There’s no society that has existed without communication for ‘no communication, no society.’ Communication is the bedrock of many societal developments. It’s via communication that the world is brought together globally as globalization is accompanied by communication. Culture, information, awareness, security, and consciousness are passed via journalism. Through a sociological perspective we know that as the world is rapidly-changing, so also is communication and the process of disseminating information.
Professional Communication and Journalism
The profession of writing, reporting, editing and presenting news articles for publication through broadcast (television and radio), print (newspaper) and new media (blog, emails, social media) for the purpose of informing the general public can be termed as journalism. The main aim of journalism is “factually informing” the public of what they don’t know about what is happening or has happened.
It could be the production and distribution of reports on current events based on facts and supported with proof or evidence. The word journalism applies to the occupation, as well as citizen journalists who gather and publish information based on facts supported by proof or evidence.
Journalism and Changing Society
People need to be informed about the current happenings in the society and journalism is a reliable source of verifying credible facts and information when in doubt of rumours. Without the existence of journalism, the world will be ignorant of so many aspects of life that needed to be updated. News is life and without communication, there is no life. Through journalism, we get to learn new things about the world. For example, new technology, politics, education, health issue etcetera, add new knowledge to be updated.
As the world is transforming, it’s bringing journalism along and anyone with a smartphone and social media account can be a journalist. We don’t need to stress ourselves with buying printed copies of newspapers or even televisions; anywhere we’re with our smartphones, we can get information about what’s happening in the global world. Multiple sources add information over social media, blogs, and videos as the news story is happening.
Today, both the print and broadcast media now has online news platform where they repost their news stories for online readers because a majority neither watch news nor read the newspaper. Technology has made it easier, through the use of mobile phones, to get the latest news. This is journalism in a rapidly-changing world, adapting to the changes in the world.
Conclusion
This change makes it easier for journalists to publish their stories in a timely manner by utilizing social media to post questions, track down sources and learn more about a particular topic through search engines that different social media outlets provide. Readers, on the other hand, use social media to obtain daily news reports and comment about various news events. For instance, the news of the outbreak of COVID-19 was spread to other parts of the world via social media with the help of journalism; the looting of palliatives in Nigeria, the End SARS protest, the 43 farmers slaughtered in Borno state and many more.
