It sounds like a corporation that you might have seen in comic books, but News Corp is real, is large, and it’s growing its tentacles everywhere. It’s demanding, too.
The latest about News Corp is that they are going to charge for journalism on the Internet. It started some months ago as the media mogul and Fox network owner, Rupert Murdoch, announced plans to offer paid content to subscribed users. This is already experienced with the London Times and the Wall Street Journal – the latter owned by News Corp. Does it have to be this way?
The public wasn’t the intended user of the internet when it was invented by American computer scientist, Vinton Cerf, in 1973. It was mostly regarded for academics and students, back in that time. It is openly used now by anyone with an available computer and a proper connection. The internet is not owned by any organization in the world.
The internet is very much integrated to everybody’s lives across the world. In one way or another, people would acknowledge that the internet is here to stay. One good fact linked to all of this is that it’s free. It’s enough to pay for technology to connect, and pay the monthly data costs.
Corporations can’t see this from the consumer’s point of view. Journalism is usually a service, either on the internet, or on the TV, radio etc. Publishing news on the internet started as an arm of the news organization’s services, this online service has become a trend, which people usually get for free. Reverse that trend and it becomes complicated.
Not that the music industry hasn’t done this - it has. People are happy to pay for songs. Nevertheless, it is not a trend. There are numerous ways to get songs for free, and internet users will always find songs for free to download.
News Corp and Journalism Online, for example, another business that has similar plans to Rupert Murdoch, need to understand that not everyone is paying for their special news in the future. Someone needs to put this in the news!
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