In completing two decades of Internet available to the public, we are now living the era of speed, when communication happens in a flash. All demands for more and more interesting news has increased pressure for more and more information, journalists are working faster and frequently using information found online as a way to suppose a story, without deeply investigating and analysing what they are informing.
In many countries, journalistic research is often weak, superficial and inconsistent frequently sponsored by corrupted power figures. The material that reaches news headlines is condensed in a list of bullet points repeated many times in a short space of time. Television, radio and internet publicizing the same news at the same time, is causing a collective tiredness of half told truths, urging for a transformation. Force feeding the public the same shallow information repeatedly during the day is causing readers to choose Internet to newspaper or television news, instigating journalists to rethink this format. Around the world press associations are discussing the need to be aware of how information impacts society and what the press humanitarian role is.
Growing crime reflects the level of social issues our societies are facing and nowadays, Investigative journalists are able to access previously unachievable information, in a blink of an eye. It is a fact that people are emotionally and psychologically affected by floods of information on violence, corruption and suffering fed daily via media and soaked by repetition. The exposure reached by political events and personalities and topics relating to social issues through social networks is higher than any other medium.
The instant access to information and people’s opinions available online has transformed how researchers, journalists and authors work, but also has given the public a channel to tell their history with more confidence.