DEPARTMENT OF MASS COMMUNICATION
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY ZARIA
COURSE CODE: MCOM414
COURSE TITLE: ONLINE JOURNALISM
ASSIGNMENT
GROUP 4
QUESTION
Topic: Give a detailed
review of Eugenia Siapera & Andrea Veglis edited “The Handbook of Global
Online Journalism.”
GROUP
FOUR (4) MEMBERS
S/N
|
NAME
|
REGISTRATION
NUMBER
|
1.
|
PETER
RONALD
|
U14MM2030
|
2.
|
ABDULLAHI
HABIB
|
U13MM1162
|
3.
|
YUSUF
GALI MUHAMMAD
|
U13MM1083
|
4.
|
SULEIMAN
NAZIRU M.
|
U14MM2063
|
5.
|
ADEGWU
OBUO JOHN
|
U14MM2066
|
6.
|
ABDULHAKIM
MUSTAPHA
|
U14MM2042
|
7.
|
IDRIS
FAISAL ABDULLAHI
|
U13MM1027
|
8.
|
ABUBAKAR
ALIYU ALIYU
|
U14MM2013
|
9.
|
MUHAMMAD
HAYATUDDEEN
|
U13MM1123
|
10.
|
YAKUBU
ELKANAH
|
U13MM1130
|
11.
|
MUSA
MUHAMMED BASHER
|
U13MM1073
|
12.
|
DANIEL
FALMATA DAWHA
|
U13MM1101
|
13.
|
ADAMU
ABBA MUSA
|
U13MM1055
|
14.
|
OLADEBO
TAOFEEK DAYO
|
U13MM1169
|
15.
|
SAIFULLAHI
LAWAL
|
U13MM1205
|
16.
|
MAISHANU
AISHA MADINA
|
U12MM1153
|
17.
|
SHAMAKI
AISHA ABUBAKAR
|
U12MM1109
|
18.
|
AJIBOYE
OLUWAFEMI ADEOLA
|
U13MM1127
|
19.
|
MAIYAKI
MUSA RABIU
|
U14MM2022
|
20.
|
MAMZA
IJU-MDUYA SIMON
|
U13MM1008
|
21.
|
DANLADI
EMMANUEL
|
U13MM1018
|
22.
|
DAHIRU
ALIYU MUHAMMAD
|
U12MM1121
|
23.
|
SHEHU
AUWAL S.
|
U13MM1039
|
MINUTES OF GROUP 4 (MCOM 414)
Minute of the 1st meeting (4/ 07/
2017 )
The
agenda of the meeting was how we would go about the appointment of group leader
and the process we need to put into consideration on assigning responsibilities
to members of the group. After much deliberation we all agreed that Abba Adamu Musa
should be our group leader. However, we also agreed to assign responsibilities
randomly. Also, we suggested reading on how to review prior to the next
meeting. The meeting was later slated to hold the following day.
Minute of the 2nd meeting (05/07/2017)
Following
the agreement on simple random sampling to assign responsibility, 26 chapters
were randomly picked by different people in the group, those who were not
around, it was chosen for them by proxy. Although the chapters of the book are
more than the number of the group but some members voluntarily added to what
they have chosen. Below are the breakings down of the chapters done by different
members in the group:
Chapter 1 IDRIS FAISAL ABDULLAHI
Chapter 2 DAHIRU ALIYU MUHAMMED
Chapter 3 ABDULLAHI
HABIB
Chapter 4 SAIFULLAH
LAWAL
Chapter 5 PETER RONALD
Chapter 6 SULAIMAN NAZIRU M
Chapter 7 DANLADI EMMANUEL
Chapter 8 YAKUBU GOLD ELKANAH
Chapter 9 OLADEBO TAOFEEK DAYO
Chapter 10 DANIEL FALMATA DAWHA
Chapter 11 SHEU AUWAL. S
Chapter 12 ABUBAKAR ALIYU ALIYU
Chapter 13 MUSA MOHAMMED BASHIR
Chapter 14 SHAMAKI AISHA ABUBAKAR
Chapter 15 MAISHANU AISHA
MADINA
Chapter 16 HAYATUDDEEN MUHAMMAD
Chapter 17 ADEGWU OBUO JOHN
Chapter 18 MAMZA IJU-MDAYA SIMON
Chapter 19 AJIBOYE OLUWAFEMI
ADEOLA
Chapter 20 ABDULKAKEEM MUSTAPHA
Chapter 21 YUSUF GALI MUHAMMAD
Chapter 22 MAIYAKI MUSA RABIU
Chapter 23 HAYATUDDEEN MUHAMMED
Chapter
24 OLADEBO
TAOFEEK DAYO
Chapter
25 ABBA ADAMU
MUSA
Chapter
26 ABBA ADAMU MUSA
After
everyone has been given a responsibility, we proceeded to discuss how we should
go about the review. The members of the group made tremendous effort to explain
how review should be done extensively. We later decided on the day of
submission of our contribution. The meeting was adjourned till another day.
Minute of the 3th meeting (12/7/2017)
Although
it was a brief meeting, people came with their contributions and submitted it
to the group leader which is Abba Adamu Musa, he suggested we should pick a
date to deliberate on final compilation of the assignment.
Minute of forth 4th (15/7/2017)
The
agenda of the 4th meeting was tabled by Hayatuddeen Muhammad and
Abba Adamu Musa after they had gone through the contribution people submitted
to the group leader. Hayatuddeen said he
discovered that some pages of the work were too voluminous that if there is a
way each and every one can compress it to make it succinct. Some members of the
group argued against that in the process of compressing we might lose some salient
information; therefore we should leave it the way it is, as far as we didn’t go
out of content. While some were in favor, after series of deliberation we
resulted to voting and we all agreed to take the important points of the book
into consideration not number of pages.
The
group later set up a committee to work on the final editing of the work.
The
work was compiled by group members who volunteered to do the so.
The
financial contribution to be made by individual group members was arrived at by
dividing the total cost of the entire work by the number of group members. This
is to ensure prudence and avoid excess cash which often result to problems.
INTRODUCTION
The Handbook of
Global Online Journalism is a compendium of contributions from erudite scholars
of journalism from different continents of the world. The handbook itself was
compiled and edited by two eminent Greek scholars namely Eugenia Siapera and
Andreas Veglis. They are both lecturers at the department of Journalism and
Mass Communication at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The topics
discussed center on online journalism. The handbook looks into how online
journalism evolved in the field of mass communication looking at the uniqueness
of this evolution in different parts of the world. It consists of contributions
that talked about the challenges the existing traditional media has been
exposed to as a result of the emergence of online journalism. It looked at
specific contexts and made references to various countries’ situations.
It also has
contributions discussing on the nature of the online journalism and how free or
restricted it is in terms of media control.
The handbook is
rich in content and is useful to any professional or amateur who sees a carrier
in online journalism. It is insightful and educative. Although the online
mediasphere is broad and is difficult to be exhausted, this compendium has to a
good extent touched on global issues concerning online journalism.
This review is
done as a partial fulfillment for the course, coded Mcom414 and titled online
journalism. The group members employing various methods have made an attempt to
look at the perspectives of the contributors. Therefore, the group has come up
with this work. It cannot be described as a perfect work though, because works
like this may not go without challenges and limitations.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION: THE EVOLUTION OF ONLINE
JOURNALISM
Eugenia Siapera
Andreas Veglis
INTRODUCTION
Eugenia and
Andreas provide that, the beginning of online journalism was the launching of
an immobile website by university of Florida journalism department. Historical
development and adoption of online journalism started as a gradual and slow
process. The pervasive nature of online activities has now changed the history
of journalism and has rapidly led to decrease of conventional media. The
proliferation of online tools such as Facebook, Twitter; Blog among others had
forced almost all the conventional media to register their presence online by
opening an account with the aforementioned online collaborative tools. Eugenia
and Andreas stated that “the relationship between the new media and journalism, which began its fits and
starts, has become a close embrace to the extent that it’s difficult to imagine
an exclusively offline journalism”. This is to say because of the prominence
and importance of online journalism or online activities, traditional media
boycott the obsolete ways of gathering, processing and dissemination of
information.
On Dinosaurs, Extinction and Mutations
To understand
the evolution of online journalism Eugenia and Andreas made a comparison
between dinosaurs and traditional journalism. Dinosaurs are a diverse species
which according to Eugenia and Andreas come to a mysterious end about 65
million years ago. And traditional journalism dominated for over 300 years.
They further argued that, traditional journalism just like dinosaur is faced
with a serious threat of extinction. The rise of internet activities has become
a sudden threat to conventional journalism, which suggests that, if the
traditional journalism did not adapt to a new changing environment, it will die
as dinosaurs. “Looking at the theory of evolution, alongside the history of
online journalism, we can argue that some species may become extinct, while
others may adapt to their environment”. It’s now evident that newspaper and
other print media cannot continue the same way before the launch of first web
browser in 1993. The online journalism is more of interactive, two-way
communication, multimediality and hepertextuality. Online journalism is
following different paths globally. One of the greatest advantage of online
journalism is immediacy, news is spread across the globe as it happens without
any barrier, it breaks the constraints of time and space, there is no more
international boundary, news reach everywhere, and people can immediately make
their positions known by commenting below the story. To Eugenia and Andreas,
the new media have altered journalism profession, journalists are more
autonomous (Citizen Journalists), as they give the general public breaking
news, because of the power of social media, and unknowingly they work as
freelancers.
Reviewing online journalism research
Research on
online journalism had dominated the field of journalism; researchers were
trying to find out more about online journalism. According to Eugenia and
Andreas “A search using online journalism as keywords in Google scholar returns
over 30,000 results, while Google books returns about 2,500 results of books
with online journalism in their title”. Accordingly, hypertext, interactivity
and multimediality are considered as the three main features of new media. They
highlighted how Pablo Boczkowski and Eugenia Mitchelstein wrote two informative
articles, reviewing research on the production and consumption of online
journalism.
Technologically Oriented Research
Research into
new media tries to unearth the roles technology plays in both technological
advancements and cultural shifts, how the world is now closely knit as a result
of robust development in technology. According to Eugenia and Andreas most
researchers now pay attention to technology-driven research, which led to the
criticisms of the famous technological determinism (Domingo 2006), many of the
researches focus on the features on new media and dwell more on their impacts
on traditional journalism. The researches try to examine and establish the link
between hypertextuality, interactivity and multimediality, how they are employed
by journalism, and subsequently change the entire face of the profession. They
provided proper comprehensive explanations of the aforementioned features to
aid people’s understanding.
Research on production of online journalism
Eugenia and
Andreas hinted that, journalism is still lagging behind new technologies; as
such new developments cannot be derived from technology alone. According to
them research on production of online journalism is to examine the condition of
online journalism, which they believed could establish the gap between new
technologies and online journalism, competitiveness of journalistic market has
contributed largely to the expansion of online journalism, occupational and
professional identity has been affected, the issue of gatekeeping is no longer
attainable with online journalism. Online journalism now lead to co-creation of
contents, users have access to the contents.
They criticize the idea of user generated contents, according to them
it’s a serious threat to journalism as a profession. But, accordingly many
journalists accept that their work has now changed to a more collaborative one,
as a result of users’ participation.
Online news consumption research
What links the
world together is the consumption of news, people know what happens or may
likely happen through news media, nevertheless, there is a paradigm shift, from
consumption of traditional media contents to the consumption of new media
contents. Accordingly, online media consumption pattern differs from that of
traditional media. Many people believed that, generally newspaper and other
print media outlets readership is in decline. Researches conducted in this
aspect are aimed at finding the exact effect online journalism is having on
conventional media through news consumption. Online news sites are the major
sources of news; they are more accessible and user-friendly. According to
Eugenia and Andreas online news consumption is mediated by intervening variables
such as education, age and socio-economic status.
Research and Theory
Empirical
studies have been undertaken in the area of online journalism, the field is
sub-divided into three basic strands;
Sociology of
journalism: This involves looking at the ways journalism is created as a
product of historical, social and cultural circumstances.
Grounded theory:
Eugenia and Andreas “describe the ways in which the polysemy of social media
has made journalism so pervasive that it can only be understood as a medium, surrounding
us all, all the time.
Theories of Technologies
This group of
theories revolves around technological breakthrough and the relationship
between technology, journalism and society. Online journalism largely depends
on technology. The best known approach is diffusion of innovation theory.
Conclusion
Eugenia Siapera
and Andreas Veglis talked more on the positive impacts of online journalism and
neglect the negative impacts. There is no doubt that this chapter is
elaborative, comprehensive and unambiguous in explaining, the evolution and
providing research-driven information about online journalism. Although online
journalism has significantly changed information collation, processing and
dissemination in a positive ways, and also breaks the monopoly of information
through the concept of open source journalism. As we can see online journalism
is heavily technology based, and requires special expertise from journalists.
Online journalism brought into the limelight the issue of digital piracy and
copyright issues. Also crowd of consumers who are empowered by new technologies
have decided that traditional media are no longer relevant in today’s society.
Another damming criticism is that, online journalism is not restrictive,
anybody can use it. “Its all about the message not the medium” says Rose
Nyondo. With online journalism, accountability, ethics and standards are at
risk. Revenue base for media Houses has been at a one-time low.
CHAPTER TWO
MEDIA CONVERGENCE
Infotendentias
Group
This chapter
gives a detailed explanation on the concept of media convergence. It traces the
root, gives a body of definitions, enumerates the forms of convergence and also
shows the point of departure in the various definitions offered by scholars.
It began by
looking at what Juan Luis Cebrian says about the survival of newspaper. He says
it requires doing some rights to make it last. Luis the CEO of Prisa, a leading
Spanish media group says that he is however not certain if they would exist in
the form they were existing at the period of time he made the statement
(January, 20th 2009).
Internal
reorganization according this work is a measure taken to reorganize the
structure of the traditional media so as to cope with the challenges brought by
‘a media market with news rules’. The scholars noted that the media is going
through a thorough change as the processes that characterized the journalist’s
profession in the twentieth century has been superseded by new habits and
demands among the newspaper reading public of the twenty-first century.
In this regard,
the strategies employed by the media were a way of adapting to one of the major
changes in journalism which is ‘convergence’.
The work further states that “plagued both by external circumstances – the
adverse financial situation around the world – and by structural difficulties –
people turning away from the traditional media – media companies are seeking
ways of maintaining their leadership in the news business. In this context,
editors are talking of convergence and, more specifically, of integrating their
editorial teams, as a solution that will enable them to extend their former
hegemony in traditional media toward the Internet.
However, many
journalists see these measures as risky, even though the aim was ‘supposedly
intended to improve the quality and diversity of newspaper contents.’ Some
critical minds see convergence as is a business manipulation to ‘prop up the
dominant medium, motivated by by increasing journalists’ productivity while
minimizing cost. In USA, financial crisis has made many journalists in the
United States redundant costing up to 13,500 jobs between 2007 and 2010. By
convergence at the early times of the process, it was an integration of the
editorial teams.
The fast growth
of the internet in the 1990s brought about coordination between workers of
different media bringing changes and editorial activities.
“This trend to reinforce common identity across
multiple platforms evolved into an innovative strategy: the merger of editorial
teams. If a news business was already trying to coordinate its publications
during the distribution phase, many editors came to think that it would be a
logical corollary to extend coordination to the production process.”
The researchers pointed out that, “in the
twenty-first century, it was essential to develop a production model that would
meet the demand for news both in the traditional media and in the dynamic
digital media.” Therefore, the “news corporations across the world gradually
came to embark on “convergence processes,” which gathered momentum so that by
the early years of the new millennium what was a trickle had turned into a
roaring torrent. Earlier mergers between the traditional and digital or online team
happened in the United States in 2000. That happened when the editorial teams
of US group Media General were merged. It was a three-way convergence bringing
together newspaper, internet and television.
In journalism, convergence have been seen (i) as a
product, (ii) as a system, and (iii) as a process. Five factors were said to beset anyone who
trying to formulate definition for convergence. They include, polysemy,
polymorphism, complexity, instability and proximity.
Four types of convergence were identified to include,
technological: multiple platforms, business convergence: concentration,
professional convergence: polyvalence, convergence of contents: multimedia
“convergence
in journalism is a multidimensional process that, facilitated by the widespread
implementation of digital communication technologies, affects the
technological, business, professional, and editorial aspects of the media,
fostering the integration of 30 Infotendencias
Group tools, spaces, working methods, and languages that were previously
separate, in such a way that journalists can write contents to be distributed
via multiple platforms, using the language that is appropriate in each medium.”
