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Digital journalism

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Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated amongst scholars. However, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames and disseminated through digital media technology.

Fewer barriers to entry, lowered distribution costs and diverse computer networking technologies have led to the widespread practice of digital journalism. It has democratized the flow of information that was previously controlled by traditional media including newspapers, magazines, radio and television. In the context of digital journalism, online journalists are often expected to possess a wide range of skills, yet there is a significant gap between the perceived and actual performance of these skills, influenced by time pressures and resource allocation decisions.

Some have asserted that a greater degree of creativity can be exercised with digital journalism when compared to traditional journalism and traditional media. The digital aspect may be central to the journalistic message and remains, to some extent, within the creative control of the writer, editor and/or publisher. While technological innovation has been a primary focus in online journalism research, particularly in interactivity, multimedia, and hypertext; there is a growing need to explore other factors that influence its evolution.

It has been acknowledged that reports of its growth have tended to be exaggerated. In fact, a 2019 Pew survey showed a 16% decline in the time spent on online news sites since 2016. In the United States, reports issued by the Federal Communications Commission in 2011 and by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service in 2023 found that increases in newsroom staffing at digital-native news websites from 2008 to 2020 were not offsetting cuts in newsroom staffing among newspapers (which numbered in the tens of thousands of jobs), and that newspapers and television (which had been seeing declining newsroom staffing alongside newspapers) still employed more newsroom staff in 2022 than online-only news websites. Provided by Wikipedia