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Making sense of the intersection between media, society and technology

May 31, 2007 • 10:32 am 0

The space between professional and citizen journalism

It sounds like there was some tension in the discussion over user-generated content at the Mesh web conference in Toronto.

My former boss, BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann was on the panel, together with Tony Hung, an editor with blog aggregator The Blog Herald, and Paul Sullivan of Orato.com, a citizen journalism site based in Vancouver.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it to Mesh but there are a couple of good write-ups on the pro vs. amateur debate here and here.

Getting into an argument about who is a professional journalist and whether so-called citizen journalism is good or bad for the profession is a dead-end discussion. There is room for both.

More interesting are comments by Herrmann on the BBC Editors’ blog on how the phenomenon of social media – blogs, stories and pictures from the audience, and interactivity in general, has affected BBC journalism:

Two key strands of our day-to-day journalism – readers’ comments and opinions, and newsgathering based on information from the audience – have become an indispensable part of what we do, and talked about some of the logistical and editorial challenges this presents.

It reflects how the BBC’s Have Your Say section has grown beyond just a place for people to comment into a hub for interaction and co-operation between journalists and the public.

Filed under: BBC, WeMedia, citizen journalism, new media, user-generated content

May 30, 2007 • 8:23 pm 0

Newspapers losing ad dollars to Internet start-ups

If newspapers were hoping that online advertising sales could make up for a shortfall in print ads, think again.

A forthcoming report from Borrell Associates on local web revenue shows that the share of web advertising captured by newspaper websites is falling:

Despite growth in real revenue, newspapers have lost eight percent of the market share in just two years, something Borrell calls “huge.” Regardless of which form of local media you represent, the real enemy is internet pureplays and directory companies who are siphoning off half of all the money spent in an average market.

The full report from Borrell Associates is due to be released in the coming days.

(Via Social Media)

Filed under: advertising, internet, journalism, newspapers

May 29, 2007 • 2:49 pm 0

So Google is to blame for the decline of journalism?

Who is the blame for the sorry state of journalism in the US? According to Neil Henry, professor of journalism at University of California at Berkeley, it it is the likes of Google and Yahoo:

I see a world where corporations such as Google and Yahoo continue to enrich themselves with little returning to journalistic enterprises, all this ultimately at the expense of legions of professional reporters across America, now out of work because their employers in “old” media could not afford to pay them.

In the article in the San Francisco Chronicle, he argues that Google and new media companies like it, should take “greater civic responsibility for journalism’s plight”.

The problem with his argument is that it is based on the wrong premise. It assumes that Google, Yahoo and the like are responsibile for the decline in quality journalism in the US. Apart from anything else, newspaper circulation has been slowly falling since before the Internet.

In a sense, newspapers have only themselves to blame. They have lost out in a war of innovation to Google by failing to invest aggressively in emerging forms of communication. From the State of the Media report of 2005:

The problem is that the traditional media are leaving it to technology companies – like Google – and to individuals and entrepreneurs – like bloggers – to explore and innovate on the Internet. The risk is that traditional journalism will cede to such competitors both the new technology and the audience that is building there.

Rather than invest in new and untried forms of journalism, newspaper owners sought to continue squeezing 20% margins out of the product. This approach worked in an environment where news was a scarce commodity and a local newspaper had a virtual monopoly on information, but not in an age of an abundance of information. The strategy by some newspaper owners to keep profits high by cutting back on staff merely weakens the very strength of a newspaper, its journalism.

It is instructive to note that the newspapers that are thriving online as those owned by families, like The Washington Post or by a trust, like The Guardian.

What we can learn from new media is that the predominant model of the newspaper industry is broken. Blaming Google will not fix this. It is time to develop a new model for journalism, perhaps based on the idea of a trust or non-profit, as with the St. Petersburg Times. It is important for quality journalism to survive, be it in newspapers or online

Filed under: Web 2.0, internet, new media, newspapers

• 8:51 am 3

CBC, Facebook and the battle over abortion

CBC Wish List graphicAfter just a couple of days, 2,000 people have joined a Facebook group set up by CBC. The project is a partnership with Facebook.com and the Canadian youth organization Student Vote, dubbed the Great Canadian Wish List.

It is aimed at providing a forum for Canadians to express their top wish, tapping into the social networking functions of Facebook to rally members behind their ideas.

CBC News chief Tony Burman has described it as “a ground-breaking experiment in civic engagement and journalistic partnership.”

As Darren Barefoot says, it’s a good idea, but CBC are a little too self-congratulatory about it.

CBC should be applauded for seeking to strength its ties with its viewers, listeners and readers. And I can understand why it has adopted Facebook to do this. After all, two million Canadians, 10% of its members, are on Facebook. But it also means that to take part, you have to sign up for a Facebook (free) account.

And it looks like the Wish List is in danger of being hijacked by interest groups in favour and against abortion. At the time of this posting, 121 people had backed a wish to end abortion in Canada.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out and whether the Wish List turns into a battleground over abortion. If so, should CBC intervene?

Filed under: CBC, Canada, Web 2.0, internet, social media

May 27, 2007 • 8:01 pm 0

When consumer-created ads go wrong

You can almost imagine the conversation in the boardroom – let’s get our consumers to come up with some ads, post them on YouTube and we’ll be the talk of the town, or at least the internet.

Heinz graphicUnfortunately, taping into the power of user-generated content doesn’t always go as planned, as this an article in the New York Times explains.

It examines Heinz’s competition to get its fans to create video ads for ketchup. The results are “just so bad” said senior one ad executive.

