In the era of technological development, the flow of information is shared not only with a fast pace but also by a various methods of presenting: newspapers, radio broadcasts, cable and satellite television, social networks and so on. As a veteran reporter who had witnessed and observed another earthquake of Japan in 1995, Dorian Benkoil (2011) makes a comparison of the ways by which details about the disaster is conveyed in the past and contemporary society in the article titled ‘How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster’.
In 1995, when an earthquake devastated Kobe, a port city of Japan, the information was mainly conveyed the major news conferences held by agencies and government officials who were reluctant to say anything meaningful about the frustration of victims, the rising death count... If the media outlets want to raise information from the region, they need to send their own reporters and photographers to the area for long time to get exactly what has happened. However, today when everybody seems to have a camera-equipped cell phone, the process of making news is much easier than ever. As argued by Wilcox and Cameron (2006), information sometimes is not really up-to-the-minute by the nature of printed and broadcasted programs which take time to be prepared and edited. In this situation, the advantages of the Internet would be used completely to meet the two basic human needs: to gain understanding in a time of tragedy and to share that information (Craig 2005). Nowadays, most of the publications have their own webpage with many different categories from news, video, radio online to discussion rooms, blogs in which they can update the details regularly about an episode which attracts sheer amplitude of attention. At the perspective of personal ‘journalist’, people usually use the social media such as Youtube, Facbook, Twitter, and Foursquare as a method of keeping in touch with the others and post noticeable events so that the news is always brought up to date constantly.
It is clear to see that everybody is able to become a journalist with just some basic tools: a camera and the Internet connection. Thanks to the evolution of technology and the modern media techniques which make even the smallest action get worldwide attention, people are getting to a principle of democracy as information is presented on the basis of free exchange for every member of society without any restriction.
References list:
1. Benkoil, D 2011, How Social Media, Internet Changed Experience of Japan Disaster, last viewed 2nd June 2011, <http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/03/how-social-media-internet-changed-experience-of-japan-disaster-074.html>.
2. Craig, R 2006, Online Journalism: reporting, writing and editing for new media, Thomson, Australia.
3. Wilcox, D & Cameron, G 2006, Public relations strategies and tactics, 8th edn, Pearson, Boston.
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