Abstract
There will be a discussion about the impact that the internet has had on multimedia news delivery in various regards, including the cause and effect.

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Cause
The most apparent cause of the impact that the internet has had on multimedia news delivery, is the virtually cost-free process of preparing and distributing multimedia news by most anybody from most anywhere, without restrictions. Further, the internet has become the place that people go to, to obtain the most current and breaking news. Finally, those that have been considered the news people of the world utilize the internet to access information as background for the current news stories they are working on, to supply a more robust and all-inclusive form of multimedia news. (Krotoski, 2011, p. 4)

Some of the secondary reasons that could explain the cause of the impact that the internet has had on multimedia news delivery, are the ability that an individual has to express their opinion about a particular event or news item, through the comment sections offered by many internet news outlets. As well, the combination of the written word as well as the spoken word, in the form of videos that duplicates the written word; allows for a greater degree of attention and recall for many people, as opposed to just the written or just the spoken word forms, which you get from either newspaper or television. (Opgenhaffen & d’Haenens, 2011, p. 10)

Finally, there is such a cacophony of choices to go to, those individuals with particular or narrow interests have little trouble locating a source on the internet to access the current state of affairs or news in their particular area of interest.
Just like television, the internet and the forms of communications it has brought continues to grow and will probably only get larger, becoming a part of not only the daily lives of most Americans, but part of the hourly lives of its users. (Petras & Spil, 2012, p. 8)

Effect
The web’s effect on news reporting is “considered the most clear evidence that this is a revolutionary technology…in that news editors and in some cases, the governments that they observe, are no longer the gatekeepers to information…and if knowledge is power, the web is the greatest tool in the history of the world” (Krotoski, 2011, p. 4).

The greatest impact on traditional multimedia news delivery that the internet has had is on the local newspapers and their ability to continue to survive with such a reduction in the number of subscribers to their physical printed format. Although there are a few places that have not been impacted the majority of local reporting newspapers have gone bankrupt or have attempted many creative attempts at reorganizing; transforming to a non-profit; selling to the wealthy; transitioning to partially web-based; or, cutting to the bare bones necessities. The idea is that if the local news cannot be told through professional, educated, and trained journalists, then there will be no local news that can be relied upon and this is something that is fundamental to all other aspects of the lives of a thriving and healthy community. (Downie, Jr. & Schudson, 2009, p. 12)

Meanwhile digital technology when combined with innovative approaches and fresh views have opened many new avenues for journalists of all shapes and sizes as well as backgrounds and abilities, whether it is through social media sources; blogs; press releases; pod casts, or videos. The seasoned veteran journalist down to the cub reporter can interactively collaborate, share perspectives, information, and expertise to produce work that is more readily updated, verified, and fact-checked and enriched which opens up many new possibilities that have the potential to engage the reader and increase the knowledge of the reader as well. (Downey, Jr. p. 13)

The position of proprietary rights and exclusivity that was enjoyed by the established news reporters and makers of the world began to crumble starting back during the events of 911, wherein individual news tellers each imparted their pieces of information over the web and allowed for a fuller and clearer picture for the average news seeker. This continued to build steam and had developed considerably by the time the plane landed in the Hudson by which time the notion of news being communicated by the user for the user and being told for the sake of getting it out there, had become ingrained.

Today, many times each day some raw footage about this matter or that is released onto the web for the whole world to see and learn about. At this point there is little that can be done to stop the exposure of just about anything about just about anyone or anything.

A less than desired effect of the new power structure of the news telling entities, is the tendency to rely upon a sort of group mentality, that is to say, if enough individuals have repeated the same, supposed facts, enough times, then it must, by default, be the truth. According to Hamer (2011) the discipline in determining the: who, what, why, where, and when of a matter, has been left by the wayside and has gotten lost in the noise of the internet sources. (pp. 16-7).

It would seem from all sources referenced, that the cause and effect of the internet on multimedia news delivery overlap somewhat but it can be said with assurance that multimedia news delivery will never be the same for it.

    References
  • Downie, Jr., L. & Schudson, M. (2009). The Reconstruction of American Journalism: A Report by Leonard Downie, Jr. Michael Schudson Vice President at Large Professor The Washington Post Columbia University Professor, Arizona State University Graduate School of Journalism, 10, 12. Retrieved from http://www.journalism.columbia.edu/system/documents/1/original/Reconstruction of Journalism.pdf, September 4, 2013
  • Hamer, D. (2011). The Twitter Effect: How Social Media Changes the News Narrative, 6, 16-7. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/06/the-twitter-effect-how-social-media-changes-the-news-narrative179, September 4, 2013.
  • Krotoski, A. (2011). What effect has the internet had on journalism? Untangling the web with Aleks Krotoski. The Guardian, 2, 4. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/20/what-effect-internet-on-journalism, September 3, 2013.
  • Opgenhaffen, M. & d’Haenens, L. (2011). The Impact of Online News Features on Learning from News: A Knowledge Experiment. International Journal of Internet Science, 6 (1), 10. Retrieved from http://www.ijis.net/ijis6_1/ijis6_1_opgenhaffen_and_dhaenens.pdf, September 3, 2013.
  • Petras, I. & Spil, E. (2012). What is the impact of social media on the content of the New York Times’ news coverage? WAN-IFRA – World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, 1, 8. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/1576975/The_impact_of_social_media_on_the_content_of_the_New York_Times_news_coverage , September 4, 2013.