A lot of change is happening in the world of journalism with the arrival of digital
technology. The journalist in this changed scenario is expected to explore
multimedia options. There is also a paradigm shift with readers and viewers now
becoming a part of the news making process. Write-ups’, pictures, and audiovisual
content are increasingly being published by the citizen on websites, blogs, video
sharing platforms, and social media. While this has been hailed as democratic
and down to top approach, there is a question of credibility. Theories of digital
media which have influenced digital journalism have talked about immediacy,
interactivity, multimodality, convergence, the broader economic and social factors,
the formation of separate networks or reformation of existing networks, a virtual
shared platform for communication, actor-network and plurality. However, the
question of credibility and the spread of fake news online have raised some new
questions. This paper will try to analyze the nature of digital journalism, the
various theories which have been applied to explain digital journalism and explain
why a new approach is needed in the present scenario.