CHAPTER THREE
CHALLENGING VALUES: THE “GOOD” JOURNALIST
ONLINE
John O’Sullivan
In this chapter,
the author, John O’Sullivan try to showcase challenges of values of the good
online journalists in relation to argument raise by John Mulholland the editor
of the British newspaper ‘The Observer’. O’Sullivan says “there was no
assertion here of the high ideal of campaigning human rights journalism:
rather, the production was offered as a demonstration of the value of
interactive media in helping audiences understand complex events.”
Journalism as defined by the author is an
amative assertion, explicitly, implied of what makes or would make good online
journalist by academic, profession and media industries which is not based on
objective. That is, journalism as a profession is not set based on objective
evaluation rather it is defined based on what people want. Journalism is said
to operate based on the criteria of human interest.
McQuail (1994)
cited in O’Sullivan says that one of the role of online journalism is to serve
human interest and this role has been reflected by various factors such as media
ownership, commercialization, self-interest, cultural problem and cultural
dependency. These factors call for concern not only for poor countries but also
for Canada and smaller European countries where online journalism depends on
these factors rather operate based on the principles of the profession. Thus,
the principles give them media freedom, media equality (relating access),
diversity of information (relating to objectivity), social order, soldiery and
cultural order.
However it can
be argued that, these principles have improved the work of online journalism
where by power of information has shifted from the hands of the media elites
such as journalists, editors, media owners to the hands of the audience and
provide the free flow of information on the internet.
Therefore Herman
et, al (2002) cited in O’Sullivan, posits that it can be argued that these
principles have changed little, even at this remove, and even as later editions
of the classic text have seemingly dispensed with the candid admission of being
on slippery ground.
Despite the
argument on the principles of journalism, the author further looks at the
online news expectation and practice where he focuses attention on realization,
or lack of it, objectivity, transparency, and changes in journalism that has
been expected to occur in response to the emergence of online news. The claims
for improvement or reform of journalism via the Internet and by this point,
Interactivity is one of the responses which gives power to the reader, user,
and citizens for participatory journalism and remedy the deficits of aloof
traditional journalism and bring news closer to the lived realities of its
audiences. Journalism has made news more engaging and more meaningful to
audiences.
The job of real
journalist is not a child’s play. It is more than the issue of just covering
event and reporting it. It involves the proper security of materials, analysis,
gate keeping and presentation of information to the public in an understandable
manner filter, then published.
O’Sullivan cited
that it is risky, if tempting, to frame ideas and observations of online
journalism in terms of a dumb professional resistance to the new openness of
the Internet. Such an approach tends toward assuming that the application of
network technologies in itself can address clear deficiencies in news as a
public good, capable of contributing to rational debate in the public sphere.
Nevertheless, such has been the nature of a considerable segment of the
research and commentary on online news, as if there is a contest in embracing
of technologies that is separate to competition for readers and advertisers.
Lack of
gatekeepers in online journalism causes several implications. First, the risk
of overloading the system with unwanted, unrequested, trivial, irrelevant,
worthless or inconsequential messages has increased tremendously. Gatekeepers
also function as evaluators of information. Newspaper editors and television
news directors consider the authenticity and credibility of potential news
sources. If the system works properly, bogus news tips, unsubstantiated rumors,
and false information are filtered out before they are published or
broadcasted. Information obtained on the internet, however, comes without a
guarantee. Some of it might be accurate, some of it you must use at your own
risk.
However,
everything that has disadvantage has advantage. Internet has enabled journalist
to make deliberate and conscious efforts to gather information, collating and
analyzing data for the purpose of informing, educating and entertaining the
people with a view of making an appropriate decision and power shifting to hand of technical staff.
Recommendation
Ø Professional
journalism should be independent and objective.
Ø Journalists
should conduct research on the information source to verify and check the
authenticity, trustworthy and reliability of the information source in order to
ensure credibility of sources.
Ø Also
institutions, media organizations, press bodies and government should provide
facilities for training and retraining of journalists on the new Information
and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in order to ensure professionalism and
offer of quality services to modern and sophisticated media consumers.
CHAPTER FOUR
EXPERIENCING JOURNALISM: A NEW MODEL FOR
ONLINE NEWSPAPERS
Sue Robinson
This theoretical
essay puts forth a new model for news production, dissemination and consumption
online. The essay is also able to highlight the incomparable power of web
technology in news sourcing and news consumption and how it provides golden
opportunities for news sources and audiences to participate and interact in
news production.
Robinson (2012) says that scholars have begun calling
reporters “gatewatchers” (Bruns, 2005 ) and information “monitors” Deuze (2003)
insisting that they share authority willingly and embrace “citizen media”.
If the
foundation of a building is not done well, the super structure is bound to
collapse. Therefore, Sue Robinson was able to build his work upon the works of
shoe maker and Reese (1949), Shannon and Weaver’s linear model of message
transmission (sender – message - receiver) which is based on power structures
to ideology. Others have explored the news as a reality representation that is
constructed by journalists, sources and audiences in a way that perpetuates
societal value (Carvey, 1989), (1992), Gons, 1978, Molotch and Lester,
(1974/1997).
Tuchman, (1978),
Westerstahl and Johanasson, (1994) etc., say it is interesting to note that
over the years, scholars have documented cultural, economic, political, social
and technological events that have forced modification in journalism practices
and objectives. Scholars like Herbert (2000), Douglas (1987), Levy, (1989);
Pavlik, (1996).
The model,
however explains the characteristics of online;
i.
Multi-media
ii.
Interactivity
iii.
Conveyance etc.
Multi-media
indicates the integration of a variety of information methods from verbal cues
to text – to – animation, multimedia comprises separate technology or
technologies into one channel, such as both text and video or photography
paired with audio. Interactivity according to this model therefore, Deuze
surmised, concentrates on public connectivity as human as it does editorial
content. It is termed “monitorial” and refers to when “a website can operate as
a platform upon which citizens may voice their opinion and question regarding
the issues about which they care.
This new model
suggests profound changes for journalists’ roles and their ultimate control
over news. Deuze (2003) suggested that information often takes on all or only
some of these functional components at any given time, for any given individual
at their core.
Deuze’s model of
online journalism explains how traditional journalism orient an instrumental
function. He also posits journalists’ roles and their ultimate control over the
news. After Deuze’s article in 2003, Sue Robinson updated Deuze’s work. The
revision acknowledged that traditional functions of the press as information
vehicle – remain intact, that they continue to be a “closed journalistic
culture” even as an open sources process becomes available.
Robinson’s model
incorporates both contents and connective functions of journalism with a new
content nation on public experience under content, connectivity there exists a
dialogue between journalism and audience (Deuze, 2003).
Discussing
Online journalism convergence, Robinson was thorough about newspapers
convergence with the help of “new model”, how channel convergence (i.e
television and newspapers) were before it morphed into story integration (i.e a
reporter telling a story in multiple formats) convergence can be thought of
either as a linear continuum or non-linear process happening at any stage of
production from concept gathering to dissemination. By “convergence” Robinson
means the flow of content across various media platform, the cooperation
between multiple media industries and migratory behaviour of media audience who
will go almost anywhere in search of the kind of entertainment experiences they
want.
Participatory
(an interactive experience) readers interact with the news sources and the
information being given. Copy editors pair the newspaper story with messages to
readers is little side boxes, urging them to visit the web where they can
listen, watch, talk and view.
Lastly, Sue Robinson’s
new model for online journalism is rich in content and contained clear message
about world of online journalism. Furthermore, we would like to recommend this
work for both professional and citizen online journalist.
CHAPTER FIVE
THE FIELD OF ONLINE JOURNALISM: A BOURDIEUSIAN ANALYSIS
Eugenia Siapera
Lia-Paschalia Spyridou
INTRODUCTION
For most of the nineteenth century and
the whole of the
twentieth century, journalism was steadily increasing its power and
establishing
itself as one of the main institutions of contemporary democracies. Yet the
dawn of the
twenty-first century sees journalism depleted of power, and journalists find
themselves
expendable in the wheels of the entertainment media industry. One of the most
interesting approaches has been influenced by the sociology of professions,
considering online journalism either as a new profession, or as changing
the profession
of journalism. For instance, in her influential article, Singer (2003)
sought, on the
one hand to outline journalistic claims to professionalism and, on the
other hand, to
find the extent to which online journalism can lay claim to professionalism. Thus,
this work will begin with a discussion of the sociology of professions and its
applicability to online journalism.
Is (Online) Journalism a
Profession?
While
there is a degree of agreement that a profession refers to an occupational body
with some special skill (Abbott, 1988: 7), the details are still disputed. In
this view, different groups compete for control over their realm of expertise and
the professions emerge as the outcome of these struggles. Furthermore, in my
own opinion to this question I will like to add by saying that online
journalism indeed is a profession for one to practice. Looking at our society
and the fast growth in terms of development in technology put in place, any one
that did not adapt to the changes in the advancement in technology will
completely be left out. For example Online journalism brings the news and
information to us at our finger tips even when we don’t want to read or see
them in fact even our email is not exempted.
Journalism’s
Path to Professionalization
Historically,
journalism was developed as part and parcel of modernity (Anderson, 1983) but
it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that it assumed its current
characteristics and outlook.
Jean
Chalaby (1998), journalism emerged as a discursive field with its own
principles, traditions, values, and so on, in concrete historical
circumstances.
Thus,
while the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) stands for journalists and their
rights, the Chartered Institute is a broader organization representing also
senior media managers and owners. In addition, we can also look at it from this
angle, some say the online operation started with the military force in terms
of making use of the Google map to trace a country or where terrors’ gather or
for carrying out any operation without the concept of the people with the help
of their satellite monitoring.
Field Theory and Journalism:
Conceptual Tools
The review will be limited to the idea and
that is of importance to retain the dynamics inside journalism as a profession
and a field for practice. All studies have their fields. This field has its own
resources, logic, and rules by which it abides. Specifically, a field is better
understood as “a structured space of positions in which the positions and their
interrelations are determined by the distribution of different kinds of
resources or ‘capital’’’ (Thompson, 1991: 14).
Society
as a whole is dominated by the meta-field of power, which, in the present
concrete historical circumstances, is dominated by capitalism and the class and
economic relations it engenders. These struggles, which resemble the struggles
over jurisdiction among professions discussed by Abbott (1988), introduce new
elements in the field, enrich (or diminish) the field’s capital, and force it
to reposition itself vis-a-vis other subfields, fields, and the field of power.
The
Field of Online Journalism: An Empirical Sketch
The starting point of this empirically informed
discussion is that fields are primarily defined by the
amount and kinds of capital they possess. The first issue here is to estimate
the amount of economic capital circulating in online journalism.
Duvall (2005), in his analysis of economic journalism in France has used a
series of
indicators to measure this kind of capital, including the form of ownership,
financial links
to other media, size of audience, and percentage of revenues from advertising.
When it comes to online journalism and its practitioners, it is difficult to
gauge this level of detail. But given the links between this kind of journalism
and technology,
we may consider technical skills, use, and know how as part of this
embodied
cultural capital.
Social
capital
If cultural capital refers to what people know,
social capital refers to whom people know, to the kinds of
social networks they are part of. Bourdieu has defined social capital as “the
aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession
of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual
acquaintance and
recognition or in other words, to membership in a group”. According to Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992)
suggested that social capital be operationalized as the sum of those resources
that have emerged out of membership in particular networks. For journalists,
such resources may be derived from membership in formal and informal networks,
the former may include membership in professional and trade organizations, as
well as membership of official press corps.
Symbolic
capital
In conceptual terms, symbolic capital is not a
separate form of capital, but rather a misapprehended or misrecognized form of
economic, cultural, or social capital (Bourdieu, 1986). It is the kind of
capital that is governed by the logics of knowledge and recognition. In his
definition, Calhoun (2002) describes symbolic capital as the resources made
available as a result of prestige or recognition.
Operationalization of symbolic capital is difficult
as they mobilize knowledge that is often tacit. However, we can think of
symbolic capital in online journalism in at least two ways: firstly, as the
accumulation of prizes, honors, and awards that are clearly conferring
recognition and prestige. Secondly, journalism contains certain ideals and
ethics, which include the values of objectivity, impartiality, fairness,
balance, a distinction between opinions and facts, which are enshrined in codes
of ethics that journalists are expected to follow.
Conclusions
Thus,
to understand online journalism we turned to Bourdieu’s field theory, and the
conceptualization of journalism as a subfield of the field of cultural
production. Online journalism could then be theorized as a subfield within the
subfield of journalism. The discussion of the field on online journalism
considered in a preliminary fashion its four forms of capital: economic,
cultural, social, and symbolic.
However,
as online journalism evolves, it generates and accumulates its own capital,
slowly but surely establishing its own rules and logic. To the extent that
online journalism operates also within the field of technology, this logic will
be at least in part dictated by this field. Thus new values, combining or
reinventing traditional journalistic values emerge. A future project may study
in more detail the logic of the subfield, but we can venture here that such
values may include immediacy, networking, and multimedia or multiplatform
delivery.
However,
as online journalism evolves, it generates and accumulates its own capital,
slowly but surely establishing its own rules and logic. To the extent that
online journalism operates also within the field of technology, this logic will
be at least in part dictated by this field. Thus new values, combining or
reinventing traditional journalistic values emerge.
CHAPTER SIX
ONLINE JOURNALISM AND CIVIC LIFE
Joao Carlos
Correia
INTRODUCTION
Technological
changes inside the media led to the emergence of “online journalism” that
endowed civic potentialities, strengthen more dynamic forms of civic
participation and promotion of deliberated Democracy (see Fenton, 2010:4). The
chapter also emphasizes further on the nature of online journalism that warrant
the existence of public sphere that satisfies the requirements of a strong
democracy; public use reason rather than coercion.
COMMUNICATION MODEL OF DEMOCRACY
At the
beginning, the author explained the relationship that exists between media in
general and democracy, employing different scholarly explanations among others
the well-known and most archetypal on the intensive discussion about the
relationship between journalism and political system the Dewey and Lippman’s
debate.
In this sense,
the two authors share common differences where Lippman holds that the press has
a powerful role in bridging the gap between the masses and powerful insider who
help to formulate the policies of elected decision-makers. (see Publc Opinion,
1922) While on the other hand, Dewey opposed that the role of journalism is
limited to enable citizens’ participation in Democratic society. (See The
Public and its problems, 1927).
However,
deliberative democracy model contrast sharply with some of the prevailing
elitist political theories, this theory sees the individual act of voting as
the central institution of democracy. Therefore, the relationship between media
and democracy is inevitable. Whereby the media provide a network where the
formation of democratic opinion takes place.
PUBLIC SPHERE WHAT IS IT?
In this aspect the
author provide different understanding of scholars about the term called
“public sphere” among other, the author sees public sphere as a sphere of
identification and detection of problems, whose influence should continue to be
reflected in the subsequent treatment of the issues that take place within the
political system (Habermas, 1996:359). However, this entails the informal
opinion rises within the public about matters of their concern in relation to
their governance act. This comes into being due to the development of internet
where every member of a particular society is given a chance to comment,
observe, and suggest or criticize a particular happening in the political
system. This is what enhances deliberative democracy.
Online journalism: a new way to increase
citizenship?
The author
identified some problems mated on democratic process by traditional media due
to its nature of omniscience. In this respect the media are predominated by
power and money away from their civic requirements. And the agenda setting is
at the hand of politicians and journalists where there is strong dependency.
However, to
solve these problems Reese (2001:9) suggests that media studies should
accentuate ideology. This implies that there should be a conceptual and evaluative
framework that map-out what, how, when and where the media should report issues
of public concern.
More so, the
Author suggests online journalism as an alternative to those undesirable
features of mass media, therefore it is viewed from two angles:
Ø Citizen
Journalism
Ø Participatory/public
journalism
Public
journalism seeks to encourage a more citizen-engaged press that increases the
involvement of ordinary people with issues of public concern. This help
democracy to connect to the community, engage individuals as citizens and to
help public deliberation in search for solutions.
While citizen
journalism or participated in by net-citizens and citizen reporters, appears as
a second phase of public journalism. It allows everybody who has access to the
net to produce, distribute and interact among themselves.
However, the
difference between citizen and participatory/public journalism is the
intervention or absence of professional journalist Nip (2006:14). That is to
say, the participatory journalism is under the control of professional
journalist while the citizen journalism is “professionalism free” practiced by
members of particular community.
