‘Indymedia and the New Net News' by Graham Meikle. Some questions and thoughts!

What do you think constitutes ‘news’ on the Web?
http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0304/02-feature.ph

Burnett and Marshall identify the changes to the "nature of news" and also made the observation "that new media forms offer enhanced flexibility" ( para 8 & 9). The idea that everyone and anyone can access the 'news' by using the internet at any time of the day has changed the social norms of what would have been the daily lives of people say ten years ago. People were used to receiving the news once or twice a day by watching the morning and night news on TV, or perhaps picking up the daily newspaper.
However the 'news' on the web is a completely revolutionary idea which means we can access the latest news, for example a plane crash that only happened 10 minutes ago or even the currant or latest football scores. There is such flexibility and wide choice of 'news' websites allowing you to access differing opinions or takes on a particular story almost immediately and at the same time.

The web also provides not only the newspaper style or write up on a story but also visual images and often established websites such as BBC News offer videos of either the actual incident and also the latest news report as seen on TV. Their websites are often divided up into lots of different sub-categories and interests, whether its your local news or sport or even business politics and technology categories supplying people with specific interests in the one place.

The internet has become a great source of trusted information, and as Burnett & Marshall both stated this concept of “informational news,” has defined “the transformation of journalism and news in Web culture".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Are there ‘new kinds of journalist’ online? If so, how so?

Yes! There seems to be increasingly new types of journalists online, within the journal article newsgroups and Weblogs are mentioned as types of journalists. There is no question that these are indeed a form of journalism, people are writing blogs on either subjects of interest and/or their own thoughts and opinions. Simularly newsgroups which consist of posted messages from many users in different locations, it is usually a disscusion group.

Another type of journalism is the website Wikipedia (mentioned in this weeks lecture). This website alllows people to post information and articles concerning meanings of words and associations. These are then checked and confirmed by professional sources and published on their website. Therefore anyone has the opportunity to be a form of journalist, and when searched the internet has endless opportunities/ websites that allow people to particpant in this way.

The Indymedia Website, a network of activists who provide an open publishing platform, is a great example of a website providing online journalism.
It describes itself as a" A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues. " http://www.indymedia.org.uk/


Is open news quality news?

My intial answer to this is NO. As the opportunity that such websites like Indymedia give means that the news reported or the article on the a specfic subject may not be completely factual. As they are more than likely will not have been given full access to important factors or crucial points to a story that perhaps a trusted newsline such as BBC or ITV would have. As these people (those using the web to publish their work) are quite likely not to be fully trained journalists then their story may be tainted with bias or opinions. Which most professional news lines/ journalists would avoid depending on who their writing for.

However, perhaps one shouldnt be so pesimistic!! Some users of these online publishers may have taken their time to research a particular story or topic and ensured that the information they give is not only factual but informative.