Journalism, Media and Communication profession in this ever-changing media landscape

New Media, introduced along with the advent of Web 2.0, came into being as a combination of many elements including new technologies, their users and usage, and other involved contexts (Flew as cited in Lievrouw and Livingstone, 2005). Since then, it has facilitated the change in the field of journalism, media and communication (JMC), which has brought not only new opportunities to the professionals but also many challenges. So as to stay relevant to all the trends, JMC practitioners need to understand what aspects are essential to their career and what skills or characteristics are required for each aspect. This essay will thoroughly analyse three important issues, including globalisation, media convergence, public sphere and three related characteristics and skills namely communication skills, adaptability, and reliability required respectively in relation to JCM professionals.

In relation to the JMC career, globalization is a trend that should be in the top priority of every practitioner. Globalisation refers to the process of growing connections among many communities, which helps foreign ideas become more global in reach (Held and McGrew as cited in Flew, 2007). Enabled by many devices facilitating mobility, the circulation of such global ideologies had given rise to the transnational flow of information from not only Western countries to other parts of the world, but also vice versa (Thussu, 2010). As media organisations constantly develop the global communication infrastructure, globalisation is becoming an unavoidable trend, impacting on several aspects of everyday life.

Arguably, globalisation is relevant when the career of JMC is taken into account. A successful JMC professional who utilised the concept of globalisation to her advantage is Oprah Winfrey. It was through her accumulated success from her media empire that made her name known globally. It could be illustrated by her iconic talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show”, which aired in total 4561 episodes in over 140 countries. Her talk show not only featured outstanding guests who were renowned for their worldwide reputation but also opened for the global discussion of the ideas presented in every episode. In 1998, she organized her own charity brand called “The Angel Network” to “encourage people around the world to make a difference”. Her global audience’s generous donations even made it possible to provide 18,000 impoverished African children with school uniforms (Oprah, 2011).

Figure 1. The Oprah Winfrey show, Aha! 20 Years Of Lessons (The Oprah Winfrey Show, 2015)

However, globalisation not only brings new opportunities but also poses challenges for the JMC career. As the number of the international audience is rising, journalists, instead of presenting issues in a biased manner, should now write for a more diverse audience with foreign perspectives. In fact, Knight (2003) pointed out in his work that due to the overwhelming sources of information that globalisation offers, more and more journalists were relying on limited materials and constantly recycling others' ideas. Callahan (2003, p. 4) also held the same idea as he considered a “subjectively self-indulgent” viewpoint of a journalist allowed little room for the actual content.

So as to embrace the trend of globalisation, JMC professionals should possess good communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal skills. By having good communication skills, JMC professionals stand a chance of getting their message across to the global audience effectively. With careful selection of vivid words, images, and presentation style, journalists can hold the public's interest in the content that needs to be communicated (Callahan, 2003). Besides, the ability to communicate effectively can help the aspiring JMC practitioners stand out in an employment pool. ZipRecruiter’s findings (2015) from the analysis of 250,000 job advertisements indicated that that 51% employers agreed that effective communication skills were essential. In conclusion, along with benefits brought about by globalisation, many challenges are also needed to be addressed rationally by JMC professionals.

Besides globalisation, media convergence has also dramatically changed the practice of JMC. As suggested by Jenkins (2004), media convergence can be seen as a process of blurring the boundaries among different media elements, including content, industries, and technologies. Particularly, technological convergence in media is a tendency for several systems to evolve, blend, and interact with one another to produce novel products and outcomes (Mccreight, 2012). In this digital era, technological convergence has affected the way how media content is created, distributed, and exhibited (Sternberg, 2018). In fact, media convergence, particularly technological convergence bears great relevance to the JMC profession. On the one hand, technological convergence can help JMC professionals to maximise their audience's experience by creating materials available through many platforms. With the help of cutting-edge technology, the audience can be informed of the up-to-date information not only through conventional, printed newspapers but also via their versatile mobile devices.

This is evident in the case of CNN - an American-based news channel which has a mobile-friendly format to allow its audience access online easily. Accordingly, the audience can choose to read CNN's articles in their most convenient time at anywhere, instead of rigidly following schedules. In fact, as shown in the Sensis Social Media Report 2017, there has been a constant rise in the figures of people accessing online platforms generated by smartphones during the last 7 years, from only 34% in 2011 to 81% in 2017. As a result, many news publishers have witnessed a growing number of people accessing their traditional websites via mobile devices. Besides, CNN also offers a mobile app which can be instantly installed. Not only articles, CNN app users can also stay updated with exclusive interviews and live shows on a basis just via their smartphones. All in all, with the help of technological convergence, it is highly likely that JMC professionals can facilitate their audience in enjoying their content in different ways.

Figure 2. CNN Mobile App (CNN, n.d.)

