If you have ready access to the Internet, it’s most likely that the first place you’ll look for information is online. As a student, the first go-to for academic enlightenment is Wikipedia (sad but true). But the web is actually a great place for learning.

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We reserve cinematic viewings only for films long-anticipated – ones we couldn’t bear to watch on anything other than a huge, looming screen.

Those ‘almost and ‘maybe’ movies can be staved off until the DVD comes out, or until one manages to download an illegal copy.

“Technology is the key to the future of media. Technology can and has profoundly changed the way content is distributed, and will continue to do so. The future of media is wrapped up in technology, and this is an indicator of why technology companies are eating media companies’ lunches, if not actually consuming them in their entirety.”
-Eric Picard-

Yes, we’re deep in the digital pool of media. With the demise of many daily newspapers and the limitations of broadcasting, new media looks like it’s winning the race.

“I love the way music turns all these techie devices like PCs, mobile phones and iPads into personalised juke boxes and I love how the internet lets me connect with fans wherever they are in the world.”
-Natasha Bedingfield-

“Music is available to everyone at the touch of a button. Please try and only use those services that actually pay the artists, songwriters and producers, rather than those that don’t.”
-Queen -

The gradual transition from analogue to digital music overwhelmed everyone – fans, musicians, agents, producers, record labels, and music stores. With the inevitability of absolute transformation, what choice does the music industry have, except to go with the musical flow?

How would you like your news served today? In a newspaper, on television, over the radio? Oh how silly, of course you’d like it on your… what – laptop, iPad, cellphone?

Next, where would you like your news to come from: BBC, NYT, Al Jazeera? Or do you prefer smaller, more ‘local’ news sources? Why not try a link posted on Twitter from that semi-famous person you follow? Or a status update from a friend who’s watching the Olympics, live?

Presenting the information overload.

Traditional media outlets have to constantly contend with new media for sports coverage. This is especially notable for the 2012 Olympics, where social media has taken the games coverage by storm. Sports audiences have even resorted to Twitter to criticise Olympics coverage by NBC. Affronted, the broadcasting network filed a specific complaint against The Independent journalist, Guy Adams, after he complained about their coverage. Consequently, Adams’ Twitter account was suspended.

My home is in a rural village on the Eastern Cape WildCoast in a village in the Umngazi valley but working as a freelance academic editor means commuting between home in the old 'Transkei' and home in Durban, where my family lives.

A 175-year-old newspaper, New Orleans’ Times-Picayune, will cut down to three weekly editions instead of publishing every day. This move makes New Orleans the largest US city without a daily newspaper.

The change will be effected to reduce costs and adapt to the digital era, where readers are increasingly turning to the Internet, as print ad revenues and subscribers wane.

Gone are the days of newspaper boys and picking up the paper from your driveway every morning. No more typical images of sitting at the breakfast table, reading the broadsheet while sipping on a cup of hot coffee.

Truth, objectivity, public interest, fair comment, accuracy. Some of the most basic and essential media ethics that have been breached time and time again.

The media undergoes numerous stresses such as financial pressures, looming deadlines, lack of public confidence, and external censorship. It’s inevitable that organisation defects will rear their ugly heads now and then.

Print publications, radio stations, television programmes and websites are not stand-alone entities; people are the driving force behind them. And as some are fond of repeating, “Mistakes are part of being human” – this is what distinguishes us from robots.

“To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations - such is a pleasure beyond compare.”  -Kenko Yoshida-

The UK Publisher’s Association released its statistics in early May: consumer e-book sales increased by 366% in 2011. Overall digital sales grew by 54%.

The Pew Research Center found that 21% of Americans have read an e-book, and the average digital reader has read more books than non-e-book consumers.

At such an expansion rate, what hope is left for regular books?

Soon, iBurst will be launching a new iBTel service, which lets customers make unlimited international calls and faxes at a fixed rate.  Users will be able to make the calls and faxes on any standard telephone, and they will only need a broadband connection.  This service is priced at R999 for a once-off activation fee, and R699 thereafter per month.

Microsoft recently invested $300 million in Newco, Barnes and Noble’s company.  This deal will provide Windows 8 users internationally access to digital catalogues of e-books, magazines and newspapers.  The NOOK digital book store will be made available within Windows 8, later this year.

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As more phone-hacking incidents come to light, the UK media is bearing the brunt of the mounting number of lawsuits.

News24 reported that as of 20 April, the cases brought against News of the World has now amounted to a staggering 100.

Another UK organisation, British broadcaster Sky News, has admitted to hacking emails, but justifies this decision as ‘public interest’. Sky News is a part of BSkyB – of which 39% is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Time released their Time 100 Most Influential People last week, and as always, among them were technology icons.  Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive and successor to Steve Jobs made it to the top 60, whilst Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg got two spots above Tim.  The infamous Anonymous hacker group was voted to number 36, and IBM’s Virginia Rometty is number 60.  Salman Khan of khanacademy.org was voted as the world’s most influential person in technology, and other influencers in technology are Ben Rattray, Henrik Schärfe, Pete Cashmore, Marc Andreesen, Daniel Ek and Erik Martin.