Handling news in a flash

This was an article I wrote for The Hindu newspaper. I had sent it just for the heck of it and it actually got published. The day I saw my article and my name (that also with my picture) on the paper I was overjoyed. This was my first byline and to tell you the truth, it was amazing seeing my name in an article in one of the biggest Indian Dailies.

A look at New Media, the new kind of journalism

For years people knew journalists to wield only the pen. However, as time flew and the world advanced, people witnessed a change. Journalists started using electronic devices. And that was just the beginning of the decline of the pen which was once considered mightier than the sword! As television news came into the picture, reporting just didn’t mean the newspaper anymore.

Yes, it is true that in today’s world, journalism has also entered the “spidery” web of the Internet. This new branch of journalism, called New Media or online journalism, is yet to catch up in India. Countries such as the U.S., U.K. and Canada depend on the web for their supply of everyday news.

With increasing accessibility to the Internet this could soon be the case in our lives too. Having a laptop or mobile-internet would mean that you can be clued into news around the world through these news websites. It will also work well with professionals who don’t have the time to watch the news or read the newspaper. They can just log on to the news websites available on the net and get the latest news. There are also many businesses that depend on the latest news to make important decisions. They cannot wait for the newspaper to come out the next day as that would mean loss. Hence, these companies are increasingly relying on news websites. Not only do the websites provide accurate news, but also news that has just occurred.

In the brave new world of round-the-clock media coverage, internet seems to be on the path to establishing itself as a reliable and massive source of news. A survey done by Netcraft (http://news.netcraft.com/) revealed that as on January 2008, around 1,55,583,825 websites were launched. As a New Media student I was completely fascinated with the medium. As I got into the nitty-gritty I found that writing for New Media is completely different from writing for newspapers and magazines. We were taught techniques such as keeping the English simple, keeping paragraphs short and sweet, adding related links and adding background information to all the articles so that the readers do not go to other websites to look for them.

My course not only taught me the difference between presenting a news item in a newspaper and on the internet, the hands-on experience of working with my college website taught me a lot about deadlines. In the world of the internet, where the next website is just a click away, I learnt that deadlines can be crucial.

New Media or web journalism is an exciting job where you are constantly at war with time. The fact that your news reaches your readers in the flash of a second, at the click of a mouse, much before other forms of media, is one of the most rewarding aspects of working as a web journalist.