Bob the Blogger

Online journalism is a like a gold-rush for journalists that can effectively combine their news gathering skills with the multimedia demands of the web. The journalists of today are facing a new frontier and the ones that thrive will be those with the vision to read the landscape, learn and adapt quickly.

During a recent discussion about online journalism, Dan Chung, a photojournalist from The Guardian, said that he began his career shooting film with a Leica (right), whereas now, he creates multimedia projects for the web using a Canon XH-A1 HD Super Acronym Camera and Final Cut Pro.

The Guardian is the most popular British newspaper site on the web, drawing 16 million unique visitors each month so Dan’s experience is clearly indicative of where online journalism is headed.

Another interesting fact is that many British newspaper sites have a larger readership in America than Britain. Geographical distance between the media and their readers is no longer an issue.

New technology is changing the fundamental rules and assumptions about journalism and as a result creating new opportunities. The first step in taking advantage of this will be to pay close attention to the trends impacting digital media such as bloggers, Wiki sites, SMS, P2P file sharing and Wifi access, and then develop the capabilities to incorporate them into your work.

There couldn’t possibly be a better time to be studying journalism and new media on the doorstep of the world’s most populous country.

I have lived in Hong Kong for over ten years but originally I came from Seattle. I’m a postgraduate student at the University of Hong Kong in the New Media Workshop class.