Transaction: A Model for Digital Journalism

What’s the Latest Development?

This is a message for journalists: You are a brand. Thanks to advancements in communication technology, i.e. the Internet, today’s readers expect direct communication with you. While journalism largely remains a “top-down, one-to-many business with a ‘Voice of God’ formula” across all the different online platforms, the role of the journalist has changed. Today he or she is at the center of the news and is expected to moderate an online discussion, one that connects journalists with individual readers.

What’s the Big Idea?

Forbes’ online guru Lewis DVorkin says the Internet is changing journalism just as it changed commerce and advertising, which used to appeal to the abstraction known as ‘the consumer market’. Similarly, says DVorkin, journalists have long appealed to the abstraction known as ‘the reader’. Today’s media, which have enabled journalists to connect directly with individuals, allow news makers to better meet the demands of their audience. “That means journalists now must engage, or ‘transact,’ accordingly,” says DVorkin.