Since the creation of the Internet the technological advancements have played a huge role in the convergence and consolidation in journalism. I like to look at convergence and consolidation as a cause and effect. The convergence of journalism has caused the consolidation of journalism (or media).
Convergence simply means the all of the digital formats of media now. Whether it’s a digital newspaper, multimedia journalism, blogs, podcast, ect. This is the recently ‘next step’ in journalism. Before this was the 24 hour new channel that was ready for any breaking news. And even before then was the radio news at 5 or the daily paper. Now we can have breaking news at the second it breaks. With a simple key command and two or three clicks you can find out where recent power outages are, who won what game, who killed who, ect. The old saying time is money comes into play here. Why would you watch a whole news report when you could go online and click on the story you want to read/listen/watch on the Internet?
It’s hard to believe that consolidation plays a role in journalism. One might think that there are two many reporters and news stories to know what to believe or follow. The funny thing is that they are all linked by one factor, who signs their paychecks. Take ESPN for an example. They have ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN.com, ESPNtheU, and ESPNNews to report breaking. You could watch all of them and get the same story in a different format, different images, and different reporters. The point is there are five different stations just to report sports news. Also the kicker is Disney/ABC owns ESPN. So stories, reports, and sources between reporters. In conclusion there are many styles of journalism. From newspapers to the Internet and radio to 24-hour news channels, consolidation and convergence has been changing the world of journalism.
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