The Digital Impact of the Invisible Cloud

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The Digital Impact of the Invisible Cloud

Having our information accessible in the cloud and technology that supports the interconnectedness can be a double-edged sword. There are a lot of positive impacts the cloud has had on the field of Journalism. As a result of cloud technology, journalists working out in the field can upload their notes to Google Docs and instantly share them with their co-workers back at the newsroom. People in the newsroom can get moving on a story as the details are still being documented because of the cloud. Another way journalists are leveraging this technology is by uploading photographs that can be used for their stories. For example, "the New York Times uses Google Cloud to encode and preserve their entire photo archive of millions of photos-putting a powerful resource in the hands of their reporters" (Krishna, 2018). Google Suite, an iCloud based software, is now in high demand for not only journalists, but all kinds of communicators. “The teams can use a suite of popular applications such as Gmail, Docs, Drive, Hangouts and Calendar. These products are designed to keep newsroom data secure, and enable editors in the office and reporters in the field to collaborate and edit copy on a story in real time” (Krishna, 2018). This new software has also impacted the type of training being provided in the workplace. 
For communicators, the cloud is a gift and a curse. The level of efficiency and ease that can come with information being accessed and stored in the cloud can also become business’ worst nightmare. Fingerprint id saves us the trouble of remembering various passwords, online banking allows us to transfer money without going into the bank, and online billing allows us to pay all our bills with a single click. When this data is obtained and used illegally the breaches of a company’s network can become detrimental to the reputation of an organization and cause customers to lose trust. Furthermore, once the information is shared, every person’s identifying information becomes vulnerable and puts people at risk.
Cloud based software and technology communicators use to access it has significantly impacted their work. From the way stories are shared, interdepartmental communication is handled, and security measures are set, technology continues to change the landscape for the field of Communications. The advantages of using the cloud to streamline communication workflow seem to outweigh the everyday risk of cyber security threats we all face by sharing our information with the cloud.

 Video: How Cloud Computing Works
This video details what the cloud is, how it works, and different ways in which the cloud can be used.


Video: BBC Journalist, Nick Garnett, discussing the significant Dropbox, a cloud based software has positively impacted his team's workflow.

References
Garnett, N. (2017). How the cloud is taking journalists beyond borders. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOA8KeeTXrY [Accessed 7 Jul. 2019].

Krishna, Vishal. Google launches cloud to help journalism thrive in the digital age. (2018, September 14).
Parker, O. and Strickland, J. (2014). How Cloud Computing Works. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGDtujmOBKc [Accessed 7 Jul. 2019].

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