New forms of media publishing

The new mass media has been constantly evolving. The shifting of patterns of cultural and societal participation as well as economic production in developed nations are caused by the development of new, advanced technologies of information access, knowledge exchange, and content production, many of whom are associated with Internet and new media technologies (Produsage,2013).  According to Naughton (2006), “a new organism has arrived in our media ecosystem and existing organisms have to accommodate themselves to the newcomer” where the traditional media have to accommodate the new media publishing.

(Source: connectioncafe.com, 2008)

These new media and journalism has impacted the media in both good and bad in media theory, concepts, rules and regulations. These include the democratization of media because of its low barriers to enter, demands of media's hegemony, a redefinition of credibility, the breakthrough of experts and watchdogs and the demands of readers in the journalistic action. New media has allowed the sharing of information in a community. Despite that, people have taken advantage of it and used it for their own purposes. According to Stuart (2006), internet is an unfiltered primary source of information with no facts. This has leads to many false news were circulated around the new media like Twitter and Facebook. 

Allan (2006, p. 24) stated that newspaper is a dull, expensive and counterproductive. Traditional media is not gone yet, but its value has changed from simply the mass way of consumption to a more niche use. Its value is preserved in its own traditional form, where it is more trustable and easy accessible without internet. Therefore, Naughton (2006) concludes that the relationship between blogging and conventional print journalism is symbiotic. 

(source: http://mstar.com.my, 2010)

New media is accessible to everyone in the whole world, thus, we must rethink before publishing as it might be offensive. For example, Wee Meng Chee, or better known as Namewee in YouTube posted a controversial music video of 'Negarakuku' ridiculing Malaysia national anthem. It has been circulated and reaches 1million viewers through the internet in just a night. This has caused a stir and racial tension among the Malaysians. This video was deemed seditious and was taken down due to public disapproval. Hence, he had apologized to the netizens for his action. Therefore, freedom of speech has its limit too as not to create chaos in the country.

References

Allan, S 2006, Online news, McGrawHill, New York

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, viewed on 9 April 2013, <http://reuteursinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/discussion/blogging.html>

Snurb 2007, Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage, Produsage, viewed 9 April 2013, <http://produsage.org/>