ONLINE JOURNALISM AND DELIBERATION: LIMITS
AND POSSIBILITIES
Despite the hope
brought about by online journalism due to its nature of simplicity,
multimodality, immediacy, hypertexuality, hypermediality and interactivity,
there are also many criticisms made pointing out its limitations as well.
LIMITATIONS
Scholars
criticized participatory journalism that its supporters rely on a kind of
dichotomy between journalist and the public, where they fail to consider other
mechanism of power involved in the news making process. The reason behind
formulating such kind of journalism is a move made by the professional
journalists to maintain their hegemony over the citizens.
Also, they hold
that ; participatory journalism due to its nature of immediacy and speed
fetishism boosted by new technologies entail the risk in terms of accuracy
“publish then filter” this act of immediacy logically stipulate that speed is
more important than quality of information (Moretzsohn, 2007).
There are also a
number of studies that shows how internet impacted on traditional media
although its present in news making, it has not completely change the traditional
routines Sonario(2004).
Also, another
limitation is that despite the participatory and interactive nature of online
journalism yet, many scholars are of the view that some people cannot voice out
their opinion when they feel like they belong to minority group.
POSSIBILITIES
On the other
hand, scholars also see the myriad of possibilities brought about by online
journalism as follows:
--- the absence
of social cues and the anonymity that one may have in online chat rooms, forums
etc. could moderate the effect of isolation inherent to the effect of the
spiral of silence.
--- Homophile in
primary group (Wilhelm, 1999:161), this entails that people discuss comfortably
with people they are familiar with.
SO, WHAT IS CIVIC IN ONLINE JOURNALISM
The Author views
civic in online journalism as the technological nature of online journalism,
which allows the cultivation of experimentalism and multimedia technique that
may constitute the distinguishing feature of alternative forms of culture and
representation of political identities. Online journalism enables public
participation to interchange knowledge, opinions and feelings.
Online
journalism gives the public a chance to question the mainstream media about
their representation of issues of collective interest, through blogging and
other online activities carried out by citizens.
Brian
McNair(2008) talks about the tradition from a paradigm of control to a paradigm
of chaos, where he explained the first one(paradigm of control) as a media
culture which constitute strong manipulation, while the second one is marked by
fragmentation and channels where everybody can consume as well as produce.
CONCLUSION
Having gone
through this piece, it can be said that it is very exciting and interesting
with the kind of treatment given to the TWO concepts “online journalism” and
“Democratic society” in which the author writes about under different
sub-topics. We recommend this content to students of online journalism or
journalist in general. On the other hand, despite the strengths, it has
weaknesses. The author fails to consider psychological influence instead he
dwelt much on interpersonal and Technological influence. And also, the author
is fails to see anything good about traditional media (see pg 104 to 108)
despite all the contributions they gave in enhancing democracy since before the
advent of new media, and also is not anything that is good in new technology in
respect to democracy. It has negative impact also. (see Andrew keen, “Digital
vertigo”)
CHAPTER SEVEN
DE-DEMOCRATIZING THE NEWS? NEWS MEDIA AND
THE STRUCTURAL PRACTICES OF JOURNALISM
Natalie Fenton
Firstly, the
title ‘de-democratizing the news? New media and the structural practice of
journalism’ can be said to be filled with nightmare concepts, hence, understanding
the anatomy of the concepts would throw more light to the full work of Natalie
Fenton. The title carries a question whose answer can only be fully answered
after reading the entire work. What does democracy have to do with news before
the question de-democratizing the news arise? To democratize in a normal sense
means to put a country under the control of its citizens by allowing them to
participate in government or decision-making process in a free and equal way.
Therefore to democratize the news in this context means allowing the people to
participate in journalism activities; to collate, process and disseminate news.
It is crucial to
note that the news media of then and to some extent today were and are under
the control of few professionals, but the emergence of the new media (internet)
and the structural practice of journalism have come with a new version of
journalism where anybody can gather and disseminate news. The internet or new
media style of journalism deals with interactivity, hypertextuality, immediacy
and people or citizens participation. Because the new media tend to put the
profession or freedom of journalism in the hands of both professionals and
non-professionals, it is some time called the democratic media.
In this chapter,
the relationship between journalism and democracy is considered. The work tries
to clear the notion that it is in a democratic society that news tend to flow
more freely. It also pointed that other intervening variables are also
responsible for the amount and quality of news that flows in the society. These
variables include or can be connected to marketization, globalization,
deregulation and technological transformation.
For clearer
adumbration, Fenton discusses the findings of some researches that dwell on the
new media and structural practices of journalism in three concepts; new media
and the news, local news and the democratic deficit and a new age of new
journalism but in this review they are all summarized into the negative and
positive effects of new media.
A lot of study
have been done in UK concerning new media and journalism, and one of the
largest research found that the new media has indeed modified news and
journalism, that is, the structural practices of journalism has been modified
(Fenton, 2010; Philips, Lee-Wright, and Witschge, 2011).
Some of the
positive changes or modification based on the research is that new voices have
found expression in blogs and alternative news sites operating out of civil
society have found space and voice online; new means of brokering intelligent
dialogue across nations (Coundry, 2010, Currant and Witschge, 2010, and Fenton,
2010). The import above is that there is a lot of space for news, instant speed
in reporting and delivering by few technological equipped personnel.
Another positive
effect of the new media is that it has brought increased possibilities for
civil society to campaign and publicize their work (Fenton 2010). This means
that there is now overabundance of media contents, and, people and civil
society can publish media content more easily than ever.
Moreover, the
digital age also has the potentials to save news (in archives), delivering a
form of collaborative journalism more suited to the post-enlightenment period;
it may be paper-less but it will be people-full, participatory, and as a
result, more democratic.
Despite these
positive modifications, the new media has brought several injuries and crisis
to the news and structural practices of journalism as a whole.
Based on these
researches above, the injuries caused by the new media on news and structure of
journalism itself can be summarized as follows: reduction of news business,
increase of news commercialization, changes of focus from public interest to
organizational economic interest, devaluing in investigative reporting, foreign
and local news.
It is pertinent
to note that news is a business and the higher your audiences the higher the
chances of getting more advertisers. Journalists are always in a haste to fill
more space with stories with fewer sources online so they can get and keep
their audiences; as a result, they sit in their offices and hardly dig deep
into stories and sources of their news. Cut and paste is their new style of
journalism (Philips, 2010) because they sit and monitor other media online,
their news wires and user-generated content. The only thing they do best is to
rewrite the same stories in another language and from the same angle. To put
succinctly, this have to do with increasing marketization of news and the
ruthless logic of economic system that demands ever-increasing profit margins
and share returns resulting in fewer journalists doing more work, undermining
the provision of news in the public interest.
A research by
Franklin in 1988 on local news and the democratic deficit also shows that
journalists rely on local government press release for their news because they
are in hurry and thereby constantly repeating the news.
Digital age has
reduced and made many journalists to be jobless. It also led to the closure of
so many news organizations. For instance in the UK the newspaper society notes
that 101 local newspapers industry were closed between January 2008 and August
2009 and many local newspapers have been merged due to economic and the new
digital age (Newspaper Society Intelligence Unit 2010).
As of 2000-2011,
the USA newspapers have experience 30% fall economically, the Eastern Europe
and the commonwealth of independent States also recorded 30%-60% fall in income
which forced them to adopt cost-saving measures, including reduced volume,
staff layoffs, reduced investigative reporting, and cuts in international and
provincial coverage (Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2011, Open
Society Institute, 2010). However, the shift from conventional news to online
news did not affect other peoples’ choices, for they still love the
conventional media (KPMG, 2012).
Another
disadvantage is that a new age of new journalism has been introduced whereby
the people involved don’t want to be called newsmakers or journalists and should
not be seen as replacing journalists because they only want to fill in a gap in
the provision of (hyper) local media content and strengthening of local
democracy. The fact is that they are not journalists but they are doing the
work of journalists so then what should they be called since they don’t want to
be called journalists?
The abridge of
the work is that new age journalism has no regard for secrecy and no democracy
can succeed without secrecy. The people need privacy also, hence, democratizing
the news is not only harmful to the people themselves but to journalists and
journalism profession as a whole.
CHAPTER EIGHT
CRISES, RADICAL ONLINE JOURNALISM, AND THE STATE
Lee Salter
This chapter
began by highlighting a major feature or characteristic of online journalism.
Describing the internet as realm of freedom, john parry Barlow (1996) explains
that the internet is illimitable and likened to the force of nature, this same
characteristic is one of the major challenges when it comes to censorship and
regulation of the internet medium cyber libertarianism.
Cyber-libertarianism
refers to the belief that individuals acting in whatever capacity they choose
(as citizens, consumers, companies, or collectives) should be at liberty to
pursue their own tastes and interests online. Cyber-libertarians believe true
“Internet freedom” is freedom from state action; not freedom for the State to reorder our affairs to
supposedly make certain people or groups better off or to improve some
ambiguous “public interest” an all to convenient facade behind which
unaccountable elites can impose their will on the rest of us.
“We did not invite [governments to the
Internet]. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Do not think that you
can build it, as though it were a public construction project. You cannot. It
is an act of nature and it grows itself through our collective actions… Your
legal concepts of property, expression, identity, movement, and context do not
apply to us. They are based on matter, there is no matter here.”
This comes in
two fold contexts economic and social that Individuals should be
granted liberty of conscience, thought, opinion, speech, and expression in
online environments also that Individuals should be granted liberty of
contract, innovation, and exchange in online environments.
He further
reveals that the freedom afforded by the internet has been received or
perceived differently depending on the society. The internet was created by
United States for commercial purpose that is profit making but they are of the
opinion that today the internet has gone beyond U.S financial ambition as it
has not only serve individuals far and wide but nations.
Lee salter here
in this chapter tries to draw perspectives and views of radical journalism and
understanding the liberal state cooperate media and hegemony. Painting quite a
clear radical picture of online journalism which is an extreme democratic form
of communication or journalism where people who are usually denied access to
mainstream media are given the platform to speak and express themselves
regarding issues that concern them, usually characterized with
counter-discussion to those found in the mainstream media and being used to
question the hegemony of the state under the guise of maintaining the “public order”.
To this end, radical journalism can facilitate
criticism of the institutional order as well as providing and facilitating
examples of alternative practices. The online environment is said to better
facilitate radical journalism as, compared with broadcast and print media, it
is cheap, less regulated, and provides for multidirectional communication.
The problem here is that the state is unable to rely
on whole-hearted consent of the people; governments perceive a permanent
underlying threat to their legitimacy and their authority. This threat is
evident, or at least becomes most notable, in times of explicit crisis, such as
during war, uprisings, recession, constitutional crisis, major scandal, and so
on. Furthermore, it is during such crises that systemic contradiction and
political hypocrisy becomes most evident, further undermining the legitimacy of
the political order, hence pose a threat the “public order”.
Indeed, whereas authoritarian states are concerned
with the maintenance of “state security” and rely on a plethora of rules,
regulations, and coercive laws for this purpose, liberal states are interested
in “public order” and are apparently more permissive. Whilst there are more
provisions for freedom in liberal states, such provisions are rather ambiguous.
In a sense, the very freedoms on which liberalism is based can be used as a
control mechanism.
Lee salter did a nice work describing hegemony and
counter hegemony, he did explain that the dominant hegemony is maintained by
the state power but the exercise differs from state to state, there successes
of radical journalism or new media where revolution was achieved for instance
Egypt, Libya, Arab Uprising e.t.c we are now speaking of a version of
relationships yet another step further from the notion of dominant media, in
which people using small-scale media prevail
and large media institutions and undifferentiated content can no longer
be found. (McQuail, 1987: 88)
The key terms or word that Lee Salter attempt to do
justice to are crises, radical online journalism, and the state; online
environment, as a realm of freedom; the state, hegemonic order, radical online
journalism challenging; times of crisis, publics/radical and power of
state/functions of corporate; consent, coercion in UK/Australia/USA, as opposed
to authoritarian; understanding the liberal state; corporate media, hegemony,
and counter-hegemony; spaces for “citizen journalism” online, detached,
professional challenged; liberal paradox, media freedom as constraint for
instance researchers pointed that most media outlets in Lebanon are funded by
financiers who have ties to political parties. The expectation is that coverage
offered by news outlets will reflect the political interests of their
respective financiers.
Therefore the social media can be useful for
alternative media practitioners and activists alongside various publics in
society. Equilibrium on information inequality is being addressed by the free
access of citizens to the field. In studying the political arena for example, bloggers
and other users of the social media are allowed entry by raising issues and
their understanding of equality. The access of social media is said to level
the field of political players that are deemed to be dominated by good supports
of mainstream media.
Social media users such as bloggers are said to
address the inequality issue by being non- partisan or showing support for the
opposition. The audience has the opportunity to listen to the debates by all
parties and hence able to rationally decide for themselves. Many have welcomed
the new information technology based on two assumptions. The first assumption
was that the old media were seen to be against the cause of democracy with some
scholars labeling the traditional mass media to be a vehicle for creating
alienation. The second assumption is that the information communication
technology would be able to compensate for the adverse condition created by the
old media by allowing for a more direct form of democratic participation.
There is no doubt that radical journalism especially
through the new media has offered platform and opportunities for the citizens
to question the hegemony and dominance of the state which the mainstream media
seemingly are not able to handle and has been instrumental to revolutions
around the globe at different times like Arab Uprising, Egypt, Libya and the
likes, let’s not also forget that the rate at which radical journalism
especially through the new
CHAPTER
NINE
FORMS OF ONLINE JOURNALISM AND POLITICS
Eugenia Siapera.
According to
Thomas Jefferson if he were left to choose between the government and the
media, he prefers the latter due to surveillance and watchdog roles it perform
in the society. The media here does not only limit to radio, television and
newspaper , it has extended to new media as a result of development of internet
which has paved way for the voiceless to make their view known on certain
decision made by political stakeholders and decision makers without any sort of
intimidations.
It must be
clearly stated however, that these roles entrusted in media most especially
mainstream media have been compromised over time due to some legal and illegal
measure taken by political actors, decision makers to compel press to dance to
their tune. Nevertheless, with the aids of internet which has paved ways for
online journalism, journalists are now becoming mediator of public opinion and
watchdog of the political process. Little wonder, Thomas Jefferson opined that
“whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own
government”.
However, this
chapter written by Siapera extensively described the roles of journalism in
politics and political activities which is solemnly centered on online fashion
of journalism. How it has contributed to oversight and watchdog roles, how it
has widen the participation of the people in decision making process, how
online journalism is being used to dig deep and investigate into the affairs of
government so as to make them accountable to the people, how online journalism
is being utilized to write fair and accurate information as part of its
normative requirement and structural position in the society.
Similarly, the
chapter described journalism and democracy as biological relation insisting
that without journalism democracy is incomplete. Hence, journalism’s role in
democracy cannot be over- emphasized which are to inform, to guard, to analyze
and to advocate. As part of prerequisite to perform this normative function,
journalism should be independent from government and able to operate in a free
environment. Its content should reflect the main journalistic value of accuracy
and fairness, while readers are understood as rational beings, able and willing
to make rational decisions on the basis of appropriate information.
However, going
by the topic itself “form of online Journalism and politics” Eugenia Siapera,
gave different type of online Journalism and how it is useful in politics. The
section talks extensively about normative role it performs in politics of our
society. The following are the explanation of each form of online Journalism
and the roles it performs in politics.
CIVIL OR PARTICIPATORY JOURNALISM
As the name implies participatory journalism,
the unique features of this are that it allows for the active participation of
readers. This is formally evidenced in providing the means by which citizens
can post their own news articles, photo, opinions and so on. In this forms of
Journalism readers have potentials to become Journalists due to the chance
given to them to participate immensely. Typical example of participatory
journalism is indymedia. Indymedia have features archived with global news
themes, mostly on protest etc. Another unique feature of indymedia is the
possibility to translate the contents and categories in different languages.
Similarly, it also has a web radio, RSS feeds, and video projects where user
can watch videos compiled by citizens. in nutshell, participatory Journalism
help citizen to post news, opinions and articles, because it relies on readers’
participation and contribution through open publishing link and an invitation
to contribute. Through civic Journalism we become the pilot of our affairs.
