New Media Technologies: Social Media and News

COM 300

Kathy E. Gill3 May 2007

Agenda

More On Open Source Online News, Blogs, Podcasts Discussion Leaders & Small Group

Discussion

Recap: Cluetrain

Markets are networks composed of people … and people like to talk (communicate)

Companies can impose barriers to this communication (or not)

Reducing barriers means a community of like-minded people has better chance of forming

EC: GNU Project (1/2)

Start of open source philosophy (1985) “The word `free’ in `free software’ pertains to

freedom, not price” … think free speech, not free beer!

Four principles … Freedom to: Use the program as you wish Adapt the program Distribute copies to help your neighbor Improve the program and share it with the public

to benefit the entire community

EC: GNU Project (2/2)

Technologists developing social networks to develop new software … by using communication (technology) networks

Subsequently … Linux, Apache, TCP/IP, SMTP … Important: this internet infrastructure

was not mandated by a “government”

Online News : Overview

Repurposing electrons from print to new media is a business decision

Few papers have adopted blogs Social system disconnect? Not enough time?

Syndication is an integral part of social system

RSS

Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, RDF Site Summary

XML document that facilitates content syndication This “feed” contains structured data Transformed to information by RSS

reader Ease of syndication, low cost

RSS Development Timeline

March 1999 Netscape RSS 0.90

July 1999 Netscape RSS 0.91

June 2000 Userland RSS 0.91

Late 2002 RSS-Dev Working Group

RSS 1.0

January 2003 Userland RSS 2.0.1

Cool/Lame

Online News RSS Adoption

Apr 2002 New York Times (limited to Userland)

RSS 0.91

Oct 2002 Christian Science Monitor

25, RSS 1.0

Mar 2004 Washington Post 125, RSS 2.0

Apr 2006 Washington Post 150, RSS 2.0

Seattle Times 47, RSS 2.0

Apr 2007 Seattle Times 54, RSS 2.0

New York Times 101, RSS 2.0

Editorial Decision

Not technological decision > in 3 of 15 markets, papers are co-managed Philadelphia Inquirer (16); Daily News (2) Detroit News (35); Free Press (1) Seattle Times (45); P-I (27)

Why Rapid Adoption?

Syndication in line with culture Business model is evolving

How to reverse loss in readers? How to generate online revenue?

Recognition of growth of blogosphere, driving readers “Pay to read” barriers (WSJ v CSM)

What is Journalism?

Journalism is “our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life. That which goes unrecorded goes unpreserved … The creation and preservation of collective memory…” is the practice of journalism.

- James W. Carey

Participatory Journalism

Characterized by expanded two-way communication between media and readers.

With blogging, reader becomes author and author (journalist) becomes reader, ending the one-to-many model of communication.

Measuring Influence

How to measure intellectual influence? Shaping the news hole Tools to help assess credibility

Shaping the News Hole Trent Lott story (2002)

Covered by only one reporter following event Kept alive by bloggers - liberal and conservative

Microsoft “switch” campaign (2002) LA Times (2004)

Supreme Justices Scalia v Ginsburg Dan Rather (2004) Colbert’s monologue Press Club Dinner

(2006) Josh Marshall – AttorneyGate (2007)

More Questions to Ponder

Which link is the more representative of influence: blogroll or post?

Are several daily short posts more reflective of influence than less frequent longer (more depth) posts?

How do we deconstruct the blogosphere to provide useful information within genres?

Podcasts

Audio file + RSS = Podcast Not just iPod, it’s just that iPod created a

broad audience Incredibly fast adoption

Entered Oxford English Dictionary in 2005 Started in 2004 by Adam Curry (see

Wikipedia on trademark challenge)

Videocasts & YouTube

Robert Murdoch buys MySpace Music distribution

Google buys YouTube Army launched YouTube Channel,

“cracks down on” soldier blogs (E&P, 2 May 2007)

Summary Blogging (and social networks) technology

is having a profound impact on Web content

Neither news nor politics will be the same Next week: spotlight on politics

Resources Gill, KE (2004). How can we measure the

influence of the blogosphere. WWW2004, New York, NY USA. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/www2004_blogosphere_gill.pdf

Gill, KE (2005). Blogging, RSS and the information landscape, a look at online news. WWW2006, Chiba Japan. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gill_www2005_rss.pdf