The second edition of a two-part American Forum titled "The Future of News is Here, Now What?" explored the changes in "new" media after 15 years of online news and its effect on today's generation Thursday.
The forum addressed how a new generation of podcasts, online blogs, "Youtubing" and online news has fostered a shift in the traditional print, television and radio media.
Today, there are many of Web sites where people can place local news and be able to receive news, which is different from the old traditional sources of newspapers and radio.
"The dinosaurs are gone," said event moderator Wendell Cochran, director of AU's journalism division.
Susan DeFife, president and CEO of Backfence.com, said new media "gives opportunity to have dialogue." Her Web site, considered a type of "citizen journalism," covers news, classifieds, event listings and other services contributed by the community. Citizen journalism refers to news and information contributed solely by the community or non- professionals of journalism. DeFife described the Web site as an "over the back fence conversation."
Anne Blasco, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said DeFife's concept was the least progressive of the panelists' work.
"You would think that a community-based Web site would have a more important goal than finding babysitters in white upper-middle class suburbs," she said.
As the number of information Web sites grows daily, the issue of the role of citizens and professional journalism in the media world is raised, Cochran said.
Citizen journalism provides user-generated content. Although not professional journalism, sites such as Backfence.com limit the large gap between the information covered in the news nationally and news occurring locally, DeFife said.
Citizen journalism "takes [news] to a more personal level," Clemente said.
The intersection of news and Internet creates a more informed public, said Michael Clemente, executive producer of ABC News Now, ABCNews.com and ABC News On Demand.
Using the Internet, visitors of ABCNews.com can send and receive feedback and information directly from the Web site.
"We can have conversations with folks," he said.
ABCNews.com features 40 to 50 videos a day. In addition, visitors can view up to 300,000 pages on the Web site according to Clemente.
