The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery Essay

The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery - Essay Example The production and distribution of news and other information materials through the traditional communication channels such as print, radio and television require a gatekeeper, a metaphor used to describe the process of selecting which information is worth delivering to consumers. This is necessary not only because of limitations on space, airtime, transmission frequencies and commercial interests but also because of equally important considerations related to reliability and trustworthiness. The era of digital media changed the concept of the gatekeeper into the gate-watcher, as the role of professional journalists or communicators has been narrowed and individuals gained more power, with ordinary citizens acquiring an increasing level of credibility as source of legitimate news. The gatekeepers keep their role and still decide what is newsworthy but ordinary citizens now provide a wider variety of news sources, which are more community-oriented. This paper discusses communication t heory according to the socio-psychological perspective, which suggests that communication achieves its purpose if it considers the prevailing beliefs and attitudes of its intended audience. From the theoretical perspective, the research essay describes the methodology used in a content analysis designed to gather empirical evidence that would support or validate the theories, which finding was then analyzed for its relevance to this research. 2. Theoretical Perspective According to the socio-psychological tradition in communication theory, there is a relationship between communication stimuli, audience predisposition and opinion change. To succeed, journalists and communicators must look for the cause-and-effect relationships that could predict when a communication message will be received favorably by its audience or when it will be ignored (Vaughn, 2008). In this view, communication can be effective in influencing public attitudes and opinions if it considers the "who, what, whom and what-effect" questions of socio-psychological tradition, which are often asked when journalists and public relations practitioners want to change people's minds. The questions refer to the source and content of the message, audience characteristics, and the opinion change it has caused. On the source, the message sender must project expertise and trustworthiness while the content must be appealing and credibly argued. The "whom" phase should consider the personality and gullibility of the audience, while the what-effect question requires that communicators measure the attitude scales before and after delivery of the message. Thus, the editor who hears a reporter say that his mother loves him will tell the reporter skeptically: "Check that out - from at least two sources (Griffin, 2003)." The socio-psychological influences in communication forms the basis of this research. 3. Methodology This study uses the quantitative approach that gathers the primary and secondary data of research through the observation and direct communication methods. The observation method refers to our review of the literature, which gives special attention to such new communication platforms as gate-watcher