reveiw of working in the newsroom book.

Ultimately, ‘Into the Newsroom’ is an analogy for today’s technology led world of multi-media news gathering, or delivery of information to a savvy population which needs and expectations are varied.

It draws action from a newsroom, the daily grind of local TV to produce a product to inform/educate the masses, highlighting the digital advances in local/regional news reporting.

Realistically it outlines the growth of, and importance of, news in a media hungry age when – for the first time – easy technology has made everyone a journalist or community news-gatherer – should they wish.

Journalists now work in such a variety of medium, print, radio, tv, on-line blog etc, but it was not always so.

In the ‘olden days’ scribes were learned people of words, the elite who could write down or interpret what someone said, allegedly said or something the hierarchy wanted to be picked up.

Technology now, through the internet and its free news pages, twitter or any number of ‘information platforms , can deliver to anyone – but also anyone can contribute.

In the past written word journalists had to be near the scene of the ‘news’, or relate a detailed account because they could write or articulate, and describe it in print.

The same applied to radio and then television – high tech delivery of news by a minority who could report it.

But things have changed. All news is now regional or community. Technology allows anyone with an interest to report/deliver/interpret the news or what is decided to be newsworthy.

ANT, the Actor Network Theory, developed by the French philosopher Bruno Latour, likens the world of science to that of journalism. It was data collected by experts, delivered to experts or those who wanted to learn, or be up on current affairs, politics or medical breakthroughs.

News, like any scientific breakthrough, has changed simply by its delivery to anyone who wants to see, read or hear it.

News in itself has changed from the specialist ‘scribe’ reporting what they see in the world, to the world dictating what it has seen or wants to see, via twitter etc.

Everyone is now a community journalist through technological advancements. Celebrity culture is now what sells most newspapers.

But for the first time in history, everyone can participate with their view on the world and what many now call ‘info-tainment’. Experts will always have a place in their field of excellence.

All news gathering is ‘local’ or regional. It is accessible by all and, for the first time since Moses crafted the Commandments, can be related by anyone with a computer.

News has changed from being ‘simply’ available to those who want to be informed, like a scientific thesis, to entertaining those who with eclectic needs.

For the first time since anyone lifted a chisel, or handled a quill, all people through technology, the journalist, community news gatherer, the online blogger, twitterer or the man in the street can report what is news to anyone who wants to read it.

The world is a now a global news gathering zone where even a mobile phone delivering a picture and text from a far flung place with something newsworthy or just interesting, is in the hands of anyone who want to report it.

The world is – no matter where you live – a smaller place because of technology and the place where because of those advances, a regional newsroom.