JOURNALISM BLOGGING
This is similar
to participatory Journalism, the only slight difference is that, in Journalism
blogging, those producing content perceived themselves as media professional
who has undergone necessary training and also abide by the ethics. E.g. the
Huffinton post is produced by a host of Journalists, some regular
contributions, some invited Journalists. In a nutshell, Journalism blogging is
similar to civil participation but differ in terms of contribution, Due to the
fact that contributors are professional journalists not citizens. Typical
example of journalism blogging is the popular website called Truthout, a U.S
based journalistic blog run collectively by a group of journalists and
professional writers. In terms of categories, the site contains features,
opinion, articles, news and issues, all these covering a broad range of themes.
However, readers of truthout are allowed to post comments on articles, which
will be later moderated and also to submit articles for publication. Readers
are also invited to become members by donating to Truthout. Its usefulness in
politics is similar to civic journalism.
VIDEO JOURNALISM
Video journalism
is a visual based decorated website, it is not text oriented. One unique
features of video journalism is that, it can be produced by both professional
journalists as well as citizens. The readers are addressed as audiences that
are primarily as spectators, engaged through their senses rather than through
intellect. However, typical example of video journalism is YouTube which allows
participants to contribute and classify their video firstly in terms of
categories which include different themes, such as activism and nonprofits,
environment, art, experimental and so on. There is also the possibility to
create high definition video by creators along with commentary, while
contributors can generate their own project or produce /solicit video on
certain themes. Video embraces creativity and self-imagination and it focus on
certain location but accept contribution across the world. The role of video cannot be over-emphasized
in political process. It supports and help tag and categories the various video
on decision making process in the country.
NEWS AGGREGATORS
News aggregators
are otherwise known as multiplicity of news sources. It is a process of getting
news from different media outlets. News aggregators is a process of getting
news on various sector ranging from economy, politics, sports, entertainment,
art and culture etc. this is mostly achieved through Google news. Users can
subscribe to Google news to get news on politics, sports and so on. In terms of
location, for example news occurring in Nigeria or Ghana in terms of the main
news outlets they are interested in. It must clearly state however, that none
of the news items are produced by Google they are collected by a host of media
and aggregated by Google. This is clearly a customer based take on journalism
as service provision, a depoliticized understanding that pretend to service the
customers even as they strip them of any potentials contribution. Meanwhile,
Redden and Witschge’s (2010) argue that depoliticize and personalize journalism
thereby stripping if from its potential role. This has shown that information
about political decision in the society is subjected to individual will rather
than consensus of the people. Therefore if we accept that democracy is more
than aggregate of individual preferences, this kind of journalism is
detrimental to democratic process.
MAINSTREAM ONLINE JOURNALISM
Apparently,
mainstream media such as radio, television, newspaper and magazine are now
moving and shifting their operation to online fashion. They produce well-baked
and professional publishers, editors and journalists who are well paid for
their work. Readers are passive before the introduction of mainstream online
journalism with its intervention, it has introduced a few changes such as news
content and readers. News content is considerably expanded while readers are
allowed to actively participate on news stories through comment and posting
news stories.
We can clearly
see examples of this in most of our notable Nigerian newspapers before, they
were known to be hot media where readers are very passive and vulnerable but
with the introduction of online fashion, people can post their comments on
comment box, they contribute to sourcing and posting of news happening within
their vicinity and many others. Mainstream online journalism plays vital roles
in political process of any society through participation of the readers. As
such, its position toward the political process in one in which journalism is
mediating between politicians and the public, seeking to retain its
independence and to safeguard the mediating role.
OPEN OR CROWD SOURCED JOURNALISM
The term open or
crowd sourced journalism is a process of giving chance and opportunity to those
who have something spectacular to share on a given issues. It is known as
multiplicity of ideas by the users. The news stories emerging from this kind of
production tend to include a lot of data are seen to be investigative. Readers
are typically placed in the position of both users/readers as well as
contributors and co-authors of news stories.
However, to have
better understanding of crowd sourced journalism we need to take a look at
wikileaks. Wikileaks has very simple interface, including few if any
categories, which include requests to donate, as well as to submit materials.
Wiklleaks has issued open calls for contributors, who may have access to
information that the public may have an interest in. such contributors may contact
wikileaks and offer information in ways that will not compromise them.
SOCIAL MEDIA JOURNALISM
It is more or
less like summary of the above forms of online journalism we have been
discussing from the onset of the discussion. This form of journalism is
collectively produced by professionals and amateur journalists, in a
distributed manner similar to open source journalism. Its content are primarily
characterized by a personalized take on events are ranked in terms of personal
interest rather than their news value. Readers are not only active producers in
this form of journalism but they are also understood as” friends” or”
followers” that is, as forming networks clustering around specific issues or
keywords and/ or persons. To exemplify this we need to take a look at Twitter,
which is understood as a micro- blogging site or platform for user-generated
content, allows users to post short messages of a maximum of 140 characters.
Its contents are entirely produced by users, who see a rolling line of new tweets
as they come in. Twitter users are both producing and reading tweets, in a
pattern that we have seen repeatedly in all forms of online journalism. Most
people, news agencies have official Twitter handles e.g. Reuters has over 1
million followers, and GorgeMonbiot, a respected commentator and guardian
contributor has about 25 000 followers. The immediacy of the information on
Twitter allows and enables political action, while the possibility of citizen
contribution widens participation.
CONCLUSION
Unarguably, it
is a known fact that the role of journalism in political process cannot be
over-emphasized ranging from educating,
informing, mobilizing, persuading the people about what is happening in
decision making process in various places. Journalism serves as mediator
between political stakeholders and the public. Going by what Thomas Jefferson
said if he were left to choose between the media and newspaper he prefers the
latter in relation to the above explanation on forms of online journalism and
politics, it is clearly stated that democracy without journalism is incomplete
due to the normative roles it performs in political process.
CHAPTER
10
BRIDGING
THE GAP: TOWARD A TYPOLOGY OF CROSS-MEDIA NEWS PRODUCTION PROCESSES
Ivar John Erdal
This chapter
started with an introduction that sought to establish the facts that very few
modern media houses publish only on one platform therefore highlighting the
fact that most media organizations are now in the business of publishing on
more than one platform. The chapter tried to look into how a single news story
on the several platforms i.e. cross media news production, it also considered
the distinction between cross-media communication which is the textual
perspective and cross-media production process that is the work perspective.
The chapter
also gave a background by reviewing existing research on how technology which
has led to convergence has affected the production process, at this point it is
important to note that the author used the NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting
corporation) as a case study due to the fact that it is now a cross-media
institution therefore a suitable place to carry out his research. Analyzing
different works, he found out that some researchers argued that technology has
affected journalism. Journalists now rely on the use of online tools for
research, and also technology has made the flow of news very fast, it has also
led to the development of multi-skilled journalists. However, some argue that
technology has only complemented the work rather than changing it completely,
others tried to see if convergence has a negative influence on journalism and
came up with the conclusion that it has not. Studies have continued to evolve
on convergence and have shifted from the effects of technology on media works
and production to those stumbling blocks on convergence. In regards to
stumbling blocks, time constraints, market pressure and cultural differences
can be considered to have hindered convergence. However with all these findings
the author argued that studies have shown little on bridging the gap between
the organizational and textual perspectives of convergence, therefore his work
is to fix this and also he provided a model which would analyze the relationship
between changes in journalism practice and development of news production.
This
research was carried out at the Norwegian public service Broadcaster NRK, he
used the qualitative method: field observation qualitative interviews and
textual analysis to gather his data. He proposed that “multiplatform news
production involves a range of intertwining forms of cooperation and
reproduction. He defined the concept of cross-media as where two or more
platforms are involved in an integrated way. He analyzed some models of
convergence, “convergence continuum” by Dailey, Demo and Spillman. Where
convergence was seen at different level of integrations, the first level is
cross promotion where there is no cooperation or interaction between the
different parts of the organizations or platforms, the second is cloning where
sharing occurs only after the content has been produced while the third is
competition where the platforms promote each other but are competitive, the
fourth is continuum where the different part share content while the fifth is
full convergence. However the author argued that this model has its
shortcomings that it does not describe the production processes sufficiently.
He also looked into Boczkowski’s model but argued also that the model lacked
nuanced concepts. Thus he proposed his model which sought to supplement the
other existing models. His model consists of four different parts:
a. Multiplatform
journalism: this is where one or more reporters produce the same story for two
or more platforms and the stories are the same on all platforms
b. Hard-drive
journalism: here a single reporter creates another version of an already
existing story for a different platform.
c. Intra-platform
coordination: this is when both reporters and editors of different platforms
share their stories together either during editorial meetings or informally.
d. Intra-platform
production: here reporters for different platforms cooperate together to cover
the stories, share contents and more materials.
This author finished by saying that he is sure others can develop
different categories to refine this model meaning that he does not suggest that
his work is the ultimate.
CHAPTER 11
TECHNOLOGY AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEWS WORK: ARE LABOR CONDITIONS IN
(ONLINE) JOURNALISM CHANGING?
Steve Paulussen
Of course, it is very apparent that the advent of the
modern day sophisticated technologies brought about so many effects in the
journalism profession. Ornebring (2010) opined that “technology and
technological development is inevitable, impersonal forces that directly cause
many of the changes taking place within journalism.”
This chapter therefore looks at how working
conditions for journalists are changing in the context of ongoing digitization
and commercialization of the media.
First and foremost, it is important to understand
that the advancement of technology to journalism profession has been a welcome
development because it aid journalists to carry out their news work
efficiently. With the aid of technology, journalists now improve their speed
ability in providing news and also verifying the accuracy of any information.
But, in the economic aspect, the technology tends to
favor only the management. They spend less and generate more. To the
journalists, it is completely unfavorable and often makes others to loss their
jobs as they lacked the technical knowhow of the trend. Journalists often laid
their bitter complain over low salary payment, workload, job insecurity and
producing more content with fewer staff all because of the advancement in
technology. This and many reasons force other journalists to become
freelancers.
Also, media scholars observed how technology has
always been used by management as a tool to increase the productivity and
cost-efficiency in the newsroom, which suggests again that changes in
journalistic labor “are not so much driven by technological necessity as by
capitalist necessity to reduce overall labour costs” (Ornebring, 2010 : 64).
Therefore, instead to promote division of labor amongst staff, the technology
ended-up leaving individual doing the work of many (individualization of
labor).
In addition, the advancement in technology has also
change the way journalists select, gather, and tells their story. The present
day technology demand journalists to have entrepreneurial mindset; a high
degree of adaptability and creativity is needed to handle the wide range of
tasks and responsibilities of the job (Beam and Meeks, 2011; Jarvis, 2009;
Gillmor, 2010).
Journalists working in online newsrooms take on more
tasks and responsibilities than others working for a single medium. Their tasks
include covering breaking news stories for the web site, writing blogs,
capturing audio and video, creating podcasts, participating in live chat
sessions with their audience, and taking photos but still, earned low salary.
It is therefore importance to pay attention to the
economic impact on journalistic labor, especially since recent developments in
newsrooms continue to go in the direction of doing more with fewer staff.
CHAPTER 12
JOURNALISM AND CROSS MEDIA PUBLISHING: THE
CASE OF GREECE
Introduction
Andreas Veglis
Andreas veglis
is the author or the contributor of this chapter and here, tries to explain how
the information and communication technologies are dramatically changing the
traditional methods of news collating, processing and distribution by
conventional media. He is trying to highlight the changes in production,
processing and distribution of media contents like images, audio and videos.
Veglis therefore uses the terms “journalism and cross-media publishing “to
describe the multimedia nature of the so-called online journalism. This has
become a trending development to almost all media companies ranging from
newspaper, radio, and television stations. Before, media only produce, package
and distribute their contents in a single format but now it's much more than
that. It goes beyond by providing multitudinous formats for different
publications channels which helps in reaching larger audience needs.
CROSSMEDIA PUBLISHING DEFINED
The terms
cross-media publishing as coined by veglis can be defined as a process of
producing any content like images, audios, videos, and text in a single medium
for more than one media platform. It includes the techniques of producing more
than one format of content for multiple distributions.
THE CHANNELS FOR CROSS-MEDIA PUBLISHING
What enhances
the potential of cross-media publishing is the application of various channels
as identified by the author. These channels have for long been adopted by media
companies and are employed in Cross media publishing but the author argues that
such channels do not represent different categories of technologies but simply
various methods of publishing news. These channels are world wide web ( www),
webcasting, smart phones, tablets,
e-mail, short message services(SMS), portable document format( PDF), really
simple syndication ( RSS), Twitter, (Vigils, 2008b) social network and blogs.
These channels
have been categorized into so many ways by the author. For example, www and
e-mail are internet services, others are mobile telephone services or devices
like SMS and Smartphone, and some fall into other categories like PDF that is
file format. We can therefore from the above understand that these channels can
be viewed from three groups namely: file, internet and mobile formats. However,
some of these channels may fall under two or three formats while some are only
under one category. For instance, www, email, RSS, Twitter, webcasting blogs,
etc. fall under internet, Smartphone and Twitter fall under both internet and
mobile categories while SMS falls under mobile category only. Meanwhile, such
channels can be classified as more or less pull or push oriented. A channel is
defined as push oriented when forced upon the end users without a specific
request from him/her. On the other hand,
a channel is defined as pull oriented when the end users make a deliberate
action to access the information (Sabelstrom, 1998).
CONTENT ELEMENT
This is a terms
used by the author to explain the different nature of the content each channel
of cross media publishing consists. Content elements can be categorized into
static and dynamic elements. According to him, textual matter, still images,
and graphics are considered to be static content elements that can be created
and edited independently of each other and later compiled and logically
connected in an article. Video and sound are characterized as dynamic content.
So, as far as online journalism is concerned, pictures, audio and video are
very crucial because they help in explaining the content easily. The cannels
that can be considered as static include email, SMS, PDF, RSS, and Twitter. On
the other hand, WWW, blogs, webcasting, smart phones, social networks, and
tablets include both static and dynamic content elements. But dynamic channels are more time consuming
than for static channels. That is why the fastest channels are always static
channels.
In another
development, the author uses another parameter to determine how the media will
employ channels in cross-media publishing which is time to be spent in
production. So, time is very important. That is why the author uses the term
“publishing speed” to explain time each channel consumes during the production.
There are
various reasons for deploying cross-media publishing which include: additional
materials, multimedia feature, interactive characteristics, competition,
advertising, broadband connection which is a term for high-speed internet and
data connections.
In understanding
the concept of journalism and cross-media publishing, you have to consider what
the author calls the “modeling cross-media publishing”. The models of
cross-media publishing guide you in determining the process of selecting
channels to be used during the production of media content. These models are
related to the type of the media company ranging from newspaper, radio and
television station.
For newspaper,
the www version of the newspaper is the first alternative that the newspaper
and some magazines employ when it deploys cross media publishing. Another
alternative channel implemented that enriches the newspaper’s web is PDF.
For radio, like
the case of newspaper, the www is the first alternative channel that a radio
station implements when it deploys cross-media publishing. The next is
webcasting channel, the transmission of the radio programmes in real time via
internet.
For television,
the process is entirely different from those of newspaper and radio
station. It is mainly caused by
different products as they offer sound and video. In essence, www is the first
stage of alternative channel, but preferably, webcasting is the most attractive
channel for television station since it allows them to reach remote viewers.
In conclusion, I
can say the idea of cross-media publishing is a welcome idea that needs to be
deployed by media houses especially in this era of news and information
globalization. The cross-media publishing is however having some challenges
especially in the aspect of employment opportunities. This can be attributed to
the fact that the level of man power employed by the conventional media will be
right-sized and the vacancies will be reduced. But to be factual and precise,
the advantages of cross-media especially in the aspect of news production and
dissemination cannot be overemphasized. This is because, before, the content is
only produced and distributed in a single format, but now with the emergence of
cross media publishing, the process has been categorically changed in the sense
that it provides audience with a content using various formats and channels for
multiple uses and understanding.
CHAPTER 13
THE ECONOMICS OF ONLINE JOURNALISM
Richard van der Wurff
This chapter provides explicit details on the
economics of online journalism with utmost priority on the news industry’s
search for a possible business model. This is because it is no longer news that
print are shutting down publications due to lack of adequate funds to sustain
their activities.
The advent of internet technologies offers numerous
advantages to online news providers to enhance the provision of news in the
society. Still, these technologies posed a threat to the news providers by
breaking the monopolistic activity of the news providers as the only medium
providing information to the society. It empowers the users to become content
creators, and disseminators. With this effect, the online news providers are
left with the option of looking for a way on how to address and respond to
these challenges.
