JOUR1111 Lecture 3 – The Importance of Text.

Text. Without text journalism would cease to exist. I think it can be easily enough understood that the whole concept of journalism and media revolves around the one little word of text. All mediums of journalism including television, radio, print, internet blogging, websites even social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook all revolve around the usage of text. Put simply, text is what defines journalism; it is, in short, the essence of the media and therefore journalism.

Perhaps what are often attributed to the reliance on text are its many crediting factors including its flexibility, its portability, the speed at which it can be written and shared and the accessibility of which it can be searched. Text holds the ultimate control and dominates the online sphere in addition to print media.

Text not only dictates the content of an article but also dictates the way in which it is portrayed to the reader. This is clear through the ‘inverted triangle’, that is; “a metaphor often used by writing instructors to illustrate how information should be arranged or presented within a news story. The pyramid’s broad base at the top of the figure represents the key information the writer means to convey.This is what the rest of the article will illustrate, often supported by quotes from individual’s involved in the story.” (http://jontusmedia.com/writing-journalism-the-inverted-pyramid/)

The inverted triangle is the key to grabbing and holding the readers’ attention and as a result the structure dominates majority of news reporting in both print media and online, it is a structure that ensure that the most important information is given first so that the reader can understand the story straight away without having to go into too much detail.

As this picture illustrates, after the opening sentence and grabbing catch phrase, the bulk of the story must them be presented and the initial summary must be elaborated on. Often it is the case that as quantity increases, the relevancy decreases.

However the emergence of ‘new media’ means that the use and definition of text is changing. Hypertext now allows text organisation and the opportunity for reporters and journalists to be more creative. Text is no longer dictated by linear narrative and online platforms are given the opportunity to expand. Text is being changed by the modernisation of other mediums such as videos, Tweets, Facebook statuses, metadata, tags and forums which therefore challenge the original concept of text.

Therefore I think the question can be asked of what does all this hypertext-ation ultimately mean? Does this new and uncharted media ecosystem pose a threat to what was once considered 'true and quality' journalism? A once time-consuming and expensive trade, Journalism has long since been reduced to the bare minimum which considers 140 character tweets as a prominent form of journalism. Although today’s journalism is less about quantity and more about quality, in the absolute minimalistic of ways, where does this leave 'true' journalism? If it still exists at all that is.