On the other hand, the shift from conventional media outlets to digital ones is a trend that JMC practitioners should consider. In order to stay relevant to such a contemporary trend, JMC professionals need to possess many characteristics, one of which includes adaptability. They should focus on acquiring innovative sets of skills, instead of sticking to the predetermined ones (Satell, 2014). In fact, the rise of digital media has led to the need for visual content, including a combination of texts, graphics, videos, and/or images. Therefore, if JMC professionals are able to corporate multimedia functions into their work, they can aid the audience to visualise better and even distribute their work in a wider reach. Brandon Stanton, a photojournalist who adapted to this change, successfully employed social media platforms to commence his Humans of New York project in 2010, which featured pictures of ordinary people with their stories. His project has gone viral then, successfully attracting approximately 18 million followers on Instagram and 8 million likes on Facebook (Agbonile, 2018). Accordingly, by embracing new trends instead of resisting them in JMC, practitioners could not only help the audience with visualisation but also further their career. Although many opportunities have been offered by the trends of media convergence, JMC professionals need to address insurmountable challenges as well, and they should possess adaptability in order to fully tackle with those challenges posed.

Moreover, the rise of globalisation and media convergence has given rise to the expansion of the public sphere, another contemporary concept that every JMC professional should take into consideration. In Leaning (2009)’s work, public sphere can be considered as a metaphorical place where everyone, regardless of races, genders, and other social factors, can engage in discussing different issues without any judgement. In this era of converging media, the concept of public sphere is being redefined, shifting from being seen as a mere “marketplace of ideas” or “information exchange depot” to now a means of generating and distributing culture (Yetkinel and Çolak, 2017, p. 5013). Public sphere opens for users' interaction and exchange of ideas, all of which tend to be subjective and specialised (Rasmussen, 2007). The audience, rather than passive receivers, are now becoming active participants who can distribute, circulate, and critique the content of their choices (Dal Zotto and Lugmayr, 2016).

The concept of the public sphere has affected the JMC profession as many media personalities have been enabled to kick-start and/or contribute to a topic that calls for discussion among the public. One of them is Emma Watson - a young British actress, model, and activist who endeavored her activist career to raise awareness of gender equality on a global scale. She was able to discuss and interact with the general public about several humanitarian activities, especially her “HeForShe” campaign, which was launched in 2014 to advocate equal opportunities between men and women. Furthermore, in 2016, Emma Watson laid the foundation for Our Shared Shelf - a feminist Goodreads book club - to encourage discussion and exchange ideas among the participating audience on gender equality (Astrum People, 2018). As the public sphere possesses the ability to “pressure national politics” and “provide communication not otherwise possible on a national level–in” (Volkmer as cited in Reese, 2010, p. 347), Emma Watson successfully brought about the social change, as demonstrated in the data release on the gender gap within ten prominent CEOs’ businesses thanks to her active participation in the public sphere (UN Women, 2016). In fact, through utilising the concept of the public sphere, JMC professionals can engage more audience and expand their career.

Figure 3. Emma Watson at the HeForShe Campaign 2014 - Official UN Video. (United Nations, 2014)

Nevertheless, the merits of the public sphere, especially in digital forums, has been constantly questioned. One concern might arise due to the complexity of different, local, and segmented character integrating into larger pieces of public opinion (Kraut, Patterson, Lundmark, Kiesler, Mukophadhyay, and Scherlis as cited in Rasmussen, 2007). Moreover, in spite of its easily accessible nature, communication in the public sphere often has a “self-referential” and “self-critical” style as it tends to open for private communication (Rasmussen, 2007, p. 10).

Accordingly, in order to gain more insights into this complicated issues presented by the public sphere currently, JMC professionals need to take the responsibility of being reliable source-providers for the public. Chadwick’s article in The Guardian (2017) identifies that reliability ranks among the highest attribute of news publishers that the public concerns. In fact, public trust in the JMC profession has been declining due to the rise of sensational click baits and hoaxes, popularly known as “fake news". In fact, when being asked about what they thought of “fake news" in BBS Communication Group's media survey report (2017), 20.6% out of 141 surveyees answered Donald Trump. The notorious Trump was arguably the biggest beneficiary of “fake news", as he was behind viral hoaxes such as ‘Pizzagate’ that stirred up much discussion among the public sphere (BBS Communication Group, 2017). Therefore, so as to provide such as a healthy public sphere for the general public, JMC professionals should be aware of how reliable the content they choose to advocate and/or distribute is since the public can be easily swayed and misled. To sum up, the extension of the public sphere has not only offered viable opportunities for JMC professional but also aroused some problems.

In conclusion, rather than avoiding all the opportunities and challenges posed by this new era of technology, JMC professionals should embrace all the significance of globalisation, media convergence, and public sphere. Besides, they should adopt three related characteristics and skills including communication skills, adaptability, and reliability in order to address these trends in all their “multifaceted complexity and interpenetration” (Cottle, 2008, p.354).

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