Many news consumers see news as just any other
product or services. But, looking at the economic system of every media house,
news has peculiar economic features and these features buttress why it is
difficult to produce and sell news as a commercial product. These features are:
a) high first copy cost, i.e. producing news is expensive and it required human
skills and labor.
b) Non payer excludability- this explains that it is
difficult to prevent non payers from using it. People often go the extreme mile
of sharing it in their personal blogs and other platforms. This limits the
opportunities to make news a profitable product.
c) Merit Good and Positive Externalities- news
stories educate and inform the general society about government policies and
how it affects them. Also, when citizens are informed, they do not only profit
personally, but society as a whole benefits, too.
THE RISE AND
FALL OF THE TRADITIONAL NEWSPAPER AND TV NEWS BUSINESS MODELS
Magretta (2002) explains that a business model
describes how a firm strives to satisfied their customers’ needs and in return,
the firm, too, makes profit. Socolow and Van Tuyll (2010) further buttress that
many decades ago the traditional business models of the newspaper and TV yield
fruitful results. Then, they enjoyed the monopoly of being the primary sources
of public affairs information. That eventually helps them into profitable
business (Johnson, 2009).
Subsequently, the introduction of advertisements in
newspapers and TV news casts into products that are sold on dual product
markets, makes the news providers to rely so much on advertising revenue and
that eventually reduced the efforts of the audience to pay for the costs of
news production (Picard, 1989). Apparently, that explains the business success
of newspaper and TV news.
Meanwhile, the advent of
internet affected the newspapers and TV news business models (Lewis, Williams,
and Franklin, 2008; Meyer, 2004). The internet turned into a global mainstream
multipurpose communication and distribution platform. It allows organizations and
individuals to become content creators, disseminators and users at virtually no
costs. Advertisers can bypass news media
and communicate directly, and on their own terms, with their audiences. News
media now lost their monopoly on public communication and also begin to
experience low patronage and low income.
BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ONLINE JOURNALISM
In an online community, competition is very stiff and
challenging. Also, online visitors spend less time on an online news site. For
these reasons, online advertising generates less revenue per user than print or
television advertising. Observers argue that one newspaper reader brings as
much revenue as between three and 10 online readers (The Economist, 2006; Kuttner, 2007).
In their attempt to enhance their economic prowess,
some online news providers started offline print editions to generate more
advertising revenues. An example is the Politico web site, which started “a
weekly print product, which is responsible for much of its revenue”
(Clark-Johnson, 2009: 24).
Another strategy adopted by online news providers to
enhance their economic dexterity, is production of low cost news where they
relied on the free services by volunteers, citizen journalists, experts and
users. The Huffington Post in the USA is one example of a successful and
profitable news and commentary blog that relies for its content on more than
6000 volunteers and not more than 53 paid editorial staffers (Lee, 2010),
reaching a similar online audience to The
New York Times and The Washington
Post (Sherman, 2010).
THE VALUE OF
ONLINE JOURNALISM
To end the persistent obstacle often revolved in
developing online business models, the author suggested that providers of
online services should inculcate the habit of value added services for users.
These services includes: reduction of transaction; adhering to traditional
journalistic values; easy access to local, national and international news
stories and creation of local forum where members of that community would come
together to discuss issues affecting them politically, socially and culturally.
THE FUTURE OF
THE ONLINE NEWS BUSINESS
One can see that the same technology that offers
tremendous business opportunities for online news providers is the same
technology that complicates and posed a threat to the same opportunities.
Producing news is quite a complex and challenging task. But the inability of
the consumers to pay for the service is the biggest challenge faced by the
online news providers.
In finding solution to the aforementioned issue, we
agree with some scholars who are of the view that the only panacea to this
problem is for all media (online and offline) to stop giving out free news
services. Only then would the users realize the economic value of news and
would begin to understand the costs attached in producing them.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CROWDSOURCING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM:
HELP ME INVESTIGATE – A CASE STUDY
Paul Bradshaw
Andy Brightwell
Crowd sourcing
investigative journalism in simple terms is allowing individuals to partake in
the process of achieving a common goal by a news organization or a formal
organization.
Some of the key
elements which made crowd sourcing investigative journalism successful are:
·
It was found to make “dry” subject
matter more appealing.
·
Subject matter: it appeared that crowd
sourcing model of investigation might provide a way to investigate stories that
were in the public interest but which commercial and public service news
organizations would not consider worth their time.
INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM: ITS HISTORY AND
DISCOURSES
According to De
Burgh (2008:10) Investigate Journalism is as “distinct from apparently similar
(work of discovering truth and identifying lapses from it) done by police,
lawyers and auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to
target, not legally founded and usually earns money in the sense that some
argue that all journalism is investigative or that the recent popularity of the
term indicates the failure of “normal” journalism to maintain investigate standards.
This disagreement is a symptom of the various factors underlying the growth of
the genre, which range from journalists’ own sense of their democratic role, to
professional ambition and publishers commercial and marketing objectives (De
Burgh, 20008).
In more recent
times investigative journalism has been used to defend traditional print
journalism against online publishing, with publishers arguing that true
investigative journalism cannot be maintained without the resources of a print
operation. However, this point has been argued due to the increasing numbers of
awards that online journalists get for achievements recorded in investigative
work in journalism practice. Example includes Clare Sambrook in the UK, Voice
of San Diego.com and so on.
Computer
assisted reporting has been part of journalism for as far back as the 1960s.
Increasing processing power and connectivity has played an increasingly
important role in print investigative journalism. Also, the success of
Wikipedia inspired a raft of example of “Wiki Journalism” where users were
invited to contribute to editorial coverage of a particular issue or field
(Bradshaw, 2007) with varying degrees of success.
Although, in
recent times crowd sourcing has been adopted by investigative journalists such
as the Guardian’s Paul Lewis, he also sounds a note of caution in its
vulnerability and therefore stressed on the need for verification.
‘Help me
investigate’ was a project created to aim at providing ease for members of the
public and journalist to investigate issues of public interest. This was done
in two main ways by providing technological platform that made it easier for a
community of interested parties to collaborate and secondly, providing
journalistic support as they did so.
This project was
conceptualized by Paul Bradshaw, web developer Stef Lewandowski and community
specialist nick booth joined the Help Me Investigate team in 2008, funding for
the project was provided by channel 4’s iP fund and regional development
agency, Screen West Midlands. It was launched at http://helpmeinvestigate.com
in July 2009.
By the end of
the 12-week plan proof of concept, the site had completed a number of
investigations that were not “headline markers” but fulfilled the objective of
informing users. The site happened to uncover some promising information that
could provide the basis for more stories.
The site had an
estimated 275 users (whose backgrounds ranged from journalism and web
development to locally active citizens) and 71 investigations’ exceeding project
targets after its initial 12 weeks.
A success rate
percentage was achieved by the ‘Help Me Investigate’ site which can be
attributed to the hypothesis that the nature of the investigation provided a
natural cue to interested parties.
Hickman
describes the site as a “centralized sub-network that suits a specific
activity” (2010:12). It is important to note that this sub-network forms part
of a larger “network of networks” which involves spaces such as users’ blogs,
Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and other platforms and channels.
A regular supply
of updates provided the investigation with momentum. The accumulation of
discoveries provided valuable feedback to users, who then returned for more.
One problem encountered however, was that the number of diverging paths led to
a range of proverbial avenues of enquiry.
CONCLUSION
After the study
of this site and the whole idea of crowdsourcing it is discovered that one of
the reasons given by users of the site for not contributing to an investigation
is “not having enough time”. Although at least one interviewee in contrast
highlighted the simplicity and ease of contributing, it needs to be as easy and
simple as possible for users to contribute (or appear to be) in order to lower
the perception of effort and time needed.
The second
biggest reason for not contributing given was “Lack of personal interest or
lack of personal connection with the issue or investigation” bringing out the
importance of individual and social dimension of crowd sourcing.
Although
positive feedback formed part of the design of the site which is encouraged, no
consideration was paid to negative feedback. Talking about “failure for free”
maybe easy but more could be done to identify and support failing
investigations.
Five qualities
can be identified in the research of “Help Me” investigate which made
investigations successful namely” Highly active users, ability to break down a
large investigation into smaller discrete events. Ability for others to find
out about an investigation game mechanics and the pleasure of using the site
and lastly diversity of users.
A key learning
outcome of the project of separation of technology from community suggests that
future journalism crowd sourcing projects focus on the brakes and accelerators
on connecting communities and expertise as the bases of any technical
development.
CHAPTER
FIFTEEN
MEDIA
ACCOUNTABILITY PRACTICES IN ONLINE NEWS MEDIA
David Domingo
Heikki Heikkila
This chapter
focuses on the issue of mass media losing its privileged position as hubs of
public communication. So it is trying to make reason why and how that has
happened and also it suggests methods for journalists and news organization to
gain back their credibility.
The main
organizations suffering this are the new and upcoming media organizations,
because even the old organizations find it hard to meet the standard of
credibility, relevance and quantity of public communication, then how are news
rooms and journalists supposed to convince the audience that the new
organizations or institutions will be most adapt to those journalistic quality.
This chapter
also mentioned the report of Hutchins commission in the USA in the 1910s where
a number of institutional arrangement and practices were setup fostering media
accountability. Codes of ethics have been framed for informing the work of
individual journalist and self regulatory bodies such as press councils and
men. They were established to deal with complaints about the editorial content
of newspapers and broadcasters. In addition regular channels have been
maintained.
“Between
systems and instruments” “online practices”
It focuses on
how the awareness of the complexity of media accountability mechanisms within
specific media systems and the diversity of solution.
“A typology
for online media accountability practices”
This part proves
that the fundamental means for media accountability are evaluation, feedback
and discussion. Thus, holding the media accountable presumes communication
between news producers and users or recipients of media. In order to keep it
going, these pleas need to be responded to or elaborated by other stakeholders,
instead of assuming ideal typical circular accountability processes; it seems
more viable to pay attention to how media organization facilitate activities
for media accountability processes with regard to different phases of news
production.
“The
inventory of online practices for media accountability”
This part
focuses on the fact that even if nowadays there are not insurmountable
technical obstacles for sharing information, fostering actor transparency with
news audiences, their inventory suggests that only a few practices are wide
spread amongst online organizations.
Toward
Comparative Research of Online Journalism
Here, the
authors talk about how strong dose of universalism is often attached to our
assumptions about how uses of the interest and the World Wide Web are diffused
across the world. It was also stated that a well-known and useful starting
point for any comparative study on journalism cultures may be drawn from
“Hallin and Mancini’s, (2004) typology of media systems. In their levels,
Hallin and Mancini demonstrate that historically, four general variables have
tended to be crucial determinants of media systems: the size and reach of news
market, parallelism between political parties and newspapers, the degree of
professionalism amongst journalists and the role of state intervention in media
policies.
“Tensions in
the Journalists Fields
This heading
focuses on how the relationships within a journalistic field are manifested in
ways whereby dominant ideas about journalism and its environment are made sense
of in a given news culture. In order to illustrate these dynamics, this part
analyzes why the current situation in journalism and online media accountability
appears quite different in the USA and Finland. The USA ideas of
professionalism predominantly emphasize the competence and integrity of
individual journalist. In Finland on the other hand professionalism is
traditionally collectively organized.
Conclusion:
So this chapter emphasizes on how media accountability tend to be of general
interest for 3 reasons. From an ethical and philosophical perspective, it is
important to discuss why public institutions such as journalism should be
accountable in the first place.
In a more
pragmatic sense, it is relevant to ask what are the appropriate means of
implementing accountability treated as an appropriate object for studying
changes in journalism and particularly in online news. The discussions point
two particular questions:
-
How does media accountability configure
in the current developments in online journalism?
-
What sorts of practices have been
introduced to news web sites and how do these practices in varying journalism
cultures from USA to Europe and Arab countries?
CHAPTER 16
TECHNOLOGY AND JOURNALISM: CONFLICT AND CONVERGENCE AT THE PRODUCTION
LEVEL
Andreas Giannakoulopoulos
Iraklis Varlamis
Stelios Kouloglou
This article by Andreas Giannakoulopoulos, Iraklis
Varlamis,and Stelios Kouloglou, seemed to have set its goals towards
investigating and highlighting the intersection between technology and
journalism in daily life as well as how the internet unprecedentedly provided
the profession with a very wide range of resources and technological
capabilities to exploit.
With the
emergence of this modern technology and the proliferation of internet network,
the concept of journalism and its traditional roles has been subjected to
modification and transformation, concurrently producing a new dimension to
journalistic practice at the production level, news sourcing and dissemination
of information. This however was as a result of internet capability of
convergence and multimediality.
In the course of
this transition, not only was the journalistic production process challenged,
but also the traditional agenda setting and gatekeeping functions of the media.
These roles are no longer monopolized by the media practitioners alone, but
shared the control with the other self- acclaimed information disseminators
popularly known as “citizen journalists”
To buttress the
above point, Tilley and Cokley (2008) highlighted that the number of citizens
who provide material from events with which editors or journalists do not have
direct contact is increasingly daily and, in many cases, these sources override
the information that can be provided by journalists. This was possible
following the availability of online web pages such as blogs, social media
platforms etc. where anybody with an idea, no matter ill informed, create
entries for public consumption. But the implication of this may lead to what
Andrew Keen in his book “the cult of the amateur” called Digital Darwinism that
is the survival of the loudest and most opinionated. And according to him,
under this framework, the only way to intellectually prevail is by infinite
filibustering.
With respect to
the traditional gatekeeping role as illustrated in the conceptual model of
Westley and Maclean (McQuail and Windahl, 2001:68), the role has been
challenged by the alternative online media. The impression is that the role of
the gatekeeper ceases to exist on the internet. Users are able to find the
information they want, and furthermore, they have no need for someone else to
choose what is important and what is not. Nevertheless, no one can argue that
this is entirely valid (Singer, 2006). On the contrary, Cecay as cited in
(Harper,2008:5) believe that gatekeeper role is still maintained in the online
journalism. From the aforementioned therefore, it can be deduced that the role
of gatekeeper cannot be totally overruled in the internet environment as pocket
of its parts still apply to the online platform.
Another argument
is on the agenda setting function of traditional media as to whether it is
still maintained in the alternative media. In view of this, many believe that
such role has been jeopardized by the internet users since people can now have
access to the initial material and can seek information from different sources.
On the other hand however, Pew Research Centre (2008) reveals that even when
people seek news online, they turn to a large extent to dominant media.
Similarly, the survey conducted by Messner and Distaso’s (2008) confirmed the
above revelation.
This sudden
paradigm shift, which results in traditional media losing its roles to
alternative media, was not, but as a result of technological capabilities
brought forth by web 2.0 like television without frontiers (TVXS), which allows
interaction between the public and the journalists on the basis of
hypertextuality, technological convergence and content customization (Osborn,
2001:6).
Still on the
existing framework, technology has revolutionized almost every aspect of
journalism, including content production and distribution. This impact however
is not detected in functionality or in the software but rather in the structure
of content and was mainly due to the native hypertext of the web and the new
distribution channel that web 2.0 introduced. This explains why TVXS among the
host of other media exploit the use of syndication technologies with particular
reference to RSS feeds and other advanced techniques for sharing in the social
media.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
SOCIAL JOURNALISM: EXPLORING HOW SOCIAL
MEDIA IS SHAPING JOURNALISM
ALFRED HARMIDA
‘Social
Journalism: Exploring how Social Media is Shaping Journalism’ is a 19 paged
contributory research paper written by Alfred Harmida, a renowned and award
winning online pioneer who transposes his wealth of experience in online
journalism and as a lecturer at the University of British Colombia, Canada into
the comity of the excellently written Handbook of Global Online Journalism,
edited by Eugenia Siapera and Andreas Veglis and published in 2012 by A John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication. The work is a guide to understanding the new
practices of journalism at the wake of web 2.0 technologies, contained in the
part IV of the book.
The article is
broadly divided into two main aspects of burning issues in modern journalism
practices: the positive gains of using web 2.0 technologies to enhance
journalism practices or what Harmida describes as Ambiance Journalism-an
ecosystem of participatory journalism with audience cum journalist co-creating
news and the challenges that come with the same. This participatory journalism
has broken the barriers of the long dissatisfaction of traditional, passive and
one-way communication process of the mass media.
