, are virtually unfiltered, participants are able to say exactly what they want, making it not only a catalyst for free speech, but a way for readers to hear multiple opinions on various issues, not just the opinions of the few people controlling the news which was the case with the legacy system.

I have also posted this video to the class wiki, but I'm including it in this post as well. The co-creator of Wikipedia discusses the positive and negative aspects of the new digital news environment and if the Internet has "killed print journalism."