Journalism in the digital age

Journalism, including science journalism, is confronted with massive upheavals: digitization and other technical innovations, the spread of social media, and the increasing power of intermediaries such as Google or Facebook and the associated dependencies. Because of social media, businesses such as افضل شركه تنظيف بالبخار بجده can be known worldwide.

Over the past few years, this has had rapid effects on working conditions, understanding of roles and practices, as well as on the technical, legal, normative, and cultural framework conditions of journalism. At the same time, the position of journalism in public communication and thus possibly also its social function has changed. These developments have also been the focus of research for around 20 years. The scientific attention to media change can be explained, among other things, by the special role that journalistic work plays or should play for society – the description of journalism as a social corrective and as a “fourth estate” is well known.

Competitors in the news market

Before the advent of digital media, journalism was undoubtedly the central basis for informed decision-making and social opinion-forming. As gatekeepers, media representatives decided largely exclusively about which topics entered the public discourse in which way, conveyed via the press, radio, or TV. The media change has dissolved the traditional order of the press and radio. This applies to all types of media and departments, including science journalism.

How is journalism responding to this challenge?

Many media are making use of the technical possibilities themselves and are increasingly communicating via a variety of channels and cross-media, in multiple and often interactive formats. In doing so, they create new competitive relationships with one another, for example when the press, which was previously reduced to images and text, now also offers videos online. Then there is the competition with content that non-journalists publish via various channels especially on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit as well as in blogs and forums and thus try to influence the formation of public opinion. This applies to communication between laypeople and experts alike, especially when it comes to scientific subjects such as vaccination. Laypeople in particular use science journalism online. In addition, professional communicators from business, politics, or science use a whole range of digital media, with which they often communicate without journalism.