I think that one of the most important things that the Internet brought to news is availing the written word on demand. I can remember the days when you bought a newspaper to catch up on yesterday’s news, stock quotes, futures, and so on. Although television was, and still is, able to broadcast news and other data instantaneously, it is very limited in terms of content, scope and depth. The Internet enabled news organizations, including individuals, to broadcast vast amounts of both static and dynamic data and video content without the severe limitation of television’s bandwidth or the print space of newsprints.
But even more revolutionary is the effect the Internet had in taking the “keys” away from the gatekeepers that are the big media organizations; it thus, lowered the barrier in the dissemination of news and opinions. For example, all one needs is access to a computer or some other device that is Internet capable to create news or share one’s views through blogs or commentaries. In fact, some news organizations like CNN have come to value such contributions to their news gathering with sessions such as iReporter.
Furthermore, the Internet provides many sophisticated search capabilities that allows users to pinpoint only the news/data that interests them. Thus, instead of perusing through a bunch of printed materials or microfiches, we can search through a mountain of data with lightening speeds. And even data that has been archived statically can now be scanned via OCR and made dynamically available via the Internet.
But even more revolutionary is the effect the Internet had in taking the “keys” away from the gatekeepers that are the big media organizations; it thus, lowered the barrier in the dissemination of news and opinions. For example, all one needs is access to a computer or some other device that is Internet capable to create news or share one’s views through blogs or commentaries. In fact, some news organizations like CNN have come to value such contributions to their news gathering with sessions such as iReporter.
Furthermore, the Internet provides many sophisticated search capabilities that allows users to pinpoint only the news/data that interests them. Thus, instead of perusing through a bunch of printed materials or microfiches, we can search through a mountain of data with lightening speeds. And even data that has been archived statically can now be scanned via OCR and made dynamically available via the Internet.
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