Cyber Journalism (See detail) Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Cyber Journalism (See detail) - Research Paper Example The only difference today is that the cyberjournalist answers directly to their audience, rather than to a publisher who traditionally held journalists responsible for reporting ethically. Yet, there is no consensus among publishers as to what is ethical. In the end, ethics are the responsibility of the cyberjournalist and the audience. You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving†¦Screen The original phrase, from a book by Howard Zinn, was â€Å"You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train.† Cyberjournalism is like a high-speed rail that moves so fast and is so personal that it isn’t possible to be neutral. The bigger question is whether we should even try, in spite of the fact that western society often assumes that all journalists are bound to neutrality when, nearly a century ago, Henry Luce, founder of Time magazine insisted that very concept objectivity was foolish (Ward, 2006). He contended that the public needed the media to explain and interpret the impact of events on their lives. Yet, we insist that it is true and to be expected of the press, regardless of medium. With the speed of cyberspace, it is difficult, if not impossible to be neutral. By the time the 1960’s arrived, Americans had become distrustful of such clarifications on their behalf adding a twist to Luce’s view: that no one can be objective. They public wanted to see the bare facts and decide for themselves what they meant (Ward). Youth no longer trusted the media with full-disclosure, even in supposedly free countries. When Chicagoan Justin Hall began blogging in 2004, many of the new blogging generation embraced the concept of taking news into their own hands –after all, they were the children and grandchildren of the children of the 1960’s generation. America was ready. Evolution–Or More of the Same? Beyond the big cities that claim the largest share of the journalism world, the rest of the United States already knew what citizen journ alism was long before cyberjournalism. For more than a century and a half—long before Time magazine hit the newsstands—local citizens had been writing columns about who had dinner at whose house last Sunday night, or which church was gearing up for the next ice cream social. That was citizen journalism. Even back then, reporters often wrote under a pseudonym like â€Å"Gomper’s Corner’s Gertie,† a precursor to the userids of bloggers like Duncan Bowen Black who blogs at Atrios on at Eschatonblog.com. Like any citizen journalist, Atrios is a citizen of the world he writes about: economics. Over the years, we have come to assume that reporters are somehow sanctioned by having earned a degree from a school of journalism. Neither â€Å"Gomper’s Corner’s Gertie† nor Atrios have a degree in journalis