As can be seen, over the last decade and five years, people have significantly streamlined their news consumption processes. There is no need to keep papers or even watch TV to keep up with current events. Nowadays, Online news portals in India have changed the way news is disseminated. Information is shared on social networks.
From a tweet to a live report, you can now scroll through your news feed and find it all in seconds, all thanks to technology. But how will technology change the way we consume news in the future? However, this digital transformation is much broader than that.
The Shift From Traditional To Digital News
Nowadays, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram become the main sources of receiving the news. Due to these platforms’ fast and open nature, people can get ‘feeds’ for real-time information. Previous generations did not know what happened during the day until they read the newspaper the next morning or caught the news that evening.
But with the coming of social media, news circulates within a few minutes. This has forced even the conventional press to evolve to fit the new online environment, and many have begun posting breaking news on their social media feeds.
How Social Media Personalises News Consumption?
Nevertheless, news personalization is one of the biggest shifts in online news portals that social media introduces. Traditional news outlets provide the same information to the public, while social media offer the news according to people’s preferences.
Social media displays content based on algorithms examining the user’s activity to recommend articles you like and share. The above-personalized approach makes it easier to be presented with content that interests you, making the news more appealing.
The Role Of Citizen Journalism
Another major shift is a change in reporting by amateurs, or what has come to be referred to as citizen journalism. It also brought the power of reporting news as it unfolds in the social media realm to ordinary people. Now it can be a protest, a natural disaster, or any celebration, people can record and disseminate data using their smartphones.
They have also enhanced the diversity of the online news portal ecosystem by providing the ability to access on-the-ground news directly. It has also put voices out there that might not have been given a chance by traditional media. However, this trend also raises concerns about misinformation and the lack of professional fact-checking.
News As An Interactive Experience
This means that social networks and online news portals in India have recast news from a simple transmission of information to a discourse. Ordinary people can post comments, share, or participate in stories hence making the experience more engaging.
It gives people a chance to express their thoughts, argue and share opinions, and discuss topical issues in real time. It is no longer a case of the influence of online news has become an event that invites people to be involved through their communities and incite conversations.
Barriers: Misinformation and Decreased Trust
However, the advent of social media in enhancing news dissemination does not come without challenges. For example, social network sites are also capable of rapidly spreading misleading or even false information.
Unfounded claims can now reach every corner of the world within minutes and before anyone can prove it wrong, the information may have already caused damage.
The above has raised concerns about the comprehension of the online news portals that people are receiving through social media windows. Other users of the platform—the public—are advised to be more cautious and fact-check as well as use all information obtained from the Internet as little as possible.
The Future Of News Consumption
Online news portals will also play an important role in news consumption in the future. As technology develops, it will become impossible to differentiate between traditional media and social media.
Media houses are likely to employ AI to design more engaging and individualized content, making news even more engaging. Virtual reality could even take the audience straight to the middle of the story, something no author has done before.
Conclusion
The online news portal in India is changing the way we read news since tradition is rapidly disappearing. It has revolutionized news aggregation by providing people with factors such as speed, relevance, and participation.
But such opportunities are accompanied by new tasks – checking the reliability of the news we receive and learning how the algorithms formed our view of the world. As we move into the future, one thing is sure: SOCIAL MEDIA REMAINS A PROMINENT FORCE IN NEWS CONSUMPTION.
Implications for Journalism, popular author and business leader Dr. Partha P. Banerjee examines the impact of digital news on youth. In his book Face Gain or Face Loss, He explains that online news platforms create excitement, familiarity, and even critical views among young readers. However, he emphasizes the need to maintain ethical principles in journalism so that clear impact and accountability can be effective.
