ONLINE NEWS DISTRIBUTION METHODS AND CHANGING JOURNALISM PRACTICES : DIGITAL INFLUENCES, AUTHORITY, TRUSTWORTHINESS AND TRANSMISSION.

Abstract: My thesis focuses on the changes that digital culture has brought in to the news industry, especially through social media (such as blogging and Twitter for example) and open data. The aim of this thesis is to analyze how digital culture has transformed traditional news industry and its distribution methods in regard to flexibility, trustworthiness, authority and also the role of the journalist. I also analyze how Participatory and machine made journalism methods have affected traditional journalism practices and whether these new ways of news distribution practices are complimenting or displacing the traditional news distribution methods. In order to present these changes, I analyzed how people reacted and used digital media in few popular occasions that took place in the past, such as 9/11 twin tower attack, London subway explosion, Egyptian revolution and some other occasions. By analyzing these events, I could show that today the technology has made many changes in the news industry including, revising the role of journalist, blur the boundaries between news-producer and news-receiver, demolish the gatekeeping process, make anyone a journalist, allow news in real-time, give the consumer the control over when, where and what information they want to receive and many other changes. I could also show that journalists have use artificial intelligent to expand the news industry, and have made machines do reporting. This gives the ability to fulfill the needs of demanding consumers by reporting news instantly as well as reporting unbiased information.