At the introductory level, Harmida, the former BBC
correspondent in the Middle East explores how global events such as July 2005
London bombings, the 2009 Twitter photo of the airplane in the Hudson River,
and YouTube videos of the protests in Egypt in 2011 turned out to give a new
paradigm to journalism practices. He explains that news organizations and their
reporter turned to the eyewitnesses to these events as the last resort to get
the latest to satisfy the curiosity of their ever waiting audience. It was a
global coincidence however that these events happened at the same time the
social media communication technologies were advancing at geometric space and
also a time when Tim O’Reilly was popularizing web 2.0. This made it possible
for citizens to use their mobile devices to capture newsworthy events and
upload them into social media platforms that became irresistible for news
organization to utilize. Harmida argues that media has become a space shared by
journalist and citizens. This digital and interactive community has altered the
way news is collated, processed and disseminated, breaking the jinx of
professional gatekeeping and ethical journalism. As the social media become
unstoppable, Harmida opines that it has been embraced by news organizations
across globe.
In other to understand the concept of social media,
Harmida delves into history of social media by tracing its root to thousands of
years with the advent of letter writing till the time of more advanced
technologies of web 2.0 invented by Tim O’Reilly in 2006. He reviews some
important literatures about the definition of social media and finally opines
that social media is defined by the characteristics of participation, openness,
conversation, community and connectivity with web 2.0 technologies becoming
paramount for its possibilities. Harmida called this new evolution of
journalism an “Ambience Journalism” which he conceptualizes to mean a
telemediated practice and experience driven by networked, always-on
communication technologies and media system of immediacy and instantaneity.
Through it, “journalism itself becomes fragmented, omnipresent and ingrained
public spare online in the everyday media experience from both professional and
non-professionals.
Harmida’s contributory piece is a panacea to abundant
but unscholarly explorations into understanding the forms at which journalism
today needs to be practiced. The author simplifies the linkage between social
media and journalism by examining the positive contributions of social media to
modern journalism practices, ranging from the wheels of utility of audience
participation in the news productions through “photos shared on Flickr to 140
characters eyewitness comments on breaking news on Twitter and the whole
involvement of audience in content generation”. This process has reinforced the
values of audience to news organization in what Bruno (2011) described as
“Twitter Effects”.
Another significant values of social media to
journalism practices today as raised by Harmida is the news gathering process
which has redefined, enhanced and promoted research in a better way to get the
scoop by journalists. He reminds us of the eyewitness contributions to giving
photos, videos or account especially when journalists are yet to be at the
venue of events.
As the new paradigm of social media is sweeping fast
across global journalism practices, media organizations who are laggards to
accepting the innovations of social media technologies should prepare to
fold-up as warned by Rodger Fiddler in his Mediamorphoses propositions. Harmida
understood this and thereby elaborates the imperative of reporting the news on
social media in his contributory piece. He argues that news organizations
themselves have taken up social media as a way to expand and enhance their
reportage especially to reflect fast-moving, multifaceted events taking place
over a period of time and across a broad geographical space. He explains that
big media like BBC, Guardian, and New York Times etc. have embraced these
technologies of live blog or live pages, providing a constantly updated stream
of text, audio, video form both journalist and “amateurs.” Harmida describes
this process as “pro-am’ journalism. Through this, the practice of journalists
monopolizing news sourcing is broken.
Another advantage Harmida elucidates is how news
organizations are using social media as a mechanism to extend their reach with
Facebook and Twitter championing the course. Harmida says “social media offers
news organizations new ways to promote content, increase audience reach and
potentially build up brand loyalty” through technologies that was not possible
in the mainstream media.
How is social media potentially wreaking havoc to
journalism practice with the technologies of web 2.0? Harmida argues that it
poses financial and editorial challenges as well as eroding the gatekeeping
function of the media usually championed by what Andrew Keen called Cult of the Amateurs, “weakening the
hierarchical relationship between the mass media consumers and producers of
media”.
Harmida did not just stop there; he also addresses
the problems of verification of news by journalists as a problem which
according to Kovech and Roseustail (1999) undermines the classical function of
journalism which is providing a reliable account of events.
The most hit
dark side of social media is the erosion of objectivity which Harmida describes
as one of the key values in journalism. This tension keeps growing between
objectivity and opinion as we witness today in blogs and other social media
platforms-a negative side that news organizations are battling to curb.
As a professor
of online journalism, Harmida raises alarm on the danger post by social media
to journalist with regard to personal and professional identity especially
between reporters’ opinion on their Facebook pages, Twitter retweet and the
objectivity of the news organizations they work for. To address these
challenges, Harmida argues that news organizations are seeking to balance the
personal aspect of social media with long-held professional rules designed to
protect journalists’ reputation.
To draw the
curtain on the piece, Harmida reemphasizes on the values of social media and audience
co-creation of news in journalism practices and the essence to which
journalists are embracing the technologies of the web 2.0 to enhance their
daily task of news production and dissemination.
Social
Journalism: Exploring how Social Media is Shaping Journalism written by Alfred
Harmida, is a fine recipe piece that should be utilized by bloggers, news
organizations, advertisers, public relations practitioners, and anyone in the
job of using social media to reach large audience which will help them to
understanding the antics of web 2.0 technologies and its resources for
effective practices of online journalism. However, there are huge security
challenges such as scam, identity cloning, malwares, viruses, and privacy
concerns etc. that come with the gains of using web 2.0 for journalism
practices that the author did not address. Therefore, it is recommended that
further reading is done by the readers of this piece to expand their knowledge
on the threat pose by using social media technologies for journalism
practices.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
OLINE NEWS REPORTING OF CRISIS EVENTS:
INVESTIGATING THE ROLE OF CITIZEN WITNESSING
Stuart Allan
Every individual
is involved in what is known as citizen witnessing in one way or the other
(Allan, 2012). The idea of eye-witness report appears as a means to express
personal experience of public events. It is regarded as a way of connoting the
mark of authenticity and credibility news photography, in particular offering
an alternative way of claiming eye-witness status.
However, the
coming of technology especially the social media has metamorphosed the
journalism profession in terms of news reporting, crisis are reported through
social media like twitter, facebook and so on. It is now transforming people
into potential reporters, making everybody to be seen as a potential
journalist. What calls for crisis and carnage calls for the attention of
eye-witnessing. An eye witness would want to be the first to tell the story.
Just like the 27year old citizen journalist, Ranganathan Vinikunar, who
reported the mumbai's bomb explosion scenario and was credited by London's
Daily Telegraph for providing perhaps the most amazing and horrowing first-hand
account of the attack in a reportage, passing his series of photos on blog and twitter,
showing mangled cars, blood stained roads and fleeing crowds (Beaunwat,2008).
Subsequently, as
crisis keep prevailing, people are continuing to engage in not only performing
the role of eye-witnessing but also the reportage of armature still photographs
and videos, without minding the ethical conduct of journalism. like the public
demonstration that happened in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential
election with many young humans performing roles akin to citizen journalists in
other to document what was happening (western journalists having been barred
from reporting the protest) the images were those taken from grisly mobile
telephone footage of 27year old Neda Agha Soltan, bleeding to death on the
street (she had been shot in the chest, reportedly by a Basij paramilitary).
Relayed to the world's news media, this "amateur" footage captured by
a bystander and uploaded to the web, transformed Neda into a symbol of
opposition, galvanizing support in Iranian diasporas as well as focusing international
attention. The killing of Neda Agha Soltan, the grisly images of blood
spreading across her face, became perhaps the defining sequence in the 10 days
uprising against the regime in Tehran. Robert et al (2009) which led to a
rallying call for a protest movement in need of a hero.
Furthermore,
professional journalist, whom have studied mass communication and obtained a
degree certificate in mass communication or journalism must work with ethics of
journalism. That is what differentiate professional journalist and a citizen
journalist. In terms of crisis report; professional journalist is conscious of
the rules guiding crisis reporting but a citizen journalist is ignorant of such
rules. All what they are after is to be credited by the world as an eye-witness
reporting amateurly as well as having a first-hand information. They are not
mindful of the future melee that may occur in the unspecialized and amateur
method of crisis report they are doing. The role of eye-witnessing which has
turned into citizen journalism has greatly mitigated the credibility of crisis
report. The coming of internet and the advent of different social media
platforms are also prime factors that are aggravating the activities of citizen
journalists. Therefore, the extinction of internet/social media would not solve
but setback the profession as such, it would not be the best solution but
rather, when the principle of online censorship is deployed, it would to a
great extent reduce amateur reportage of crisis stories by eyewitness/citizen
journalist and increase the credibility in crisis news writing and reporting.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CONTRIBUTION TO AN ONLINE JOURNALISM LANGUAGE: MULTIMEDIA GRAMMAR
João Canavilhas
Internet has
been of help to the work of journalism right from its creation to the extent
that journalists cannot deviate from it. With the success of World Wide Web
massive amount of information is available; journalists have the ability to
create global information in a simple and inexpensive way. With the
anticipation “innovation in Newspapers World Report that in the 2012 internet
would be the major source of information” and this come to pass because both
the journalism practice and the audience vividly source for information through
the internet.
The aims of this chapter is to describe a
multimedia grammar as Salaverria (2005) identified three characteristics to web
journalism, which are: hypertextuality, multimediality and interactivity.
Bardoel and Deuze (2001) added the fourth: customizing content (or
personalization). To these four characteristics, other scholars later added
some. They include: Memory (or archive), by Machado and Palacios; instantaneity
(or continuous update) by Diaz Noci (2002) and Hal l(2001) and Zamith (2008)
added Ubiquity. With the attribution of different characteristics to web
journalism, all the authors agreed on the first three characteristics
identified by Salaverria. The explanation of this characteristics will be given
bellow:
Hypertextuality:
with the use of hyperlinks linking two stacks of information, which allow the
readers to surf within a story and give them the feeling of being in charge,
also might reflect in the readers’ satisfaction and the website’s sense of
trustworthiness (Berger 2001).
Multimediality:
this is the ability to include the diverse contents such as video or audio as
part of the news story, applying this in a story will bring more understanding
and satisfaction level of the readers. (Zerba, 2003).
Interactivity:
this has to do with the readers’ ability to build up a relationship with the
contents of the news story. Bordewijk and Van Kaam (1998), identified four
levels of interactivity (conversation, consultation, transmission and
registration). The important level to this content is consultation because it
is simple interactivity (the use of hypertext) increases the remembrance of
news contents (Mesbah 2005).
Memory (or
archiving): this is the capability of creating a permanent accessibility stock
of information for internet users. Ubiquity is the capacity to make some
content available at a global scale and accessed simultaneously from any place
connected to the internet.
Argument has
been going on in the literature, these features are hardly used by online
media, thus frustrating the user who wants a news story tailored to web
expectations, that is, with the use of hypertext and multimedia content (Vector
21; WSJ), which allows users to choose their own reading path (Canavilas,
2006).
Academic
research argues that the systematic use of hypertext, multimedia and interactivity
is fundamental to the improvement of web journalism (Hall,2001, Marco, 2003;
paul,2005, Edo, 2002; Bryant, 2006, Fredin, 1997).The challenges of web
journalism is to identify a hypertextual and multimedia language that allows
differentiation from journalism in traditional media.
LANGUAGE FOR WEB JOURNALISM
The awareness of
the unique language has been the major road-block for web journalism
development. There can be change only by following what Salaverria (2005)
identified as characteristics as mention above, this will distinguish web
journalism from models of shovelware, also, it will bring forth gross to
empower online business according to Sylvie (2008), “quality creates values,
and value creates demands, something of which newspapers could use more”.
Lawrey and Choi
(2006) argued that, online news stories should be less linear, more
interactive, and more connected with other web sites with the use of hypertext
to create several reading paths which the audience will find it easy to get
what they want. It is understandable that, readers have a specific search goal
and they tend to create their own reading patterns while some do not have these
goals and they will be guide by the structural qualities of the format itself.
Despite the possibilities offered by hypertext, it is important to consider the
writing technique that will suit a particular story and the general technique
is inverted pyramid. However, other authors posited that there are specific
techniques for web journalism (Canavilhas, 2001, Garci, 2002; Salaverria 2005,
Martinez and Ferrerria 2010). They posited that information must be provided in
single text but the lead must be distributed along the story and the
journalists should include an interesting element such as (who, what, when and
where) that will keep the readers busy reading the story. However, Rich (1998)
with other scholars argued that different technique should be adopted based on
the type of news, that is, the nature of the story should determine the style
that should be used.
WRITING TECHNIQUES WITH HYPERTEXT
It is understand
that readers are always seeking connection that will suit their own interest
online and individuals have their own paths of reading, due the individual
interests, choices and decision.
Journalists must adopt different news writing technique that is,
providing a connecting thread that will allow the reader to know more about the
context of specific paths of the story. Using hyperlink will serve as a guide
that will offer different alternative reading in online news when links are
presented they read the linked information set and go back to the original
level when they realize the deeper level of information. Journalists must make
sure they balance the size and scope of whatever article they give and its distribution
in the media.
Still on the
style of writing, Canavilhas (2006) suggested that, the traditional inverted
pyramid of writing should be forgotten and the horizontal pyramid method be
adopted. He argued that less important information should come first and the
most important at the bottom. To him, the increase of information offered by
each of the ‘W’ (who, what, why, when, where and how) will turn the graphic
representation of web news into a horizontal pyramid, where the larger width of
its base means more information. Following this technique to him, allow each
reader to build their own story according to their information need. He
suggested that information should be organize in four levels starting from less
important to the most important. The first level is called ‘the base unit’, the
second ‘explanation level’, the third ‘contextualization level’ and the forth
‘exploration level’. The base unit answers
the essential, what, when, who, and where questions and the explanation level seeks to
answers the why and how questions, completing the essential information of the
news story. At the contextualization
level the semantic resolution of the story increases to fulfil
one of the distinctive features of web journalism: contextualized information
and the last level of the story is the exploration
level, which deepens certain details, trying to provide the most
demanding readers with some answers.
LINK USAGE AND MARKING
Every journalist
goal is to provide the readers with a quick and efficient understanding of his
message; in this case, your writing style must be clear and concise. For online
journalist, marking and linking of messages is very crucial because it gives
the readers more information, increases citizen journalism participation, make
work easier for the journalist and provide the readers with more sources of
information within a brief message.
It is important
for online journalists to know all the nitty-gritty of linking stories on the
net. For instance, linked words are usually typed in different colors like a
graphics mark. A link can be marked by icons or labels. Links serve as reading
clues to readers within the text. However, too much of links is bad because it
can cause distraction to the readers either in times of confusion or even leaving
the site and never return. It is advisable that links should be written in
active verbal form, acronyms or words with strong semantic connection to the
linked information site.
INTEGRATING MULTIMEDIA CONTENT
There are some
certain rules in which the integration of multimedia contents in the story
should follow, the multimedia usage in web news include the videos, sounds, and
graphics complement the text information. In multimedia content, photos should
be used to illustrate the “who” of a news story. Thus, justifying a link placed
on the main news character.
Moving image
(video). This is different from photos because photos occupy just small portion
of newspaper pages, where the text is dominant; images use all the available
space on television, reducing the amount of text and sub-titles. This moving
images produces reality more accurately. However, videos used as a
complimentary feature cannot produce a complete story as is done in television,
but is used as a fragment adding to the news story. Thus, motion picture should
be use when there is doubt over interpretation, not only that but also where a
written explanation of events would be too long.
CHAPTER 20
THE PARADOX OF PERSONALIZATION: THE SOCIAL
AND REFLEXIVE TURN OF ADAPTIVE NEWS
Neil Thurman and
Steve
Schifferres
INTRODUCTION
The chapter is
basically talking about personalization of information and how effective the
internet will be to its consumers in the future. Some argued that it will be
revolutionary. This means consumers will no longer be seen as passive would
instead use the tool to interact and produce their own quota to the masses.
The internet is
believed to be a tool that will bypass conventional channels of information
such as TV, Radio and Newspapers etc. Negroponte's (1995), prediction that
newspapers could be replaced with “Daily me," where individuals shaped the
news to their own taste and preferences by creating customized news sites, each
different from the other. Even though, the utopian idea came under attack by
those who believed that the idea is wrong. After all this argument, Blog
appeared to be a way of bypassing Journalist and other gatekeepers and it
seemed to confirm the hopes and fears of commentators.
PERSONALIZATION
Personalization
is seen by the following scholars or authors (Deuze, 2003:68; Meikle, 2009:
178; Singer, 2003:147) as part of surveys of interactivity." The features
include “moving images", “audio”, and “hyperlinks”.
Building on the
work of Bucy (2004), they see personalization as a form of user to user and
system interactivity that uses a set of technological features to adapt the
content, delivery and arrangement of communication to individual users
explicitly registered and or implicitly determined preferences.
