Chennai: Digital or internet journalism can be exciting as it can impact society.
Though, the profit or revenue model is yet to demonstrated even in America, where it is popular, digital journalism may overtake print journalism in future, said Sree Sreenivasan, New York’s third Chief Digital Officer (CDO). This Indian American, who was in the city on Saturday, said there is a storm coming to change journalism field at one point of time.
Urging journalists to be resilient to change, particularly in incorporating digital avenues, he said about 15,000–20,000 journalism jobs were lost in the US due to digital journalism.
“It’s tragic… There is still magic in newspapers. The next generation in India who may not be interested in print may opt for internet journalism. This will make a major change. So learn digital skills and employ them,” he said.
Sreenivasan, adjunct professor of School of Journalism from Columbia University, was sharing his views on the emerging trends of social media and digital journalism at the Chennai Press club on Saturday at an interactive session organised by the Digital Journalists Association of India (DiJAI).
He had a word of praise for Indians, who still subscribed to newspapers.
“In the US, there is one English business daily but here you have six English business dailies…so many things are happening here that are not happening in the US. WhatsApp is not used in the US.
There is a big obsession with digital and data journalism in America,” he said. Indian television channels with breaking news, political news and discussions, Mr Sreenivasan said, have taken the worst of American journalism.
