Communication Tech Talk

What are the expectations of journalists? Above all, the public expresses a desire for accuracy, i.e., for the media to verify and accurately report the facts. Accuracy is ranked as extremely or very important by 87 percent of respondents, far more than any other issue (Project, June 2018). The public has also come to expect that stories are reported in real-time. This puts journalists in a precarious situation as accuracy and speed of reporting does not align.  It’s hard to fact-check content in real-time. Reporting the truth is challenging because things are moving so quickly, often content is shared on the social media platforms such as Facebook that the journalist is unsure about in terms of being factual or telling the complete story. The example I used was the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash (Wacc, February 2019). While TMZ reported the story first, many of the facts were inaccurate. This also posed an ethical challenge in terms of informing family members of death prior to public

Facebook has evolved and significantly changed the way news organizations communicate. For all intensive purposes, social media (starting with Facebook) in general has turned the media industry upside down. For example, back in 2004, users could only interact with textual posts. Users can now submit photographs, movies, live material, virtual reality, and 360-degree videos, among other things (Pires Luciano, October 2019).  Phones and cameras allow everyone to be a reporter and social media platforms give everyone a venue to share. For the last 15 years, news organizations have been forced to embrace the use of online news platforms. More than eight-in-ten U.S. adults (86%) say they get news from a smartphone, computer, or tablet “often” or “sometimes,” including 60% who say they do so often (Shearer, January 2021). Traditional news organizations have had no choice but to adopt and embrace social media, with the push first coming from Facebook back in the early 2000s primarily because

Communication professionals (journalists, PR professionals, marketers, content creators, influencers, etc.) who embrace the digital/communication exchange and gain the skillset to execute will put themselves up and above their peers. Digital content consumption has become the preferred method over traditional methods such as television, print and radio.  According to a 2021 Forrester study, offline TV/video use fell from 13 hours per week on average to 8.6 hours per week between 2010 and 2020. Online TV/video consumption jumped from 1.7 to 7 hours within the same time period. The pandemic's shock hastened the shift to internet content consumption. Consumers in the United States are showing no signs of cutting back on their internet activities: 46% say they spend the same amount of time on their personal devices today as they did last year when the pandemic limits were implemented, and 39% say they spend even more time (Lai, 2021). Most internet users in the United States believe t

The integration of technology has had a profound impact on professionals who work in the communications field, especially as it relates to ethics and communication of the facts in general. As someone who has worked in the PR and marketing field for 25+, I’ve experienced the transition to technology throughout my career.  As an undergraduate student back in the late 80’s, there was no discussion of technology in our journalism and PR coursework. The internet was not widely available, our work was created on typewriters, and we learned to use the old-fashion reporting and content creation techniques using the phone and in-person interaction. Reporting and gathering the facts and information, in general, was guided by the truth and the ethical gathering of the truth.  Gathering information for news stories was usually methodical and reputable reporters were careful to report the facts. A good example is the Watergate story. Woodward and Bernstein worked diligently to ensure to report th

The inception and adoption of the intranet changed the way information was delivered to the world. People no longer saw traditional information providers such as newspaper, television, and radio as the only source of news. With this came the need for these traditional information providers or “newsrooms” to transform or die. Three delivery platforms using the technology of the intranet that evolved to help newsrooms service include mobile, apps and podcasts.  Mobile a Must   The mobile industry turned the way people consume news upside down over a decade ago, but the pandemic has accelerated adoption. For example, according to a 2018 study conducted by the Pew Research Center (PRC) 34% of U.S. adults said they preferred to get news online, whether through websites, apps or social media. In 2016, the same PRC study found that percentage to be 28%. In 2021, PRC conducted a study to that showed 86% of U.S. adults said they get news “often” or “sometimes” online—primarily from a smartphone