The Challenges to the Boundaries of Journalism Under the New Media Environment

Abstract

Going back to the origin of journalism, the nature of journalism has changed dramatically, in the beginning, journalists were unlike doctors or lawyers, they did not have professional knowledge, standard of requirement, or occupational norms. During the history of journalism, they always try their best to draw boundaries, journalism has become to a professional field with its legitimacy and authority. But the change in journalism is not stop, especially at the internet society, the boundaries became more and more blurry and there are too many factors that force journalism to keep changing, like free comments and participatory news. This essay will include three main parts, in the first part, I propose to illustrate the boundaries of journalism in the past, and how legitimacy and authority was brought by the process of boundary-drawing. In the second part, I propose to give two examples to explain how the boundaries of journalism were threatened. Finally, I will state how journalism responded to challenges and how the boundaries have shifted.