TASK 4

Task 4 – Research Report

 

Introduction:

In the beginning, news gathering was primitive by today’s standards. Printed news had to be phoned in to a newsroom or brought there by a reporter, where it was typed and either transmitted over wire services or edited and manually set in type along with other news stories for a specific edition. Today, the term “Breaking News” has become trite as broadcast and cable news services use live satellite technology to bring current events into consumers’ homes live as they happen. Events that used to take hours or days to become common knowledge in towns or in nations are now fed instantaneously to consumers via radio, television, cell phones, and the Internet. (Wikipedia: News)

This report will discuss the impact of technology on the way in which news is published and reported over the last 50 years. It will focus on how communications technologies impact the circulation of news and current affairs.

 

Changes of communications technologies:

Over the last 50 years communications technologies have advanced at an alarming rate. In this time period TV has become colour, Internet has become available to all homes in first world countries, and digital convergence has caused everyone to have access to cameras and other such devices. Changes have occurred in many types of communications technologies and media forms.

Photography:

In the last 50 years photography has changed dramatically. In the 1950’s to the 1990’s film was used in photography. Images took longer to view because they had to be developed and it cost a lot more. The first coloured photographs available to the public occurred in 1963 with Polaroid’s creation of instant colour film (the same year as the first point and shoot camera). Until this point photography was in black and white for the general public. Before this point it had been available commercially for the last 100 years. This however was price prohibitive and therefore rarely used. Cost of photography was considerably changed with the creation of digital cameras. The first commercially available digital camera was the 1990 Logitech Fotoman. In the same year Adobe PhotoShop 1.0 was created to manipulate the images. From Logitech Fotoman many more digital cameras followed. For a long time digital cameras were not available to the public due to price. In 1997 the first point-and-shoot digital camera was invented and the prices slowly dropped. In the last 10 years digital cameras have become a house hold item found in many women’s purses and men’s cars. The general public now has access to professional grade photography and the manipulative software to change images.

Print:

Print is another form of communications technology. Print can mean newspapers, magazines, encyclopaedias, bulletin boards, blogs, news WebPages and other online texts. Over the last 50 years print media has changed from hard text to electronic text. Before 1962 there was no such thing as the internet. Before this time all print text had to be printed and put in news papers, magazines, and bulletin boards. The occurrence of Internet has inspired many more communication techniques through use of WebPages. Blogs and online newspapers are along the now most popular forms of print media. Before computers newspapers, magazines and fliers had limited font size and style. When computers where more common newspapers, magazines, and fliers became able to change fonts styles and sizes to cause different effects and make important details stand out. Advance in communications technologies has caused the speed of circulation of news to pickup. What use to take days to become common knowledge can now be entered on the internet and known to the public in moments.

Radio:

News is also communicated through radio. Public radio has been around since 1910. Since 1958 radio has not changed all that much. In the early 1960’s VOR systems finally became well-known. Before this point aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation. Soon Sony created their first transistorized radio small enough to fit in a vest pocket and powered by a small battery. 1963 saw the first communications satellite Telstar being launched. In 1970’s The US Navy began to work with satellite navigation. 1987 saw the launch of GPS constellation of satellites. Amateur radio experimenter began to use personal computers with audio cards to process radio signals in early 1990’s. In the late 1990’s digital transmissions began to be applied to broadcasting. In the 21^st century internet radio came into existence. Internet radio consists of sending radio-style audio programming over streaming Internet connections: no radio transmitters need be involved at any point in the process. (Wikipedia timeline of radio)

Television:

Over the last 50 years television has also developed and changed. In 1960

The first split screen broadcast occurred. Only 2 years later AT&T launched Telstar (the first satellite to carry TV broadcasts) Colour television occurred for the first time in 1967. And in 1969 the moon landing was transmitted and able to be seen by 600 million people. In the early 70’s half the TVs in homes were colour and giant screen projection TVs were first marketed. PBS became the first station to switch to all satellite delivery of programs in 1978. 1982 saw Dolby surround sound for home sets. Super VHS was soon introduced in 1986. In 1996 a billion television sets world-wide. And since then TVs become wider, thinner, and have better images.

Positive Impact of communications technologies on the circulation of news and current affairs:

Communications technologies have many positive impacts on the circulation of news. Technologies such as satellites and mobile phones speed up this circulation and cause consumers of news to become aware of current affairs much faster than 50 years ago.  When developments occurred in communications technologies the speed of news and current affair circulation sped up. Developments in photography caused the graphics of images in news to become more realistic and in some cases horrific. These advances served to show the viewers of news the current affairs faster and with more depth to the story. Advances in print media, mostly by way of internet, have given rise to faster communication of technology.

 

Negative and Positive ethical and social impacts of the changes in the way news is gathered, reported, and published:

Changes in how news is gathered, reported and published have both negative and positive ethical and social impacts. When news is reported and published in the 21^st century all the information possible is revealed in an attempt to remain unbiased. This however opens up ethical and social problems. Too much information causes media to have breach of information security and a need to prevent trial by media.  In the case of poor accuracy of information media has to take into account the societal responsibilities and the social impacts that false information can cause. Gathering of information can have a negative ethical impact. In cases where information is brought this is unethical. In some cases of buying information for news information security is breached and social and ethical impacts occur.

 

Changes in the work roles of news journalists and photographers:

In the 21^st century the work roles of news journalists and photographers has greatly changed since the mid 20^th century. In the last 50 years photographers have become more like paparazzi than traditional photographers. Because of advances in cameras such as zoom lenses, and colour photography photographers can create photographs of anyone they want. In the past photographers had to have organised photo shoots with people in current affairs. Now they go bombard people highlighted in the media anywhere at any time. It is also quicker for the photos to be developed and therefore cashed into media studios. Journalists now have computers; therefore it is quicker for them to submit stories. News journalists’ role in the 21^st century is still the same role as those 50 years ago. The greatest change is the period of time allocated to writing and investigating news. Photographers’ role has changed by way of being more important. 50 years ago Photographers took photos to accompany news articles. Now entire news articles can be written around a photo and photographs are an important means of showing news viewers the facts.