Article#29: Journalism

The distribution of a collaborative information refers to Journalism. It’s an occupation in which the journalists gather information and spread across various media like Newspaper, TV, Radio, Internet, etc. There’s an older form of journalism called “Newsreels”, a form of short documentary film containing news stories that was prevalent between 1910 and 1960.

Journalism has a long history. In India, it started with a newspaper. The first newspaper of India was published on January 29, 1780 known as ‘Hicky's Gazette’ or formally registered as ‘The Bengal Gazette’. However, it stopped after one and half years of circulation. In the 1800s, English newspapers were started by Indian publishers with English-speaking Indians as the target audience. Later, In 1920s, Radio broadcasting came into existence becoming widespread in the 1930s. Then in 1940s, TV News broadcast started. Live TV started in 1960s. From 2000, the digital age arrived.

Journalism has many forms like writing to advocate particular viewpoints or influence the opinions of the audience which is called Advocacy Journalism. Written or spoken journalism for radio or television is called Broadcast Journalism. The practice of finding stories in numbers, and using numbers to tell stories is called Data Journalism. Data journalists may use data to support their reporting. The type of online journalism that is presented on the web that allows consumers to directly contribute to the story is called interactive journalism. Through Web 2.0 technology, reporters can develop a conversation with the audience. The in-depth reporting that uncovers social problems and often leads to major social problems being resolved is called investigative journalism. It can be about political corruptions or corporate wrongdoing or even crimes. The practice of telling true stories through images is called Photo Journalism. Writing which emphasizes exaggerated claims or rumors is called Yellow journalism (or sensationalism).

Then we have something called "Fake news" which is deliberately untruthful information that can often spread quickly on social media or by means of fake news websites. It is often published to intentionally mislead readers to ultimately benefit a cause, organization or an individual. Readers can often evaluate credibility of news by examining the credibility of the underlying news organization.

To conclude, A Journalist should be highly responsible while spreading the news on anything as it has the power of affecting people’s lives. Also, we people should ensure that we don’t spread or support any kind of fake news. Give a thought.