‘Churnalism’ and the Role of Technology

Empirical and theoretical studies probed on the role of technology, particularly of the Internet, in the field of mass media. Journalism is based on the process of news gathering involving reporting, finding out, and recording main elements and information for a news story. Technology plays significant function in news gathering as it offers a journalist the opportunity to gather information through telephone, email, and other electronic means using the Internet.

In the process of ‘churnalism’, it is pointed out that the emergence of technology in mass media is contributory to this trend. The conveniences of technological mechanisms allow journalists to succumb into less journalism-based practices like relying to wire services or press releases instead of going out of the field to personally collect essential information and conduct interviews. In mass media, the Internet is used to distribute information to various locations using different ways like online publishing, posting of videos, and others. The Internet is fast and goes beyond the barrier of time and space. Time is an essential factor in coming up with a news article. With the aid of technology, time is reduced. Journalists are likely to work on certain projects in a limited time frame. For example, daily newspapers have shorter time allocation for journalists to come up with their stories while weekly newspapers have longer time to spend. In order to reconcile the pressure of the work and time resources, journalists tend to disobey conventions of journalism. Churning is an example.

It is always advocated that responsible journalism is the delivery of accurate and truthful news to the mass audiences. Technology is an added feature in today’s journalism practice. It is up to every journalist to use it on their own advantage. But, everyone must consider the ethical application of technology alongside with the professional codes of conduct – anytime and anywhere.