Trinity@PL & Citizen Journalism

I'll be moving to Paya Lebar from the current Adam premises. That is, next year. Its kinda exciting. Seriously. Haha. Only phase 1 will be ready next year, that being 2 blocks of the 4 block complex. Its big though, I've heard. Ignyte will start out there small first, with just LT2 at 300-seats. But we'll see how we go from there. I think from the start it'd be pretty packed. Aww, man, its just kinda cool thinking about PL. Sure, I'll miss Adam, and have good memories of the place. But well, PL it is and PL we look forward to. Ownership. That's what P.Da wanted and I think the youth's ownership of Ignyte and PL will be strong for sure. Hey, if I feel excited myself, think of the others eh? Haha. With a bunch of us excitables, there's gotta be some synergy for sure.

Anyway, I decided to think through citizen journalism. I dunno which magazine it is, but the year 2006's person award (or something similar) goes to YOU. You being the person reading. There's been much debate about whether news companies will be able to retain their jobs and whether newspapers will eventually be phased out. Citizen journalism will become popular forecast some analysts. But then again, those analysts did forecast the demise of radio when TV entered the market.

No, I am a firm believer in newspapers and that they will not dissappear. No. There are many reasons why the papers will never diminish. Sure, readership is falling, but they will remain profitable enough to remain in business, maybe by way of merger or acquisition they will stay alive, but some how they will. Think about it. Will you really have the time to log online, view blogs, vid-casts, pod-casts and all. As it is, life as a student is pretty busy, what more as an executive, manager, director in the working world?

Saying that one will be able to spend time to surf and view information when one is working is kinda weird. Why? Cause you'll be inundated by work for one, secondly, the papers have it convenient for you. You might need to go all over the net to get some information, but for papers, you have it all in one stack of printed paper on which you have your information. For busy executives, this is what works for them since its quick and easy to read. As one matures, I'm sure they're not going to have time to read different blogs to find out the going-ons of another country. As it is, life is fast paced as it is, it will only get faster as the years go by.

Another argument would be that the information will not be that up to date. Say some one in Iraq decides to report on the web about the ongoing war there, they would have to have access to the internet to publish their "article". In a place where a war is going on, its highly unlikely that they'd be able to publish the "news" till a day or two later. News companies provide their journalists with the necessary equipment to be able to update the news centre instantaneously through satelite phones and other such gadgets. Then also comes the question of credibility. How credible is a citizen journalist? News companies develop their credibility after years of being on the market. How does one expect some citizen of the world to develop this credibility?

It can, however, be said that citizen journalism will be popular amongst the youth since they can create their own content and are poor scrutinisers. This segment of the population also hasn't had enough experience to make them more judgemental and unwilling to believe as the older members of society. They are more open to new stimuli and hence, citizen journalism may be more popular in this demographic group. In addition, they have more time to themselves than working adults and are more tech savvy, hence more likely to search for such information.

As it is, news companies have lost the readership from a large segment of youths. This can be attributed to them getting their information from other sources. Yet, I still stand by my preposition that citizen journalism will not replace newspapers or news companies in the near furture.

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