But the issue here is more than whether the works are bad or mediocre. Many of the entries have been rejected because they longer than the 30 second limit, used copyrighted material or were deemed unsuitable for a family audience.

Heinz, like other companies, is assuming that its consumers will express their love for ketchup in a way that matches its brand values. If there is one thing we know about user-generated content, it is that people will create all sorts of weird and wonderful forms of media that may startle, surprise or shock.

In an age where anyone can create and distribute their media to a global audience at the click of a button, organisations need to accept that they can’t control the message.

Heinz has rejected more than 370 submissions. But, as the NYT explains, at least 320 of them are still on YouTube. So if, as a multimillion dollar food conglomerate, you invite consumers create content around your brand, you need to be prepared for anything.

Filed under: advertising, social media, user-generated content, video

May 26, 2007 • 9:07 am 0

Click and see all the EPpy award-winners

In case you missed it, the EPpy Awards were announced earlier this week, honouring the top media-affiliated websites in 33 categories.

In a startling ‘old media’ approach, the official announcement does not have any links to the winners. This is just plain dumb, especially for a set of prestigious Internet awards.

So kudos to Mindy McAdams for putting together a page with links to all winners.

Filed under: internet, journalism, news, newspapers

May 24, 2007 • 11:31 am 5

Putting the geek into journalism

News about the first set of winners of the Knight News Challenge
 has rippled across the Internet.

Medill School of JournalismRather than repeat who got what, I wanted to highlight a couple of the smaller grants. One of the innovative initiatives funded by the Knight Foundation are scholarships for computer programmers and web developers to pursue a master’s degree in journalism Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

The idea came from Professor Rich Gordon, who recognises that journalism in a digital age needs people who understand both journalism and technology. This does not necessarily means that every journalist needs to be able to code in Perl or some other computer language. But the industry needs people with an understanding of emerging technologies to develop new forms of journalism.

Just look at the reputation of Adrian Holovaty, recipient of a US$ 1.1m Knight Foundation award. He, too, is excited by what he describes as “journalism scholarships for geeks” at Medill.

I also wanted to highlighted one other project funded by the Knight Foundation – a news simulation called Playing the News, developed by my friend Nora Paul at the University of Minnesota, that “lets you play through a complex, evolving news story through interaction with the newsmakers”.

Filed under: Web 2.0, innovation, internet, multimedia

May 23, 2007 • 8:53 pm 1

Breaking news oops

When a breaking news ticker doesn’t quite work as it should. From The Globe and Mail’s website:

Breaking news ticker from The Globe and Mail

That was all that came up. The item was referring to a story on how breakups hit men harder.

Filed under: Canada, internet

May 22, 2007 • 6:35 pm 0

The stabbing that has put Facebook in the crosshairs

A teen stabbing in Vancouver has caused a flurry of activity on Facebook, which has led the police to appeal for calm. The reason has been angry comments left on the memorial groups set up on Facebook for the dead 13-year old Chrisna Poeung.

While his friends were reluctant to talk to the press, they poured out their grief and anger online. Elementary schools have gone as far as blocking access to Facebook.

I was interviewed for an article on this issue for the Vancouver Sun. It struck me as hardly surprising that friends of the victim would turn to a social networking site to come together and express their grief. Sites like Facebook, with its 23 million users, are simply part of the world of youth today. The same thing happened on Facebook following the Virginia Tech shootings.

But I also wonder if the teens writing on Facebook saw this as their own private space online. But as we saw the aftermath of Virginia Tech, reporters were quick to log on and trawl the memorial spaces for comments and contacts. All you need to join Facebook is an e-mail address.

The implicit threats of retaliation in some comments should also be expected. The internet can be used as a platform for hasty, aggressive words. In a way, there is a different set of cultural norms online which means that people feel more comfortable with behaving in a way that would be unacceptable face to face.

Think of all those examples of e-mails composed in the heat of the moment which the senders later regretted. The internet offers a way of attacking someone verbally which is impersonal and you can hide behind your username or anonymity. In these circumstances, there is a lack of accountability for your actions.

Much of this online activity, too, will be taking place outside of parental supervision. Chances are the teens know more about the internet and computers than their mother or father. Lacking the basic skills, parents may simply be unaware of what their child is doing online.

The answer is not to ban teens from using the net. As one Vancouver teacher put it: “Websites are pervasive in our community and our world today, but it’s how we coach our children to respond to what they see that is more critical.”

This incident underlines the key role that the internet and other digital technologies play in the lives of young people. They live in a world of YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and others. As with every technology, this offers both challenges and an opportunities. What we cannot do is close our eyes and hope they will go away.

Filed under: Vancouver, Web 2.0, internet, new media, social media

May 21, 2007 • 11:40 am 0

Learning from the evolution of web design

One of the most stimuating aspects about online journalism is that there is no proven way of doing things. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for editors.

One constantly evolving area is website design, as news organisations try to improve how to present and convey information over the internet. The approaches of three leading US newspapers, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, are explored in an article in Editor and Publisher.

Ken Wilson of USAToday.com is bang on target when he says that the main challenge for news organizations is “to figure out how those tools can improve the presentation and delivery of the news.”

This means news organisations should adopt what business schools call “discovery-driven planning“.

What this means is that editors are dealing with a great deal of uncertainty when it comes to planning future strategy. The Internet is a disruptive technology so no one can be sure about how it is going to develop.

In this context, news organisations have to adopt a model where they can learn by experimenting and learning from mistakes, such as in website design.

Filed under: Web 2.0, innovation, journalism, newspapers, online

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Alfred Hermida
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