Is Online Journalism Growing?

How many newsstands do you come across these days?

Where do you usually get the news that interests you these days?

The world is converging due to the digitization that has happened over past couple of decades. The reducing number of newsstands in your local market is suggestive of the fact that more people now use internet as a medium to gather news and stay updated.

Not that the traditional forms of news reporting has lost its value, it is just that internet audience has drastically increased due to the advent of economical internet plans as well as user friendly websites. Now more and more people like to access their online news websites frequently.

This increasing number is because of the fact that internet audience has the opportunity to be active and not passive. They get a chance to participate in the news reporting, changing perspectives and express views. This makes them feel important and boosts their right to express. The added advantage that digital news has is that:

• It can be interactive
• It can be linked and searched
• And it can be multimedia

The news websites are a lot more than mere shovel-ware now, they now create unique content or digital content for their online portals for latest news in India and world over. They believe in collective, collaborative and interactive way of online journalism or what is more popularly called digital storytelling.

Earlier, the online news was only available in English, however, gradually the developments took place and we now have current Hindi news, or in any other language at the click of mouse. Although the means of gathering news (interviewing, multiple sourcing, field reporting, accurate reporting etc.) is same for print editions as it is for internet, internet is considered more affordable, convenient and approachable.

The news on internet has better intensity than in other forms of news reporting as it uses all form of communicating like written, video, audio, images, etc. Hence, we can say that online journalism is growing by the day and its popularity is ever increasing. This is also contributing to awareness in society about various issues and campaigns more easily.

What are the Socio-Technical Benefits of Online News?

Online news is one of the most appreciated forms of media and suits almost all age groups and helps the society in staying updated about the recent happenings or the latest news from around the world.

It has following major benefits because of which it has gained popularity ever since its inception:

1. No Additional Costs: It has no additional cost associated with it, most of the news websites are free and do not require subscription charges for simply reading the news. 
2. Multitasking: You can access news portals and several other sites according to your convenience, interest and time. You can easily multitask, for instance, you can put a movie to download, and stream a video and access news updates in between or while the file downloads. So with inter you can access your super favorite Hindi cricket news as and when you want.
3. More Choices for News Portals: In the printed editions of the newspapers, magazines etc. you need to pay for one national daily or magazine and read only that, however, in case on online news portals, since they are free, you can access multiple sites at the time and read the popular views before forming an opinion.
4. Detailed Information: You can enjoy reading detailed information anytime of the day about any news you want to explore easily by searching the relevant keyword in the any search engine like google, yahoo etc.
5. 24/7 Updates: Internet news sites are constantly updated as the developments happen in any news story. Therefore, be it Hindi News, English news or Spanish or of any other language, it is surely quicker and more efficient.
6. Customization of News: As the concept goes, news must change daily and hence, it is customized by a team of experts who add new updates to the websites as an when they happen. It also puts masses back into mass media by inviting the opinion about the news updates. 

Hence, different viewpoints exist together on the internet and provides the opportunity to the public to talk back to the media and express themselves. This stands good for all forms of news, be it business news in Hindi, stock market updates in English or any news in any other language. This makes internet a powerful interactive medium to possess some of the essential journalistic qualities for the sake of reporting and spreading awareness.