lecture 2 new media & journalism dec09

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Lecture 2: New Media & Journalism

(New!) Media- and journalism in the online age -

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This lecture aims to:

• Build on the notions presented the previous day (convergence and web 2.0)

• Discuss the challenges that the emergence of new media pose to

traditional media • Analyze the changes in media landscape (both in terms of practice

and technology) and their implication on the journalism practice

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Media - a definitionA two level definition:

1. The technology that enables communication

2. Set of associated “protocols” or social and cultural practices that have grown up around a

specific technology Lisa Gitelman apud

Jenkins, 2006 Technology

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Communication Models• The transmission model (Lasswell, 1920; Shannon & Weaver,

1949)

• Sender --> Receiver

• Sender --> Medium --> Receiver • Sender <-- Medium <-- Receiver

• Sender <--> Medium <--> Receiver

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The journalist’s role

• What is the role of the (new) media in your society?

• Which media: news, entertainment, arts, documentary, sports?

• How has the role of the media developed?

• Does the media fulfill this social obligation?

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The journalistic ideology• Public service

– journalists provide a public service (as watchdogs or newshounds', active collectors and disseminators of information)

• Objectivity– journalists are impartial, neutral, objective, fair and (thus) credible

• Autonomy– journalists must be autonomous, free and independent in their work

• Immediacy – journalists have a sense of immediacy, actuality and speed (inherent in

the concept of news)• Ethics

– journalists have a sense of ethics, validity and legitimacy(Deuze, 2005)

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• Every traditional medium fears the “new”

– 1929, London - first radio presence @ the Olympic Games (with restrictions imposed by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association

– 2002, US - reporters of Tampa Bay Online (TBA.com) refuse to work in synergy with colleagues in other part of the organization (Deuze, 2005)

– 2002, EU - European multimedia news report shows little cooperation between various departments of news organizations

The media competition

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Home Media Capacity - 1975Product Route to home Display Local storage

TV stations phone TV Cassette/ 8-track broadcast TV radio broadcast radio stereo Vinyl album

Local news mail

Advertising newspaper delivery phone

Radio Stations

non-electronic

Tom Wolzein, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co

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Home Media Capacity – Today

Tom Wolzein, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co

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New media blendWatched TV news: 1994 72%

2004 60%

Read a newspaper 1994 49%2004 42%

Accessed news online 1994 N/A2004 24%

Went online 1995 4%2004 47%

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70

80

90

100

110

120

130

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Broadcast TV Prime-Time Housheholds

Daily Newspaper Households

U.S. Households

1985 = 100

Net loss in newspaper use and prime time broadcast TV

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Local TV News

National Net. News

Cable TV News

Internet Newspaper

Trustworthy 21% 19% 21% 10% 9%

Up-to-date 19% 13% 24% 29% 4%

Offers “news I can use” 37% 11% 10% 20% 9%

Useful way to learn 15% 11% 14% 41% 8%

Entertaining 23% 12% 18% 20% 4%

Provides news only when I want it 12% 6% 9% 49% 9%

Summer 2003

Image of News Sources

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New Media Journalism

• Cyberjournalism

• Multimedia journalism

• Interactive journalism– We don’t know yet what the Net makes possible because we’re still

asking how the journalism we’ve known and loved translates to the new medium – or doesn’t. (Rosen, apud Outing, 2001)

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Table 1 Usability Features of Each News Medium Media Features Media

Newspapers Radio TV Cable News Internet Participation easy X Customizability X Time shifting X X Time flexibility (24/7) X X Mobility X X Interactivity X Search capacity X Immediacy X X X X Images X X X Sound X X X X Doesn’t require high attention X X X X Doesn’t require reading skills X X X X

Thorston & Duffy, 2005

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Show:EPIC movie 2015Future of media

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• Imagine for a moment that you are a journalist in Brussels. You don’t work for a TV company or newspaper. You have no particular assignment.

– What would you write about?– What story do you want?– What will you be prepared to report, to get the truth out?

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Citizen Journalism?• Producer/consumer blurred• Non-professional• Hyperlinked• (Ephemeral and Informal) • Citizenship• Critical of media• Global moral code rather than ethical code• Little attempt to impose a hierarchy• Community value, rather than commercial• Irreverent opinion

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The Values of Citizen Journalists

• Politically motivated?• Agenda setting?• Shared resources• Open source

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How/where?

• Blog• Videos (shared)• Photos (shared)• Podcasts/audio (share)• Social networking• Mobile phone

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Outing’s layers of citizen journalism1. Open up to public comment

- not only articles but other sections as well- moderate/ subscription

2. Citizen as an add-on reporter- citizens add information to a current story (eg. Theft/Burglary - they

provide the examples, photos, solutions)

3. Open-source reporting- contact with knowledgeable readers

- submit just to a couple of readers for suggestions - Ask for readers/viewers for questions for a future interview

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Outing’s layers of citizen journalism4. Citizen bloghouse

- blog on a story - blog for a publication- own publication’s own blogs hosting service- have an aggregator application

5. Newsroom citizen “transparency” blog- share information about the workings of the newsroom: processes,

people

6. The stand-alone citizen journalism site - edited version- Very local news- The editor is a guide to the community - Might cover what the journalist cannot reach/not mainstream

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Outing’s layers of citizen journalism7. The stand alone citizen journalism site - unedited version

- has all the typos and misspellings but has character

8. The added print edition- put in print either 6 or 7

9. The hybrid: professional and citizen journalism - OhMyNews (70% citizen; 30% professional)- The web version dictated the print one

10. Under one roof- news is conversation not just lecture

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Outing’s layers of citizen journalism11. Wiki Journalism

- readers are editors (WIKI NEWS)

SHOW FILM: WIKIS IN PLAIN ENGLISH

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New(s) media types

• Authoritative: Created and produced by news professionals

• Created: News and information produced by audiences

• Opinionated: News and information with attitude and voice

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Journalism (new) ideology• Public service

– More multicultural and more multi-angled– The public gets to contribute to the stories (comments, photos, videos,

testimonials)– The primacy of story-telling remains but there while cautiously embracing

the wants and needs of the audience

• Objectivity– More interpretations of objectivity– A more active awareness of what is out there (both technologically and

culturally)

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Journalism (new) ideology online

• Autonomy– Shared (calls for an even higher degree of integration are still out there)

• Immediacy – “When news happens it’s common for the first photographs not to be

sent via news wire, but posted to a Flickr site.”Newsweek, April 3, 2006

• Ethics – Questions still remain (if the number isn’t bigger) but the answer is more

complicated due to the multiculturalism, diversity and glocality of the “news” environment

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Conclusions • Media as technology and as social and cultural practices surrounding that technology

• New technologies lead to new forms of communication

• Citizen journalism is an addition to traditional journalism

• The journalism practice is changing, multi-skills being more and more required

• Reality becomes multi-faceted and multi-layered

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Tomorrow:• Practice day

lecture 2 new media & journalism dec09

Education