A Comparison of Third World Journalism and Modern Journalism

Information is a very important factor that contributes to the progressive civilization of the human society. It could be tracked down through history that with the existence of a way of passing information to the masses, it could be noticed that progress has been easily passed on through generations as well. The birth of journalism paved way to a revolution of information overflow in the human society worldwide.

As for a fact, history has been written and has been possible for being studied by latter generations because of journalism. Important researches by science have also been passed on to the public through the art of journalism.

With these truths, it could then be an interesting topic to discuss on how far journalism has already been developing through the years as it enters the new era of technological advancements. First, it would be much beneficial to know what journalism really pertains to.

1.1 What is Journalism?

Journalism is among the arts of communication processes that are referred to as a means by which the public is being connected with the whole society. Hence, having the connotation that it is a major way of being publicly informed, journalism has also been connected with numerous issues of being true and highly dependable. For this reason, numerous experts have been trying to etch the basic points of consideration when journalism is being discussed.

Developmental journalism is also one of the key issues that is discussed by the journalist professionals who would like to make it a point that the said field of communicating to the public is highly reliable for the people in the society.

Numerous forms of journalism are used to send important messages to the public. It could either be in form of written, oral, verbal or audio information. Several mediums are also utilized by journalists to be able to convey their message to the public. Such mediums include television, radio, print materials such as newspapers or broadsheets and magazines as well.

With the use of the said mediums, the informations that are believed to be essential for public knowledge are served to the intended receivers of the informations. How far have the said mediums been accepted by the public?

1.1.1 Television

After analyzing 102 local TV newscasts from 52 metropolitan areas in the United States for content and presentation, a media-watch group found that only 41.3 percent of the programs contained news. What makes up the rest of the newscast? On an average, 30.4 percent of airtime of local TV news consists of commercials.

In fact, some of the stations surveyed devoted more time to commercials than to news. In addition, news airtime is often filled with fluff, states the report summarizing the findings of the study. Under the heading “Fluff,” the report groups “the cumulative air-time given to chit-chat between anchors, promotions and previews of upcoming stories, the ‘soft’ or silly news and the items about celebrities.”

A sample of some fluff stories: “Terrible Tenors Contest,” “Reporter Takes ‘Awesome, Incredible, Astounding’ Ride