Has the quality of global news improved over the past 20 years Essay

Has the quality of global news improved over the past 20 years - Essay Example The use of televisions had continued to increase but most of the under-developed countries still relied more on radios and newspapers. Still, journalism and mass communication is not as widespread as it is in developed countries. Like many other fields relating to different aspects of our lives, technology has deeply influenced journalism and mass communication. The processes of producing news and delivery of information have become much quicker. News can reach everywhere with much more accuracy. The quality of radio, television and newspapers has improved greatly. The impact of technology has helped journalism to become a more professional field. The news reporters and editors have now to perform at a certain standard. In the early 90s, the performance standards had developed but still a lot of editors and reporters were more inclined to join hands in propaganda to spread a particular point of view or a political party. The USSR had fallen by then but biggest examples of such news r eporting can be found in the cold war during which many reporters had the objective of asserting one ideology and renounce another i.e. capitalism and communism. Such mindset made the editors and reporters refrain from telling the whole story. As the Internet has now joined the news industry, it is very hard to hide or avoid a piece of news. It is because the Internet is probably the quickest of all means of promulgating news and anyone can report any news to the world now. Previously, there used to be a competition among journalists only due to which only the journalists got most of the stories or â€Å"scoops†. The journalists had the liberty to spread only that portion of the news that they wanted to spread. Journalism and mass communication used to be a closed society to which only those belonged who had the funds to own a printing press or were closely related in some other capacity to one who belonged to that society. Mostly during the last 10 years, the Internet has be come very widespread and the cost of reporting news is at the minimum level. Now even the minorities can join the field of journalism as it has become an open society. The general public has access to electronic devices which are portable and can take pictures and videos. These pictures and videos can be posted on the Internet at almost no cost. Therefore, for professional journalists, omission of news has become out of the question. The recent US presidential campaigns used mass internet campaigning which curtailed the influence of the journalists manifold. Journalists have often been used as mediums to convey a political message to the public. Mass internet campaigning seeks to cut out this medium and make the conveying of message more direct and at a lesser cost. This trend has been set by Obama and is followed and likely to be followed by other political parties all over the world. It can be said that the introduction of the Internet has made everyone a journalist. Through blogs , forums and many other veritable devices, anyone can have their voices heard. In recent times, a Facebook fueled uprising led to a huge change in Egypt. It started out with one voice that ignited the inner voices of many others. Egypt was under a dictatorial rule for a long time and probably the biggest reason for that was the ability to the Government to silence the dissenting opinions and make the public hear only what it wanted it to hear. The Internet made it