THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM IN THE KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY

Thea Dickinson

 

As society moves forward into the digital era, the role of journalists has been irrevocably altered.

 

As defined by Houghton and Sheehan (2000), a knowledge economy is “one in which the generation and the exploitation of knowledge has come to play the predominant part in the creation of wealth.” Central to this concept is rapidly advancing technology simultaneously facilitated by globalisation and the media (Brand, 2010). Additionally, knowledge workers, or individuals possessing specialized skills or education in a particular occupation or area, positively contribute to the knowledge economy (Hartley, 2000, Houghton and Sheehan, 2000).

 

It is important to note wealth creation, worth, value and exchange are all crucial to the definition of ‘economy,’ and to the concept of the knowledge economy (Picard, 2009). Unfortunately for the profession, the value of journalism is rapidly deteriorating as consumers are ceasing to see journalism and news as a service worth paying for (Picard, 2009, Hartley, 2000). Consequently, this has resulted in a significant decline in wealth creation for the industry (Picard, 2009).

 

During the emergence of print journalism in the 16^th and 17^th centuries, a substantial gap existed within society between those able to read and write and those who were illiterate (Hartley, 2000). While the early industry created wealth through skillful (literate) workers the same cannot be said for journalism in the 21^st century (Picard, 2009).

 

Although democratic accountability, investigative reporting, following war and acting as a watch dog for society surround journalism ideology, technology and digitization are deskilling journalists and negating the profession’s benefit to society (Hartley, 2000). While journalists were originally valued for their ability to communicate, their abundant number of sources and immediacy in conveying news, the internet has allowed these skills to become wide spread (Picard, 2009).

 

The reality is journalists are not the only ones with knowledge they wish to share .As Journalism Professor Ian Hargreaves comments, “there are no qualifications for being a journalist. This is because in a democracy, everyone has the right to communication a fact or point of view, however trivial, however hideous (Hartley, 2000).”

 

The internet now allows all members of society to access sources, distribute information, selectively engage with media and observe events as they happen free of charge (Picard, 2009). Furthermore, technology has enabled software to include linguistic features such as spelling and translations; meaning strong literacy skills aren’t even necessary for those wishing to communicate (Picard, 2009).

 

It is difficult to consider journalists in the 21^st century as knowledge workers for two reasons. Firstly, individuals in society are essentially able to mimic traditional roles of journalists (conveying information etc) without training and education (Picard, 2009). Secondly, the variation in individual journalism practices is minimal and few journalists possess specialized and unique knowledge making journalist’s easily inter-changeable (Hartley, 2000).

 

While traditional forms of journalism are suffering in the digital era, ABC’s managing director Mark Scott remains optimistic about the industry’s future. Scott states that despite the abundance of news and information available online, statistics show audiences and consumers still value reputable news outlets (Scott, 2010). In 2010 the ABC saw a 30% increase in podcast downloads in the year’s first ten months (Scott, 2010). Audience numbers for new station ABC 24 has exceeded initial expectations, reaching almost 2 million a week while the ABC News 24 Apple iPhone application has been downloaded well over a million times (Scott, 2010).

 

Like many occupations, professionals in the journalism industry will be expected to acquire and possess skills, which allow them to keep pace digitally and participate in blogs, social networking and other forms of online media (Scott, 2010, Picard, 2009). In 2009, the ABC announced the creation of 50 ‘digital trainer’ positions, a role based on teaching consumers how to upload their own content to the ABC website (Cordell, 2009).

 

Whether extending journalist skills online will add monetary value to the profession however, remains doubtful as society still has the aptitude to convey information digitally (Picard, 2009). Fear online media will destroy traditional investigative journalism also remains (Cordell, 2009).

 

Future work for those in the industry or studying journalism may also include the translation of skills such as research and writing to different careers such as script writing and public relations (Picard, 2009). For journalism to survive, a new, creative method of gathering and distributing information, unavailable elsewhere, is needed in order for individual work to be salaried (Picard, 2009). Options could include downloading individual articles online for a certain price or subscribing to news online (Picard, 2009). It will however, remain necessary that the public continue to pay for journalistic services in the digital era (Scott, 2010).

 

The 21^st century has seen and will continue to see communication where writing has not merely caught up with reading but has begun to exceed it (Hartley, 2000). As the ABC’s Mark Scott asserts, “people are willing to engage, to contribute, to be part of a media experience… the psychic payoff comes not from getting paid, but from taking part (Scott, 2010).”

 

REFERENCES

 

Cordell, M. (2009). The Future of Journalism needs Journalists. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://newmatilda.com/2009/11/12/future-journalism-needs-journalists

 

Brand, J. (2010). Digital Media and Society, Week 4 Lecture. Gold Coast, Bond University

 

Flew, T. (2008). New Media: An Introduction (3^rd Edition). Victoria, Oxford University Press

 

Hartley, J. (2000). Communicative democracy in a redactional society: the future of journalism studies. Journalism, vol. 1, 1: pp. 39-48

 

Holtshouse, D. (2009). The Future of Knowledge Workers. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://ilearn.bond.edu.au/courses/1/COMN12-302_111/content/_602934_1/KMWorld1.pdf?bsession=26458751&bsession_str=session_id=26458751,user_id_pk1=42034,user_id_sos_id_pk2=1,one_time_token=

 

Houghton, J., Sheehan, P. (2000). A Primer on the Knowledge Economy. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://eprints.vu.edu.au/59/1/wp18_2000_houghton_sheehan.pdf

 

Nichols, J. (2009). The Insiders: John Nichols on the Future of Journalism. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuie5rSlY9c

 

Picard, R. (2009). Why Journalists Deserve Low Pay. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.robertpicard.net/PDFFiles/whyjournalistsdeservelowpay.pdf

 

Scott, M. (2010). The Golden Age for Australian Journalism. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/25/3075798.htm