Journalism is the practice of investigating and reporting events to a wide audience. Journalism covers many aspects – news, sports, politics, hobbies, trends, fashions, so on and so forth. There are many types of journalism including broadcast journalism (journals that are published by electrical methods), photojournalism (collecting, editing, and presenting images in order to tell a news story), yellow journalism (uses eye-catching images with no legitimate or well-researched news in order to sell more newspapers), and the most trending type of journalism – online journalism (news via the internet).
To date, people rely more on online news compared to traditional news. This is because, regardless of where they are, and what time of day it is, online news is available for them via their personal computers, laptops, Blackberry or iPhone. All they need to do is key in whatever news they want to hear about and start reading. This saves them a lot of time instead of having to go to the convenience store and purchase a newspaper, and flick page by page.
Weblogs first appeared in 1993, but not so popular until advent of user-friendly weblog applications in 1999, such as Blogger (Stone, 2004). This is the evidence that shown the acceptance of audience regarding the new style of disseminating news based on internet. Thus, at the moment, online journalism can be considered as radical, as the existence of anti-government bloggers, voice out their views opposed the government agendas. As well, the alternative websites established in order to disseminate the information towards the target audience. The emergence of alternative media websites such as Malaysiakini and Harakah Daily in late 1999 proved that Malaysian online journalists continue to innovate.
One of the main characteristic of an online news (online journalism) is that online journalism is radical. One of the factors that make it radical is that online journalism is not profit-oriented. Compared to most traditional media that broadcasts news for the sake of profit, writers of online news are more “straight-forward” in presenting their ideas. Therefore, most (not all) of online news represents the real attitudes of writers; which ultimately represents the voice of the people. This cannot be done via traditional news because in Malaysia, the newspapers and broadcast agencies are controlled by the Government, thus, the content of these traditional media has been “filtered” in order to make the news “fit” in the multiethnic society of Malaysia.
Another factor that makes online journalism radical is that the barriers to entry are low. If compared to traditional media, which are controlled by “professional writers”, basically anyone can write via the internet. All it needs is a computer, an internet connection; software (Weblog, Blogger) and you are set to go. This makes it easier for anyone to become a “newswriter”. So basically, anyone can write whatever they feel appropriate – which brings us to our next point, ethics.
Ethics is something that is considered morally right or wrong. With the traditional media, the ones who control them is the Government. Therefore, the Government will decide which news can go through the “gates” and which can’t; whereas in online journalism, the ones who write the articles are mainly freelancers and freedom writers. In other terms, they are called independent writer or “indie” writers. They basically write whatever they feel like writing; and some of them are unethical because of the use of harsh languages to criticize on a certain issue. This makes online journalism ever more radical when it comes to criticizing a certain issue.
One of the biggest factors that make online journalism even more radical compared to traditional media is that online journalism promotes a two way communication. This means that whatever issue is being published online, readers can post their comment and share thoughts regarding the issue. These thoughts will then contribute to the issue, demanding action from the parties involved. In other words, these comments by the readers represent the voice of the people, and should be, whether they like it or not, be heard by the parties involved; compared to traditional media which only concentrates on “telling” the story and not “discussing” it.
In traditional media, the press assumes that democracy is what we have and information is what we seek. That is the reason why almost all traditional media presses tell us about the latest news and trending topics. The traditional media only tells us what they want us to know and not what we want to know. However, in online journalism, it is assumed that information is what we already have – it is all around us. It is democracy what the online journalism seeks. They want each and every issue told by certain parties to be justified – why, why, and why. Therefore, one single topic can be discussed over and over again by many. However, it is still up to the authority to pass it on as a national issue or just put it aside. That is why most online journalists express their feelings of angst and regret through radical writing – because it is the only way that people, including the authority would pay attention (if any) to them.
Online journalism is like the inside of a volcano. The surface; represented by traditional media may look calm as if there is nothing wrong with the world (there is, but we can only hear one side of the story). However, there is actually a real “war” going on in the online journalism world. All the rumbling and tumbling happens inside the belly of the volcano. People actually “fight” over the internet via comment boxes, and via writing their own side of story. This is why most online journalists are from the anti-government parties. Their views, their freedom of expression is somehow “blocked” in the outside world; but not online. When their websites or blogs become blocked, they can simply create a new one – as simple as that.
This is also one of the reasons why traditional media is not as radical as its online brethrens. Having a press organization is costly – machinery, papers, inks, manpower, editor, writer, journalists. Therefore they have to be careful in whatever they write in the media. Once they become blocked by the authority from publishing; that is the end of the line for them. Their source of money comes from advertisement slots that they provide in the newspapers. This does not happen in the online world. Online journalists do not need advertisement slots. They do not need any source of income to start writing.
Other than that, compared to traditional media, online journalism lets readers to choose their own personal topic of interest from millions of blog archives. These archives are linked to another one with the same topic of discussion. Therefore, it saves readers a lot of time archiving. Nevertheless, online journalism provides even more in-depth reporting about a certain issue. According to a study done by Dr. Rahmat Ghazali, a freelance writer and a lecturer at UiTM, when audiences are asked about their view regarding online and traditional media, 86.5% of the respondents argue that online journalism is more critical (radical) as compared to the traditional media. 75% of them agree that the criticisms practiced in the online media supports nation building. In a way, surprisingly, it promotes democracy and freedom of the press and generates intellectualism. Last but not least, online journalism, by being free for all to write their views and expressions on certain topics, helps the country to rectify its weaknesses.