What is digital journalism?

Digital journalism is a contemporary form of journalism where news and current affairs are distributed via the Internet using text, audio, video, and interactive formats. While it lowers barriers to entry and offers greater creative control, it also faces challenges such as short deadlines, resource constraints, and difficulties in fully offsetting the financial declines of traditional print media.

What we know

• Digital journalism distributes editorial content via the Internet using text, audio, video, or interactive forms such as storytelling and newsgames, democratizing information flows previously controlled by traditional media. [1, 2]
• Lowered distribution costs and diverse computer networking technologies have led to the widespread practice of digital journalism as people increasingly access news through online sources rather than traditional formats. [2, 4]
• Online journalists often fail to meet expected standards of reliability and competence due to very short deadlines and a lack of sufficient resources. [2] · medium confidence
• Increases in newsroom staffing at digital-native news websites from 2008 to 2020 did not offset tens of thousands of job cuts in the newspaper industry. [2]

Still open

• What precisely constitutes digital journalism remains debated among scholars.

Where to go next

• a case in pointHow do ordinary citizens contribute to online news?
• how it workedHow is structured data changing news production?
• the bigger pictureHow has the rise of the internet transformed the broader news industry?
• what caused itWhy did traditional print revenues decline so sharply?
• compared withHow do online-only newsrooms compare in size to traditional television and print staff?
• an unexpected connectionHow do mobile phones and social platforms empower grassroots reporters?The same digital networking technologies that define professional online journalism also enable ordinary citizens to bypass traditional institutions and report breaking world events using mobile devices.

Sources

• [1]digital journalism (Wikidata Q1055825) · CC0 1.0
• [2]Digital journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [3]Citizen journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [4]Journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0
• [5]Database journalism · CC BY-SA 4.0