PRESS AT THE CROSSROADS

Text topic: Contemporary Journalism - Trends

Text author: Зоран Јевтовић и Радивоје Петровић

The changes that occur in social, technological and commercial global environment are evident in the sphere of contemporary journalism that under the onslaught of digitization, especially the Internet, is going through violent and radical transformation. Issuing of daily newspapers transformed from once a family business with tradition into a corporate challenge infected with the profit virus, so the value of the newspapers is more often measured by the realized capital at the end of the year than by credibility with readers because of the management pressure and dividends. Classic journalism sees the competition in the Internet and digital platforms, not realizing that the salvation is in the union, multimedia and convergence. Digital sources of information archive classic sources, especially the press; portals with free ads reduce income of the newspaper industry, while rumors and gossip combined with half-truths suppress expensive and exhausting investigative journalism. In these tectonic disturbances the authors see relentless struggle for survival, the crossroads of the old and the new media, battle for adjustment, where insufficient attention is given to the demands of the new audiences. The focus is on the collision of generations: on one side, young creative forces that use power of PCs and mobile, interactive technologies as their natural environment, and on the other, the older generation that refuses changes, accepting the reality defined by the classic media: television, radio, newspapers and magazines.