Archive for: Dilemmas and Challenges

The journalistic profession may find itself faced with a new challenge at the beginning of the digital age. During the last two decades, since the establishment of the Republic of Croatia and the beginning of the process of transition, journalism has significantly affected the sociopolitical context, but has also itself been formed by the political and social circumstances. The elements that primarily effect the process of the transition of profession are media policy, market conditions, the legislative model of public service, self-regulation, safety of journalists, education of journalists, civil society and the availability of new technologies. This paper, in the context of those parameters, views Croatian transition journalism through four chronological phases of development: journalism of the authoritarian presidential state and non-consolidated democracy, journalism under the optimism of the rise of civil society, journalism of market dictatorship and the corporative media industry and journalism of digital culture. Each phase meant progress in the development of democratic standards and freedom of profession, while the new age comes with some serious demands for the profession. Although on-line journalism is an expression of modern technology and the new age, the future and quality of the profession still depend on the respect and application of the fundamental values of the profession. 

It had never happen before that the old media „die“ with the appearance of new ones. But, as a sublimation of all other media, Internet forced newspapers to make changes, so the consequences of this process will be visible and notable in future. Changes could be seen in hybridization of journalistic genres, in a situation where „pure“ genres doesn’t exist anymore. The changes are also seen at the most visible and striking part of the text – headline, which vary greatly from the theory. Analyzing four newspapers in Serbia, the author wanted to point out the frequency of the phenomenon and it’s consequences, but in the same time the autor realised that each of these newspapers is keen on keeping a specific „school“ of writing. Headline space is suitable for journalist’s and editor’s manoeuvre – headlines aren’t always reliable because of the tabloidisation demand, but also because of the lack of knowledge about journalistic genres. In this essay, the autor tried to signal frequent deviation, and point out main tendencies. 

The changes that occur in social, technological and commercial global environment are evident in the sphere of contemporary journalism that under the onslaught of digitization, especially the Internet, is going through violent and radical transformation. Issuing of daily newspapers transformed from once a family business with tradition into a corporate challenge infected with the profit virus, so the value of the newspapers is more often measured by the realized capital at the end of the year than by credibility with readers because of the management pressure and dividends. Classic journalism sees the competition in the Internet and digital platforms, not realizing that the salvation is in the union, multimedia and convergence. Digital sources of information archive classic sources, especially the press; portals with free ads reduce income of the newspaper industry, while rumors and gossip combined with half-truths suppress expensive and exhausting investigative journalism. In these tectonic disturbances the authors see relentless struggle for survival, the crossroads of the old and the new media, battle for adjustment, where insufficient attention is given to the demands of the new audiences. The focus is on the collision of generations: on one side, young creative forces that use power of PCs and mobile, interactive technologies as their natural environment, and on the other, the older generation that refuses changes, accepting the reality defined by the classic media: television, radio, newspapers and magazines.