More Online Journalists Than Print Journalists Behind Bars

http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20081204/tc_afp/usmediajusticerightsinternetcpj

The article, More Online Print Journalists Than Print Journalists Behind Bars is about how many journalists who do their work in the digital era nowadays are being jailed all around the world more than any other journalist from any other medium. Most of these journalists are bloggers, web-based reporters, online editors, and even freelancers. The Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ) predicts that print reporters, editors, and photographers are the next largest category of jailed journalists and behind them are radio journalists, and documentary film makers. The future of journalism is now online and there is a battle with press freedom. New online journalists have captured attention from repressive governments around the world, and they feel that there should be a limit to how much freedom a journalist should actually say, especially online.

This article relates to Broadcast Programming because journalism is really important to the media industry itself. Most stories are communicated from journalists in all areas. Since online media is rapidly growing and is still considered the future due to the fact that it's fairly new, it is going to be a huge concern in the media industry. Journalists getting locked up could be a set back for media or may prohibit journalism to grow online. Everything nowadays is going digital and for broadcasting, this is something that people who work in this field are paying very closely to. In the history of broadcasting, a lot of reporters have been jailed because of the things they may of said in print. For this same thing to continue online is what makes this article so relative. People have not changed through the years of what should be the limit of "freedom of speech" and "freedom of the press".

This article was chosen because 125 journalists were jailed recently in the year of 2008. This may allow online journalists to ask themselves, "What is too wrong to say in my article online?". This may set the online journalist industry back or enhance it. The reason this could be a set back is because future journalists who may want to do work online might change their mind because of all the commotion. Someone may have a passion for writing, but are they going to get locked up for it? Also, it can be a set back because with the question just asked, who is really going to want to work online? Print is still being used, but the future is online. This could be a conflicting situation. In a more positive outlook, this problem may allow journalists to keep striving to make digital journalism a success. There is "freedom of speech" and also "freedom of the press" and if someone really does have a passion for writing whatever they want, they are going to do it anyway. This article was really interesting to read because it's something that a person has to think about who has this career. The fact that 125 online journalists are behind bars is striking, especially because digital is such a new medium compared to others.

More Online Journalists Than Print Journalists Behind Bars relates to Chapter 10 and Chapter 11 because online media is still steadily increasing. Although there are some difficulties with journalists getting locked up behind bars, it is still a new medium that the industry is still going to push to grow even more. Nowadays people are getting tired of print media and regardless of some of the problems that online journalism may run into or encounter, the future still lies ahead to have digital media a popular meduim, which it has already become.