Femke Molenaar

Traditional media is being overtaken by the

internet
As we live in 2017 the media landscape is changing all the time. The internet is a must and almost
everyone uses it. As a result, the public role is changing since people can post online whatever they
would like to. This essay will deal with the future of journalism and the role of universities that offer
journalism as a major.

Its a fact that the world of media is in a constant state of development. New ways of publication forms
arise and journalists use new tools such as drones, Virtual Reality and robots. Stories can now be told in a
different way. Journalism can be partially automated by these new technologies which affect the work of
journalists. Jobs in journalism are disappearing, especially the ones in traditional media. Journalists need
to find a connection with new media but research shows that young journalists are often not open to
innovations in their field. (Van den Bos. 2016).

In addition, the role of the audience has changed as well. The increased usability makes it easier for
people to post thoughts and expressions online. Its a challenging time for journalists since its hard to
check all the facts people are positing online. According to Wyde, writer for The Guardian, its an
important value that should be pursued by more journalists. Every single person has his/her own voice.
Social media networks are influential and the internet provides answers to most of peoples questions.
(Wyde. 2015). A user often does not know anymore what is correct and what is not. Brouwers, a Dutch
journalist and lector in journalism at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, mentions there is a task for
journalists that has faded into the background in recent years: interpreting news, background sketches
and finding out the truth outlined this idea in a telephone call on 18th March 2017.

Wyde. (2015), adds that journalists should use the appropriate technologies, in which articles can be
published faster and its quality is also better. As news can always be updated quickly, there is often not
enough time for fact checking which causes a dip in the quality of journalism. (ibid. 2015).
 Femke Molenaar

Since the internet and digitization are exploding, new ideas of journalism are emerging. For example:
MoJo: Mobile Journalism. In The Netherlands, Geertje Algerda is the first mobile journalist. In this case,
she would hold an interview with her smartphone instead of a professional camera. Since iPhones are
increasingly used for quality pictures and its microphone works well too, Mobile Journalism is possible.
Benefits include people daring to talk more easily to the camera. Back when the article was published in
2015, the number of Mobile Journalists was still be counted on one hand. Algera thought that was
surprising. Every journalist should uses his smartphone. News and good stories are everywhere, and
your phone is always with you." (Algera. 2016).

Mobile Journalism also exists in the United Kingdom. The BBC for example uses it, although they call it
smartphone journalism. According to smartphone specialist Marc Settle, the BBC uses the phone to
record breaking news. By filming video horizontally and manually controlling the focus, brightness and
color balance, journalists can easily produce broadcast-quality video. (Anon. n.d.).

Besides MoJo, new successful startups arise every year. In other words, business people and
organizations that focus on new technological developments. 90 percent of the ideas wont remain.
Nevertheless some will be very successful, for instance Blendle, a digital sales channel where people can
buy individual articles. (Brouwers. 2017).

People create these startups and most of them are devised by students. It is difficult for them, soon
graduating and stepping into the full-changing profession and find a job. Universities that offer
journalism teach students about the changing facts in journalism. According to Brouwers, (2017), there is
not enough teaching in media innovation at the moment. Brouwers suggests that online media is the
start for every journalism major at any university: "each specialization must be online, even if you choose
to work for a newspaper or magazine. Universities often say: online media is important but meanwhile,
they still focus on the old division. Brouwers supports the idea that students at the Rijksuniversiteit need
to create their own startup in their third year of university. Other universities in The Netherlands give
lectures about entrepreneurship and innovation. However, its only given in the last year of university.
 Femke Molenaar

Focusing on traditional media has to do with the structure of rules imposed by the ministry. (Brouwers.
2017). The requirements are associated with the ones made ten to twenty years ago. Those are specially
focused on traditional media. Brouwers adds that, universities want to be ahead however, some
teachers do not have the ability to deal with new technologies. Through visiting lecturers at universities,
schools could capitalize more on innovation. Teachers do not have to lead the way, but they must know
what is going on and how it is carried out. (ibid. 2017).

However, University Windesheim in Zwolle is now dealing with new technologies. They created a new
concept since 2015: constructive journalism. In other words, an emerging field of journalism in which
the core is to focus on solutions instead of negativity. Journalists help consumers to create a more
realistic picture of the world and emphasize opportunities. (Kuyp. (2016).

Although there are some new concepts, universities in The Netherlands do not give enough attention to
new forms of journalism, (Brouwers. 2017) while Solent University in Southampton definitely does work
with new technologies. The university provides a television studio with professional equipment and
offers units that deal with new media as well such as television production, production and online
content management and designing blogs. The amount of students that go to Solent University (11.000)
is a huge difference, compared to the amount at a random university in The Netherlands: around 800.
(Solent University. n.d.). These Dutch universities that offer journalism as a major cannot afford that
much professional equipment since there is a smaller amount of people. As a result, they cannot teach
students that much about new technologies. (Ferrero. 2017).

On the other hand, more and more students are graduating and finding a job because they find a
connection with new media easily. Journalists from other generations dont know that much about new
technologies, so there might be some open spots for students even though many of them dont want to
learn about the new technologies. (Van den Bos. 2016). Young journalists most of the time dont want to
work with Excel, whenever using data journalism. While older journalists are becoming enthusiastic as
there arises a new way of storytelling. (ibid. 2016).
 Femke Molenaar

Since technologies are constantly changing and the media landscape will remain in motion, students
advanced towards the digital world. (ibid. 2016). However, its quite difficult for them to not know
enough about digital practice. Internships should therefore, according to Jan Benjamin, a journalist NRC,
last longer because 'the more experience in the workplace, the faster you learn. (ibid.2016).

The confidence of the society in journalism is low (Knight. n.d.), but it apparently remains exciting
viewing the large number of registrations for the program each year. Schools will have to adjust their
system because they need students to be taught about their future. Due to requirements of the Dutch
government, its hard to provide any changes. (Brouwers. 2017.)

Accordingly, journalism will continue to change the upcoming years. It is not known how quickly,
because technology keeps changing and new startups will constantly appear on the market. Universities
will have to adapt to those changes. If they invited guest lecturers, students would be taught more about
changes in their field. In addition, universities should focus less on traditional media and should combine
their lectures with online journalism if students want to be prepared well for their future and profession.

This essay has explained the change in journalism and media technologies. Its a fact that journalism will
continue to change over the coming years. We do not know how fast as technology continues to change
as well and new startups will always appear on the market. However, universities should focus less on
traditional media. If journalism wants to survive economically, students need to be focused more on
online journalism because internet continues to grow, and that growth can no longer be stopped by
traditional media.
 Femke Molenaar

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