The Future of Journalism
By: Sean Duane
Elliot King, Ph.D., a professor of communication at Loyola University Maryland, has recently published Free for All: The Internet’s Transformation of Journalism. The book is able to present the emergence o online journalism in our culture and society today and how computers really changed from calculators to the platform and basis of journalism.
Dr. King has been teaching at Loyola University Maryland since 1992 instructing classes in media, culture, and society, reporting on urban affairs, free speech and expression, and communications ethics. “Newspapers used to depend so heavily on advertising and so much of what used to be advertised in these newspapers and a little lesser on television, has really migrated online to the web and with the recession really hit in the two major supporting industries for newspapers, the real estate and the auto industry.” King stated that the majority of the online content and news people are receiving from online sources are free and the goal newspapers and other publications are trying to do is find ways to advertise in these new mediums and more importantly, get them to pay attention.
Dr King first became interested in journalism when he was young and graduated with a masters degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and later got his Ph.D. in media sociology from the University of California, San Diego. King was assigned to covering technology and has now taken a step back and really looked how it has affected journalism as a profession, hobby, and lifestyle.
Free for All was published by Northwestern University Press and explores all of the recent technologies people use to retrieve their news all the way up to twitter and today’s social media. “Its inevitable that media and technology will change again in the future,” King said, “the real thing is seeing what your generations does with it and how it will evolve.
For more information about Dr. King and his book check out his blog and to purchase his book here.
