Digital Journalism: Theorizing on Present Times

Abstract

A lot of change is happening in the world of journalism with the arrival of digital technology. The journalist in this changed scenario is expected to explore multimedia options. There is also a paradigm shift with readers and viewers now becoming a part of the news making process. Write-ups’, pictures, and audiovisual content are increasingly being published by the citizen on websites, blogs, video sharing platforms, and social media. While this has been hailed as democratic and down to top approach, there is a question of credibility. Theories of digital media which have influenced digital journalism have talked about immediacy, interactivity, multimodality, convergence, the broader economic and social factors, the formation of separate networks or reformation of existing networks, a virtual shared platform for communication, actor-network and plurality. However, the question of credibility and the spread of fake news online have raised some new questions. This paper will try to analyze the nature of digital journalism, the various theories which have been applied to explain digital journalism and explain why a new approach is needed in the present scenario.