The media plays an essential role in society. However, the community has been experiencing several changes over time. These changes have also forced the press to undergo several changes to and more importantly the emergence of the online media channels. While the changes are to the positive, there have also emerged challenges in various areas as it becomes ever harder to regulate some of the developed online channels within the industry. To deal with these changes, there has a emerged a need for the changes in the law that can ensure that the media plays its role and also support this emergent technology. The film takes a focus on the various issues in regards to online media and the law. The center is much on the role that the law has in ensuring that there are necessary regulations that not only regulate the freedom of the media but also support its role in creating a society that is more responsive.
One of the issues that seem to emerge within the online journalism is the new business models that seemed not to exist within traditional journalism. With the emergence of online media, there seems to crop up a type of business that most refer to nonprofit journalism. While the tradition models were focused on the profiteering aspect, these new models tend to present a different view to the element of journalism, and thus it requires that the government looks to varying ways of dealing with such a model. While there has always been a focus on the traditional model that only focus on profit taking, the government needs to red-shift its center so that it can allow these new models to take shape. I do agree that some of the models that have emerged within the online space focus solemnly on informing the society and at times they might not be nonprofit. Therefore if the government treats them as the old model, they might suffocate quite faster.
There is also one thing that seems, and that is public policies. While there have been several policies that have been made, there is often the lack of participation of the public in making these laws. The lack of the involvement of media fraternity in creating some of the rules has often led to regulations that do not seem to reflect the challenges and the new problems within the media industry. It thus would be essential to look for ways to make online journalism take an active role in developing laws that could foster the more healthy functioning of the industry.
From the discussion, there seem to be several issues that have emerged over time on the media and the role that it plays in society. While there is no agreement on the space the press should take one thing that is clear is that the online area is playing an essential part in setting the agenda and informing the society. It is also clear that most of these online journalism platforms are not focused on profit. In this discussion, there seems to be a keen focus on the need to understand how the non-profit online journalism operates and how the government should develop laws that might support their operation. It thus seems clear that there appears to be a flaw in the available laws since they tend to gag these channels.
Works Cited
“The Future of Journalism: Law and Ethics in a Changing Media Ecosystem.” YouTube. The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2019.