The Longman
Dictionary defines personalization as an act of putting your name or initials
on something or decoration of something on your own way. So when viewed from the angle of this chapter
it is seen as a way of making news and information of others your personal
property using internet-enabled system to adapt the content. However, we have
two types of personalization: explicit personalization and implicit one. The
explicit is the one that uses direct user imputation while the implicit is the
one which infers preferences from data collected, e.g. Via a registration
process or via the use of software’s that monitors users’ activity ( Gauch et
al. 2007) and a table was given by Thurman ( 2011) which was recorded by the
2010 content survey.
The chapter goes
on by giving us some examples of user adapted programmes and applications like
Adobe flash player, audio visual slides shows, twitter “RSS feeds" etc. By
looking at the few listed above categories particularly in explicit
personalization where users can get special email, Newsletters with information
of interest to them, syndicates dress that cover particular categories of news,
SMS alerts or their mobile phones or widget to put on their homes or office
computers that flash up breaking news. That is to say with that they can shape,
change and adapt news to suit their interest.
KEY DEBATES
The key debates
examined the growth of personalized news and went straight to ask the following
question:
1) As we have
seen, of how active media audiences are in the consumption of news, or whether
they are just passive consumers, happily to accepting contents determined by
editors.
2) Why do mass
media organizations adopt such strategies? Are they profitable and consistent
with their normal ways of doing things or have they required
3) To what
extent does personalization challenge the widely accepted theory that
journalist act as gatekeepers for the public, limiting their access to news?
To briefly
explain the above debates, it is not out of place to say that adapting new
technology in disseminating news and technology in disseminating news and
information to the public is commendable due to the fact that people today can
receive and comment on news via their cell phones. Taking into consideration
Marshall Mcluhan's assertions that "the medium is the message",” the
massage", and “Hot and cool model " that is to say technology is a
major determinant of news and it is profitable and very easy to access by
everyone.
However, a pew
survey of America revealed that 15% received news via email, 7% via an RSS reader
and 22% via a customizable web page. By looking at this figures and survey we
will tend to go back to Negroponte's (1995) prediction that newspapers could be
replaced with a " Daily me" where individuals shape the news in other
to suit their interest by creating customized sites. News today is filtered
using facebook, twitter, whatsapp etc. using various types of devices like
Blackberry, iPhone, Tecno, Sony Ericson etc. FT.com, Guardian.co.uk,
Mirror.co.uk etc. are all sites that are personalized and filtered using
different devices.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion,
this study demonstrates or shows that “personalization" is a fluid rather
than fixed concept in the online news environment. Our media organization world
wide has been adapting to so many strategies in other to personalize media
content.
However, the
data in this chapter explore the evolution of personalization strategies from
active audience to passive audience reflecting a more general reflexive turn in
online news provision. The entire work of the two authors or scholars Neil
Thurman and Steve Schifferes is to tell us what personalization of media
content is and why it came to existence and how it is been used in practice. It
is also noted that the migration of newspapers readers to the web, ramping up
the size of an online audience are cruel in trying to maintain revenue,
particularly through advertising.
The main focus
of this chapter is about how media content are personalized by technological
advancement which as a result of that journalist are no longer considered as
gatekeepers but rather considered as news filters.
CHAPTER
21
BRAZILIAN NEWS BLOGS AND MAINSTREAM NEWS
ORGANIZATION: TENSION: SYMBIOSIS OR INDEPENDENCY?
Olga Guedes Bailey
Francisco Paulo
Jamil Marques
This chapter was
a contribution written by Olga Guedes Bailey and Francisco Paulo Jamil Marques.
In this chapter the authors discussed on how (ICT) advancement alter journalism
practice. They specifically focused on the impact of blogs on mainstream media
in Brazil and how it changed the news collection, processing, dissemination and
even reception.
However, they
argue that other factors should be considered beyond advancement in technology
such as cheap and easy access to information to know what is happening around
the world. As a result of this ugly trend, the primary functions of journalist
as information provider become somehow and news market competition.
CONTEXT OF BLOG IN BRAZIL
The creation of
blogs in Brazil by independent journalists and news organization become alternative
to reach large audience. Blog is easy medium to use and enable independent
journalists to get their stories published instantly without restriction
enshrined by traditional media. One can open blog without having technical
knowledge on journalism. Blog enable readers to contribute and comment on news
content. Blog became popular in 2008 where 133 million open blog account with
900 million post daily( De zuniga, puig-i-Abril and Rojas, 2009).
In the case of
Brazil, blogs became relevant during the last presidential election in 2010
which enabled public to obtain information beyond the views of traditional news
organization. The authors cited a report published by comscore company: “One of the main reason for blog popularity
in Brazil was presidential election conducted in October and November 2010
where 39.3 million people accessed blog and visited 2.25 billion blog sites
during the election”. Many organizations noticed that blog can be used to
attract vast audience and also help to create closer contact between
organization and the public by giving them updated information and maintain
their present to maximize profit. For instance Brazilian Federal Senate and
Petrobras lunched blogs to provide updated information and respond to
inaccurate information published by mainstream news organization. These
examples highlight the effects of blogs on mainstream news organization in
Brazil.
Traditional news
media understood that creating blog is the only solution to them. Creating news
blog will alter the relationship between journalist and mainstream
organization. This is because the independent blogger will demand for editorial
independence.
HOSTORY OF BLOGS AND JOURNALISM IN THE
BRAZILIAN CASE: FROM RESISTENCE TO COLONIZATION.
Many scholars
thought that blog will alter journalism practice. For instance changes in term
of news production, distribution and consumption. This led to the practice of
citizen journalism. Blog will offer information and important topics that were
not discussed in mainstream news media. It enabled participation between
content producer and the audience. Blog employed different method of telling
stories because of multimediality and hypertextuality.
Popularity of
news blogs in Brazil is motivated by plurality of voices or view point since the
mainstream news organizations are controlled by few individuals. According to
(Lima, 2001; Ramos and Santos 2007) “ mainstream media had been criticized
regarding frame and focus in their news
coverage, lack of plurality of views and minority voices. From these views,
blog reduce the power of mainstream media. However, mainstream media colonized
blogs in Brazil because most of popular blogs based in portal of mainstream
media. Also these mainstream news media created their own blogs to expand
audience.
NEWS BLOGS: RECONFIGURING JOURNALISM?
The rapid
increase of news blogs has brought about reconstruction of news published by
mainstream news organization to serve the interest of their readers. This led
to the change in journalism practice. However, the change in journalism
practice isn’t solely brought by the technological advancement instead other
factors should be considered, for instance, cheap and free access to
information around the world. According to Postman (1992) “the change brought
about by technology is ecological changing meaning that when you remove one
house in an environment. You are left with the absence of one house and also if
you build a new house in an environment.
The reason why
blogs reproduced news published by mainstream media is because of immediacy of
update, hypertext link and interactivity. This method demand new approach to
structure information. The implication is that the mistake avoided by
mainstream news media is now common in blogs.
Moreover, the
trust between journalists. bloggers and readers is based on two factors. The
first is positive image of the blogger while working in mainstream media. The
personality of journalist blogger enables him/her to provide opinion on issues
relevant to the readers. Secondly the readers hope that the blogs offer
accurate information and opinion from the journalist they trust. The readers
always dwell on the position of journalist’s news blogs on political issues.
BLOGS, JOURNALISM AND NEWS ORGANIZATIONS:
TENSIONS, SYMBIOSIS AND INDEPENDENCE?
Most of the
popular news blogs in Brazil are based in the portal of mainstream news media.
A lot of blogs were created by independent journalists. This is also an
advantage to independent journalists and also helps mainstream news media to
attract advertisers.
Despite this
symbiotic relationship, a blogger might decide to change to other news portal
competitors and the readers might follow him because of the trust they have in
him. For example in 2007 Richard Noblat moved from Estado newspaper portal to O
Globo online portal. Prominent journalists news bloggers are not subjected to
the restriction enshrined by mainstream media. They have editorial independent.
The tension in
the relationship between journalist, news bloggers and news organization is obvious,
for example, editorial independence demanded by the blogger. The mainstream
media might lose control over the blogger. However, the relationship is
symbiotic, meaning both of them benefit from each other.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
A CHANCE FOR DIVERSITY? AUSTRALIAN ONLINE JOURNALISM
Axel Bruns
This article
snaps a close-up shot at the journalism practice within the Australian online
and mainstream media landscape. It highlights the tension disrupting the
reporting and publishing techniques of journalistic writings, resulted from the
over concentration of media ownership among the Australians. This control
therefore led to the emergence of proprietors’ ego-centric analysis of happenings
in the media repertoire, rather than professionally-guided and people-centered
discussion of events. Popular among the papers and magazines attuned to this
tradition include The Australian, Brisbane Times, The Bulletin, Publishing and
Broadcasting Limited (PBL), Newsweek etc.
Until the
establishment of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Australian
media industry operated as status symbols of its owners and politicians, who
struggle to establish an imprint of their ideologies within the framework of
public discourse. This ABC, under the leadership of its Managing Director mark
Scott, came on board to protect the open media market from the undue influence
of government-funded broadcasters through unbiased analyses of events by
dispassionate observers. According to focus (2010)
The
ABC now provides rapid online transcript and podcasts for a large number of its
key news bulletins and current affairs shows in both television and radio, as
well as significant online only-coverage. Additionally, it has also followed
the BBC iPlayer example by offering iView, a multimedia application that allows
for online catch-up viewing of its news and entertainment shows as well as
providing access to online only content.
Despite this
giant effort to provide free access to society-rooted news stories, the ABC was
questioned by its commercial rivals for distorting the market. This challenge
therefore, opened up a fresh edition of debate over who takes the lead in
informing the society about their political, economic and social endeavors. The
debate escalated even beyond the axis of ABC and its mainstream commercial
counterparts, it sets up a breeding ground for the establishment of smaller,
independent news and commentary sites, all simultaneously trying to assume the
leading position in setting agenda within the Australian media landscape.
As this
competition become very stiff, there was a paradigm shift to a politicization
of journalism practice in Australia. Politicization here refers to a perceived
gradual shift from a straighter forward reporting of the facts to a focus on
political-and politically partisan-interpretation of the news stories, even
within the news report itself.
However, what is
problematic is not the Politicization of the media but the inability of the
various media outlets to guarantee free flow of information in the market place
of ideas within the confine political discourse of Australians. This shackle
can be eliminated if the various news sites would rise above their personal
interest and allow the ethical provision of the profession to reign.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Online Journalism in Germany
Thomas Hanitzsch
Thorsten Quandt
Over the years,
studies upon studies have been conducted to review the state of German online
journalism, its development, potential, and current challenges in relation to
traditional mainstream media. The German online journalism, though stuck at the
first two stages of online journalism-shovelware and interactivity (as
classified by Pavlik, 1997), have redirected the face of journalism by shifting
control over public communication from media institutions to users by means of
social networking, collaboration and participation (Paulussen et al, 2007).
This therefore generated tension between professional journalists and their
online counterparts. The mainstream media according to Bruns (2005) may have to
rethink their social roles, from acting as gatekeepers to serving communities
as gate watchers.
With this debate
gaining popularity, scholars discovered significant similarities alongside
substantial differences with respect to questions of performance between
mainstream and alternative online media. To the similarities, Neuberger,
Nuernbergk and Rischke’s (2009) research identified striking similarities in
the type of qualification that ranked highest among the interviewed chief
editors, which include excellent general education, writing and editing skills,
sound professional education in journalism and a willingness to communicate
with users. This indicate once again that online journalism do not differ from
their colleagues working for traditional media in terms of their professional
views. Others went further to view online journalists to even be more attuned
to the ideals of neutral and speedy dissemination of information.
However,
striking differences emerged with respect to questions of performance. While
traditional journalists are bound with the principles of objectivity, accuracy,
credibility and thoroughness, bloggers are associated with other principles
such as partiality, subjectivity, open to participation and discussion. These
dividing lines were further confirmed by the Rischke’s (2009) survey in which significant
number of the population studied agreed that weblogs have nothing to do with
journalism.
However, online
journalism and-perhaps journalism in general- has been faced with various
challenges, which constrains its proper functioning in Germany. These
challenges, among other things, are presumed to have emanated from the
participatory potential of the internet. The erosion of traditional boundaries
between producers and users, which is referred to as “produsage”, has opened up
new means of interaction between writers and producers, while the inclusion of
multimedia promised to herald innovative forms storytelling (Bruns, 2005).
Other
challenges, as identified by scholars, are that most content produced by German
online media are second hand, which emanate from the material offered by their
parent media and news agencies. More so, online journalist are described as
much younger breed of media professionals, with less experience in handling
news content compared to their counterpart in the mainstream media.
Similarly,
another factor that is militating against the activities of online journalism
is the issue of credibility, especially on stories that have political
undertone. Von Pape and Quandt (2010) carried out a representative survey of
999 audience members shortly after the German general election in 2009. The
findings indicated that Germans still refer back to credible (traditional) news
sources when it comes to relevant political content.
Standing on the
basis of the facts highlighted above, one can conclude that online
communication has drastically revolutionized journalism profession in Germany.
However, German media when compared with other countries can be said to be
lagging behind as it’s very skeptical in their effort to implement participative
features of online environment.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
THE EVOLUTION AND CHALLENGES OF ONLINE
JOURNALISM IN NIGERIA
Farooq A.
Kperogi
As Nigeria’s
independence was aided massively by Nigerians in diaspora, so is it in the
evolution of the Nigerian online journalism. Though the first online newspaper
to shift its content to online was “post express” by Stanley Macebuh,
subsequently other notable newspapers in Nigeria began to follow the suit. The
Guardian, Punch, Vanguard and This Day newspapers all had their website in
early 2000s. However, the operations of these homeland newspapers online were
not encouraging due to the fact that they lack investigative spirit and
advocacy journalism coupled with unsophisticated web to upgrade their
activities.
Thus, these
deficiencies in homeland online fashion of journalism prompted Nigerian
migratory elites in the diaspora to see the establishment of online journalism
as inevitable to enhance accountability of Nigerian politician. Meanwhile the
first online publication by Nigerians in diaspora was Elendu Report.com owned
by Jonathan Elendu, permanent USA resident. Sahara reporter owned by Sowore
Omoyele, new york based activist. It grew up from Elendu.com, time of
nigeria.com was established by Maryland based Nigerian journalist called sunny
offili. Nigeria village square.com was
established in 2003 by a group of immigrant Nigerians based in the USA and many
more.
However, the
popularity and acceptance of the aforementioned online publications was
increasing tremendously due to their credibility and non-involvement in
political affairs of their homeland, not being loyal to homeland politicians
unlike homeland media. Another problem that led to the establishment of online
publication was that Nigerian mainstream media lack interactivity,
multimediality and hypertexuality. Some newspapers are even demanding for money
before readers can register with them, some are requesting for readers’
personal details as a form of censorship before you can register with them.
“When big media companies consider having a conversation with their audiences,
they tend not to push many boundaries” (Gillmori, 2004:)
Meanwhile, it
has been revealed that diaspora online publications have contents that is real,
active and updated in real time due to the fact that they access to some hidden
information about Nigerian politician coming to embark on illegal activities in
foreign countries. Some examples include coverage of a governor dancing with
prostitutes in Dubai hotel about something prohibited in the state he is
governing. Similarly, there is freedom of information act that gives chances to
foreign online journalists and such liberty is not available to mainstream
media in Nigeria.
Despite the
enormous role played by diaspora online publications in democratization of
information it seems all are not well between them and homeland journalists.
Nigerian journalists believe that the activities of diaspora online journalism
is undermining their surveillance and watchdog role people entrusted in them therefore,
it led to losing of credibility and reliability in the mind of their audiences.
This can clearly be seen when a foreign online journalist was arrested by
Nigerian police for blackmailing. Pathetically, it was only punch newspaper
that gave the story prominence. Other newspapers showed less concern and
pretend as if nothing happened.
PERCEPTION OF GOVERNMENT AND TRADITIONAL
MEDIA ON DIASPORA CITIZEN MEDIA
A lot of
reactions have been made by Nigerian government and unscrupulous politicians,
policy makers, and political stakeholders to put an end to diaspora media due
to the fact that they embark mostly on investigative journalism. They term
diaspora media as blackmailers, opposition bloggers that is inciting
insurrection, rebellion, contempt, chaos, and infidelity of citizens to
Nigerian government.
