Penetration and adoption of new communication technologies (nct) in journalism industry in Malaysia: a case study on the usage of the internet and web based technologies in bernama

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Date
2006-04
Authors
Khalib, A'ini Hayati
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Abstract
We are all aware that the information technology has revolutionised every aspect of our lives. It has created opportunities and challenges for every known profession in today's world. In the case of journalism, technology has altered various facet of the profession. Today, diverse computerised sources are regularly being used in media organisations. This study investigated the adoption of new communication technology in journalism industry in Malaysia. The focuses of this study were on the use the Internet and web based technologies by BERNAMA's journalists as their information resource. Roger's diffusion of innovation theory has indicated three variables; innovation attributes, adopter's characteristics and technological knowledge, have durable impact on the adoption of technologies. This study was an explanatory research which objectives to examine the utilisation of new communication technology and the Internet amongst BERNAMA's journalists with specific reference to search engines, search practices, search tools, Web sites, Web based technologies, attitude of journalists towards technologies and the level of knowledge journalists have in general and the Internet in particular. Cross sectional data collection method was used on 137 BERNAMA's journalists. In this sample, journalists were found to favour Yahoo! and Google as their favourite search engines. Selected search strategy was based on the type of information, search tool was depending on the resources available, journalists preferred to use user defined key word in their advanced search options and local newspaper Web sites and foreign news agency were used most often for gathering information. Journalists evaluated the characteristics of good Web sites as being easily accessible and poor quality Web sites as being disreputable. Journalists identified unreliable information as the main problem when using the Internet. While there were numerous new interactive technologies in use on the Internet, journalists depended on only a few of them such as electronic mail. Journalists do viewed the Internet as an information resource but they do not totally abandoned the nonnal way of acquiring information. Journalists saw various problems in using the Internet as an information resource but believed that its benefits out weighed the problems. Finally, journalists were found to be receptive to the technological environment in their daily work but they were not taking full advantage on its features and the reason was due to the lack of training.
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Keywords
New communication technologies (NCT) , Journalism industry in Malaysia , Based technologies in bernama
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