In light of the Guardian news iPhone application it seems appropriate for me now to discuss my ideas with how Journalism is changing in the 21^st Century. Perhaps more appropriately how we will see journalism change as we reach the end of a decade.

As John Stuart wrote in the second chapter of his essay ‘On Liberty’ it is necessary for journalists to have the right of free speech as long as there is not a breach of the Human Rights Act of 2000. As of yet there is no formal constitution in the UK to stop the right for free speech and the only possible opposable would have been the Government Press Prosecutions of 1858. Although many prosecutions were not carried out and were not done in the name of limiting free speech but instead focused on the liability of published articles.

It is undeniable in my view though that although the law will act as reinforcement against articles which may breach certain ethical guidelines it will ultimately be the power of individuals who will control the reactions towards published articles. We saw a few weeks ago that the Daily Mail journalist, Jan Moir, was ridiculed by the communities of social networks for her homophobic article concerning the late Stephen Gately. It was not the Daily Mail which became under attack by users but instead the journalist herself.

This suggests that journalists in the 21^st Century will be required to brand themselves as brands of their own specific type of journalism. The Guardian news iPhone application has highlighted this with the ability to favourite certain journalists and view their own content. In many ways this change could be likened to how authors have to act within the blogosphere. A blog is not only known for the subject it tackles but usually, especially in the case with smaller blogs, who the author is behind each post.

Rupert Murdoch has explained that the days of free news content on the internet are over as online subscriptions are planned. It has been speculated that part of this strategy to gain subscriptions will be done by promoting specific journalists related to a publication. This might be done by highlighting that Jeremy Clarkson writes for The Times.

Of course, let’s not forget the phenomenon of citizen journalism. Anybody who is armed with a modern mobile phone falls into the category of a citizen journalist but really this type of journalism should be viewed as a singular force. An energy that lurks like air around most corners of the world. Part of news collation for journalists in the 21^st Century will be to be completely up-to-date with trending topics on the internet. Do not think that journalists are an advanced species of humanity who automatically know the news around the world. They are people like us who, like us, will learn about the latest news from social networking sites such as Twitter.

We should not shy away from the fact that citizen journalism and the freedom of thought and opinion within social networks is uncontrollable. As a PR student this has created a conflict within my mind but then PR is not about control but instead informing. This as far as PR can go with regards to social networks because it is the decisions of users who will follow or break any particular trend. There are various methods in which this can be done but you cannot/should not force people to promote your messages. The online community will openly discuss and reach conclusions by themselves.

The days of news being handed to users are now over. The business model has now been flipped around; users now search for their news. This is why Rupert Murdoch’s recent debacle with Google was done so incorrectly and misleadingly. I am still unsure the reasons why Rupert Murdoch kicked up the fuss but the knowledgeable sector on the web 2.0 can see straight past Murdoch’s misguided views.

Google only refers users to the content they searched for and does not ‘steal it’ like Murdoch would like to have us believe. Removing sites from Google’s search engine is an oxymoronic plan if you are actually trying to get more subscribers to your website. Oddly the wider online community has kept relatively quiet about this decision by Murdoch but I believe there will eventually be a backlash.

Journalism in the 21^st Century will continue changing but I do believe the trade of journalism will flourish once again. It is undeniable that news websites hold a certain integrity above those of many smaller blogs. The next step for journalism will be to move, as the Guardian has done, onto mobile devices. This might be done by paying a subscription to have a newspaper downloaded to your eReader each day. Print is not dead; it just needs to quickly develop that business model.

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