Going by the
letter written by Ochonu 2008, it is clearly seeing how Nigerian government has
been making effort to hack the radical website of Sowore omoyele, sahara
reporters. The letter goes thus, “we are aware that domain by proxy is a
reputable company. We are worried that website http://www.saharareporters.com/
hosted with domains by proxy is being used for subversive dissemination of
information against the president and the people of the federal republic of
Nigeria. We have read the terms of registration of websites which say that any
website used for illegal purposes morally objectionable defamatory libelous
articles will be closed down. Please note that http://Saharareporter.Com
has violated the laws by writing articles that are treasonable offence in
Nigeria. We therefore request that as a company you are to shut down http://
saharareporter.com immediately to avoid any illegal proceeding which may affect
your company and affect your business”.
The above letter
has clearly shown how Nigeria government has been doing everything within her
capability to bring down the radical website which is yet to achieve up to this
moment. Similarly part of the effort employed by Nigerian government to stop
diaspora online media was arrest of founders when they traveled to Nigeria. The
case of Elendu was a best example to buttress this. He was arrested and accused
of being the sponsor of a “guerilla news agency” and he was charged of sedition
by state security services (SSS). Surprisingly none of the mainstream home land
media gave the arrest of Elendu prominence in their reports. This has clearly
shown how jealousy and hatred mainstream media have towards diaspora online
media. The arrest of Emmanuel Asiwe the founder of Huhu online’s edition when
he travelled to Nigeria was another measure taken by Nigerian government to put
an end to diaspora online media.
Despite all
these threatening measures to stop the activities of diaspora media, they are
becoming more powerful and influential virtually every day to the extent
opposition politicians get fed up with domestic media’s double standards and
timidity. Once a story is given prominence in diaspora media, it becomes an
agenda for domestic mainstream media even if they are reluctant to cover the
story before, to exemplify this, Dino Melaye certificate saga by sahara
reporters, it later became daily agenda among domestic mainstream media. Despite
the fact that diaspora media serve as source of news to domestic mainstream,
the hatred between them still continue to grow tremendously as mainstream media
is calling diaspora online media all sort of name to show their jealousy such
as “online news agency” “offshore news site” “guerilla sites” and so on.
Meanwhile, with the activities of diaspora Nigerian online media, they are able
to expose and embarrass some unscrupulous politicians who are going abroad to
carryout hiding agenda which is very difficult for homeland media due to the
fact that their investigative, surveillance and watchdog roles have been
compromised overtime.
ONLINE MEDIA AND THE 2011 GENERAL ELECTION
Prior to 2011
election, rigging was part and parcel of Nigeria election, flashing back to
2007 general election, it is a known fact that the election was massively
rigged coupled with snatching of ballot boxes, killing of INEC staff,
intimidation of electorates, inflation of election figure to favor the party in
power and many more. Therefore, these
were able to be achieved as inactivity of social media and lack of
sophisticated internet facilities. Things were not the same again in 2011
general election as citizens are exposing themselves to internet. Internet and
social media aid citizen participation in the election. Thousands of web based
citizens initiatives quickly sprouted. The most popular initiatives were
“reclaimnaija: election incident report system (www.reclaimnaija.net), it was an
activist citizen initiatives that was formed to ensure transparency in the
conduct of 2011 general election through citizen reporting. Many citizen
reports captured the video evidence of election rigging in many part of the
country and aggrieved politicians who were at the receiving and electoral
victories of their opponents.
It must clearly
state however that, virtually every citizen is now journalist due to the
opportunity given to them by online journalism, therefore, Nigerian government
should promote online journalism rather than pose a threat to it,
authoritatively speaking, whether government assists or is against online
journalism, it has come to stay because it aids democratization of information
and serve as a platform for the voiceless to air their views without subjecting
them to any form of intimidation, prosecution, persecution and harassment
CHAPTER 25
DOING JOURNALISM ONLINE: HOW UK NEWS
ORGANIZATIONS HAVE ADAPTED IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET
Kostas Saltzis
Kostas Saltzis’
paper looks at how the emergence of online journalism in the United Kingdom has
posed threats to existing media thereby forcing the traditional media to think
through ways to adapt to the changes brought about by the internet. However
this was not the perception media owners had. It was thought that the emergence
of online journalism in the United Kingdom first explored by ‘electronic
telegraph’ was going to bring development to the newspaper business.
The new medium
which has made possible the practice of journalism has frightened traditional
media owners in the United Kingdom. There was this fear that online journalism
was going to ‘cannibalize” the traditional newspaper, magazine. By
‘cannibalism’ Saltzis (2012) explained that it was feared that the new medium was
going to take away newspaper readers by offering news stories that were
hitherto sold, free, on an online website.
Saltzis (2012)
noted that “the initial approach of traditional media organizations toward the
internet was at best cautious and at worst driven by fear”.
Therefore, to
adapt to this threatening changes brought by the internet, the traditional
media organizations took adaptive measures that “led to radical restructuring,
new working cultures, and new forms of journalism, while it created the
conditions for a re-evaluation of the role of journalists”.
Furthermore
traditional media like BBC, The Guardian and later Mailonline, created an
online presence, invested early and heavily in the new online business ventures
to attract traffic to their websites. However, no picture was painted about
what commercial gain this would result to.
As part of the
adaptive measures, media like the Guardian, BBC, Sky News, etc. described their
online websites as multimedia instead of single media. This thus has brought
about the concept of multimediality in online journalism where a number of
media content formats like sound, pictures, videos and electronically written
texts are combined to tell stories online. This was “based on media-neutral
competitive advantages and to share resources between their online and
‘offline’ outputs”.
The emergence of
online journalism has also redefined the skills a journalist needs to possess.
A journalist now needs to be versatile, possessing multiple skills to cope with
the multimedia nature of the online practice of journalism. A print journalist
now needs to possess skills in video and audio editing, photography etc. Hence,
works earlier done by technicians are now done by journalist who now handles
the works of more than one person.
Moreover, the
gate-keeping role of the journalist has been limited with the ever increasing
alternative news sources online and competition. This can be seen even today,
as a lot of novices and amateurs have flocked into the online media to practice
journalism by the use of blogs or the social media.
Subsequent
emergence of social media platforms blogs and other interactive media has
offered journalists the opportunity to know their audience through feedback.
In this work,
Kostas Saltzis has made an effort to chart the major changes in the traditional
news media and journalism in the United Kingdom as a result of the ever
increasing importance of the internet.
In a comparative analysis between the new
media and old media, Saltzis (2012) implied that the emergence of radio and
television has threatened the existence of newspaper. The broadcast media
received the blame for the fall in the level of readership. More so, the threat
became more serious with the commencement of 24-hour broadcasting of television
stations. Television broadcasting has provided services provided by newspaper,
regularly and faster than newspaper and that has made newspaper inessential.
Due to the
threat the newspaper industry has experienced from the emergent broadcast
media, particularly television, the newspaper industry was quick in creating
and online platform when the internet evolved, so as to prevent been left
behind in the new development. “This was partly due to the fact that the
Internet represented a far more threatening challenge for newspapers” Saltzis
(2012). Going details into how the threat is posed, Franklin (1997) cited in
Saltzis (2012) says “virtually everything that newspapers provide, information
and entertainment, is now offered more readily, cheaply, efficiently and
interestingly by some other news medium” and because of this, “the demise of
newspapers seems inevitable”.
Looking at why
the audience would consider the online news product instead of the offline
newspapers, Fidler (1997), cited in Saltzis (2012) explained that the internet
is cheaper in production and distribution since there is no need for printing
on paper or physical transportation/distribution of the news product. Bell
(2005) cited in Saltzis (2012) also added that online journalism has more
future because of its “searchability”, immediacy and “permanence”.
It is not only the newspaper industry that the
internet has threatened. The television industry has also been intimidated.
Although the challenge was similar to that of the newspaper, it was less
intense. Mason (2006) says “…the Internet has challenged television in the
crucial area
of speed, by
matching or even beating it”. More so, it has the capacity to archive more
information than television. Moreover, that the internet has the speed to
stream videos has also made the internet and its websites competitors to
television (Saltzis, 2012 pg464).
In consequence,
the United Kingdom has experienced a decline in readership of newspaper and
viewership of television. This has been blamed on the emergence of the internet
and its multimedia nature. However, although it has played a significant role
in this decline, Saltzis (2012) says “the Internet has not been the only reason
behind this so-called “crisis of journalism””. Resistance to change was partly
the reasons.
Also discussing on the change the media ecology has
experienced, Saltzis (2012) described the new media as a “multimedia”. This is
different from the old or traditional media which is “single”. This change has
brought about both cultural and media convergence. News providers have now been globalized and
competition is done between traditions and cultures that have different
geographical location. Moreover, “diverse online news market brings together
broadcasters, newspapers, news aggregators, news blogs, tweets, and so on, all
of which may be based anywhere around the world” (Saltzis, 2012).
The shift of focus from offline to online media in
the United Kingdom has not provided financial gains or “revenue model” for the
newspaper at the beginning. The market being an open market place where
advertisers can target their audiences directly has not been financially
productive to the newspapers in their online ventures. Although newspapers like
mailonline and the guardian.co.uk having millions of people visiting their
sites daily which was far more than their daily circulation, the revenue
generated from advert is nothing compared to the one generated offline.
Google as a search engine has hijacked most of the
revenue for advertising in the United Kingdom and that has been an issue of
concern to online media owners. Their grievance was that Google only offers
services provided by others. The providers have to pay money and make less.
Google therefore by offering what others are providing makes much more than the
original information providers. ”Particularly newspaper managers have
criticized Google for not spending “a penny on any kind of journalism at all
and yet they are making money out of our journalism” (Bailey quoted in
Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 2010)”. All attempts by the media
owners to curtail this through legislation proved futile.
To cope with the inability to generate adequate
revenue online, various online media like FT.com made their websites ones for
subscription. That people have to subscribe. However, this still did not get
them out of the woods.
One of the major things experienced in journalism in
the United Kingdom as a result of the emergence of the online media made
possible by the internet was the change that has occurred in the news room. The
online digital newsroom was converged with the offline and conventional
newsroom; “The main idea behind newsroom convergence has been to “write once
and publish everywhere”” (Saltzis, 2012). Therefore publication is done once
and for all for media houses that have both online and offline media platforms.
This has eliminated the problem of duplication of work that was experienced
when writing and distributing separately on the two media forms. The changes in
newsroom have been observed in media houses in the United Kingdom in houses
like, Daily Telegraph, The Financial
Times, and the BBC.
(Saltzis, 2012) concluded by saying this:
From the perspective of the
news industry, however, the key question remains whether
what we call “news
organizations” will continue in their existing forms, mainly because
the old business models seem
doomed in the current state. The picture that is emerging
is that of underfunded online
journalism being challenged by citizens and bloggers
around the world, news
aggregators stealing revenue, and an ultra-competitive news
market. This might just be a
transition moment for those traditional businesses trying to
find new ways of becoming
profitable in a new environment. But news organizations as
the locus where professional
journalists come together to share and process information
will always be relevant
irrespective of business models.
CHAPTER 26
J-BLOGGING IN CHINA: DEVELOPMENT, SIGNIFICANCE, AND CHALLENGES
Jin Shang and Hao Zhang
This chapter looks at the development of journalism
blogging in China with a focus on its significance and challenges. According to
the authors, Shang and Zhang (2012) the internet has made significant
improvement in information interactivity in China. The new media they further
said has informed people through stories that are not within the scope of
traditional mass media. One of these new media channel is what they referred to
as journalism blogging or j-blogging for short. The new media called journalism
blogging has increased in popularity in China because of the opportunities it
offers for both journalists and the citizens to express themselves. Its
emergence has given the people of China more sources of news and its
participatory features have made the audience to participate not only as
consumers but producers or contributors.
To have a light that would shine the path to
understanding the historical development of blogging, Shang and Zhang (2012)
gave the definition of blogging according to some scholars. Cited in Shang and
Zhang (2012), Blood (2003) defines blogging as “the production of
easy-to-create online web pages with short but regularly updated items of
information and commentary, usually with links to information and commentary on
other web sites”. Blogging are classified based on the nature of their contents
and how the contents are delivered.
Initially, blogs were managed by professional
Journalists who publish news stories and other ‘trivialities, including their
personal lives and opinions.
Using blogs for journalism has been advanced greatly
with the surfacing of the term blog or weblogs in the 1990s. One of the early
bloggers is Paul Andrews who in 2001 open a blog. He was a well-known IT
journalist and columnist for the Seattle Times who officially became a journalism blogger in 2001.
According to him, blogs give voice to the voiceless and a room for the amateur
to practice journalism.
Blogs are of different types. Some report on wars,
blogs created by mainstream news media, video blogs.
Christopher Allbritton who is a former Associated
Press (AP) and New York Daily News reporter used his blog ‘back to Iraq’
to report the wars in Iraq in 2003. After he raised US$15 000 from his readers,
he became the Internet’s “first fully reader-funded journalist-blogger” (POV,
2004).
Many other media organizations and individuals later
saw blogging as a worthy and necessary venture and decided to own a blog.
Associated Press, (AP) launched its news blog “Far
and Wide” in April 2007, CNN established a video blog called iReport, Los
Angeles Times blog under Tony Pierce and most remarkably the blog opened by
BBC.
The relationship between journalism and blogging
implicitly is that of check and balance. Bloggers challenge journalists to
improve on the standard of their practice by providing detailed and balanced
information on events. This is ensured by the nature of reports of bloggers who
go far and wide to gather reports and present sides not captured by journalist.
Therefore, if journalist do not capture, bloggers would.
“The impact of blogging on journalism is reshaping
the professional process. In fact, blogs have some advantages: they are
relatively inexpensive to produce and have the power to reach large audiences
quickly in a way more traditionally associated with the large, complex news
organizations that were considered essential for disseminating messages under
the traditional definition of “mass communication” (Severin and Tankard, 2000
cited in Shang and Zhang,)”.
The emergence of journalism blogs in China is the consequence
of the growth of blogs in China with the emergence of blogchina.com created by
Fang Xingdong in 2002. The goal of Fang Xingdong according to Shang and Zhang
(2012) is “to use this new method to encourage Chinese intellectuals to share
opinions and other relevant information with the public in order to further
promote China’s democratic reform”.
Although journalism blogging has been in China, it
first came to the Chinese Public during “Liang Hui” period in 2006 (Zeng and
Xie 2006 cited in Shang and Zhang 2006). Subsequently, more and more people
began blogging. The blooming of j-blogging in China has prompted the
development of various groups of journalism blog circles pertaining to
different regions or professions (Hu, 2007) cited in Shang and Zhang (2012).
Although there was good level of involvement in journalism blogging in China
because of good network, the internet web server on which the journalism blogs
are based, located in China mainland restricts a number of posts. This is
because the posts are been censored to ensure that there is compliance to the
strict censorship. The posts are censored for security reasons.
Hu (2007) cited in Shang and Zhang (2012) says
Chinese journalism blogs can be categorized into six. The first is that of
unpublished works, the second category is for ‘stories behind the news’, the
third ‘is to add fresh content or other related information to the already
existing newspaper reports or television programs’ the fourth is for
disseminating news already on the mass media for wider reach, fifth is used for
getting feedback from the audience through interaction, and the last is used
for publishing things about the journalist to increase their celebrity status.
Looking at what effect blogging has had on
journalism, Feng (2006) cited in Shang and Zhang (2006) says the effect in
China context is positive, that unlike other countries, blogs in China are
maintained by professional journalists who employ every professional code and
skill in collating, processing and dissemination of information through blogs.
They do thorough investigation and also use mobile devices in their work.
‘Journalism blogs often show extraordinary insight and wisdom that can
demonstrate the authenticity and objectivity of news, and therefore have won the
trust of Internet users in China’ (Shang and Zhang, 2012).
Journalism blogs have been significant in China in
that they “act as a bridge linking the media and web sites to their audience.
Additionally, plenty of visits and clicks by Internet citizens bring
considerable social and economic benefits for web sites.”
To some extent, j-blogs help to ameliorate the limits
on freedom of speech and expression in mainland China (Hu, 2007 cited in Shang
and Zhang 2012). It has also given the journalists and the audience a medium
for self-expression. Even those things that the traditional media consider
trivial are given adequate spaces on blogs.
When compared to that of the ‘West’, journalism
blogging in China is freer. An investigation conducted by Pang concluded that
there are no written rules to restrict journalists from writing blogs. This
implies freedom in the practice of journalism blogging. This is not so in the
‘West’ ‘where there are often very detailed regulations for journalism blog
publications. Much of the western media has very specific restrictions on
journalism blogs’.
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