The journalism profession and eyes of audiences searching for news content are shifting. Internet technology keeps expanding and new platforms for audience interaction online are blurring the lines of traditional channels of distributions of the media industry.
Facebook phenomena
Social networking sites such as Facebook is taking advantage of Internet technology of connecting users by providing a free of charge online service allowing users to connect to old classmates, friends and colleagues.
Users can exchange real time information with defined established social groups about various topics, which can range from personal to local news within these social networks. So, how does this affect a traditional news organizations and reporters?
Facebook reports it has 300 million active users with six billion minutes spent on the server each day http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics. Many eyes are viewing and scanning Facebook on a regular basis. Facebook’s fastest demographic audience is 35-years-old and older. Also, more than two billion pieces of content (links, blog posts, news stories, and photos) are produced daily.
Reporters working in traditional channels of distribution in the media industry are realizing Internet audiences are not confined by market distribution. Instead, Internet audiences are defined niches that have shared interests. They use the Facebook platform for discussion. These virtual podiums enhance marketplace of ideas, which many reporters use to create content for mass audiences.
With diversified audiences and user content of Facebook, traditional reporters have more opportunities to tell the story of the diversity and magnitude of the human experience boldly, even when it is unpopular to do so http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.
Twittering news coverage
So, where does Twitter fit into the scheme of reporting news coverage? Twitter is another real time Internet social network allowing users to link to others with short blasts of updates about what is happening in the user’s life and surroundings. The user can use text, photo and video feeds to update.
The concept of reporting events and news as it happens is the goal of every established news organization. Several news distributors have discovered Twitter as a channel to distribute news alerts.
As messages in Twitter are restricted to 140 characters, news alerts in Twitter can only consist of a headline and a URL of the article where the full text can be read. Twitter is an additional channel where news alerts that are already available on other platforms (website, news ticker, RSS feed, and SMS alert) can also be distributed without cost for the subscriber http://help.twitter.com/forums/10711/entries/13920.
Several gateways between the existing news alert feeds and Twitter were initially build by persons who were not affiliated with the publishers of the news alerts. Even now it is not always clear if the news alerts on Twitter are officially endorsed by the original publishers.
It is clear that Twitter can be an effective tool for journalists, but journalists must not be lax on identifying their sources as well as the reliability of the source’s information. So, it means reporters must still be diligent in preserving the integrity of the profession.
Journalism remains the same, just different techniques
At its core the job of the working journalist, it has remained unchanged. It is the methods of gathering information for reporting the news to audiences, which has changed within the media industry. Also, it is the audiences that are changing with these new platforms.
Audiences are becoming more segmented and shared Internet global communities are emerging on a daily basis. The new goal of the media professional is to identify these communities and report news that is relevant to these audiences. National and local news will always be pertinent to these audiences.
Now, these communities have platforms to discuss these issues and how they impact their daily lives. Reporters now have a new duty to report as well as respond to the viewers and readers of this new platform.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sea of Convergence
As many new students and young professionals enter into the study and the field of journalism, they are aware of concepts of social media and blogging when developing content or other strategic communication for their perspective media outlet or clients.
What about the established media professional who is out of the loop on such reporting techniques and these new strategic communication efforts to reach broader audiences? Newspaper, radio and television have been in the mainstream of society as sources of information for people for decades.
Of course, the established media professional has been taught through the course of years via educational and practical applications on how to develop messages to their perspective target audiences based on demographic criteria. In this Internet driven era, some of the old conventions do not apply.
The Internet and its technologies have eliminated the many distinctions between these mainstream media outlets. Web pages allow users to scan, view and listen to what information is relevant to their needs. It switches the model of the journalism industry from a news-driven profession to an audience-need driven model.
As communication technologies keep developing, novice users can capture images, videos and report real time news events as they happen. Also, users now have the ability to share these stories to other users via social media sites and blogging sites on the Internet.
As audiences eyes are switching to another medium as a source of information, advertising dollars are going with those eyes to catch their attention to sell a specific product or service. What does that mean for the mainstream media?
It is simple. When advertising dollars are being diverted to another channel of communication, there will be less money for that specific outlet. What does it mean for the professional at that outlet? It could be restructuring of the organization or potential layoffs.
What can media outlets do to survive this changing environment? Media outlets are following the old adage, “if you can’t beat them, then join them.” Some media outlets and professionals are joining in with users of online opinion based journalism when reporting news to their mainstream audiences.
Media organizations are recognizing these changes and using these technologies to their advantage enabling viewers to interact and report these stories as they happen. What about accountability?
In this new medium, this seems to be an afterthought. When operating in an Internet reporting environment, viewer attention like everything in the media industry is the top importance.
How does the industry effectively navigate?
* In my opinion, professionals must still adhere to traditional techniques while still applying new conventions when reporting the news or presenting information to the public.
* Know your various audiences. Mainstream media channels must recognize there are various audiences within their perspective markets by segmenting. Once identifying and segmenting the specific audiences, the media channel may have to devote energies into multiple news sites to appeal to each of these markets.
* Adhere to reporting relevance within each of these markets. If community journalism is part of the online rapport, this is one dimension the mainstream media is lacking the public is yearning.
* Gauge your success of the site by the number of hits you have on the site and comments left by viewers of the site of the stories reported or information presented.
What about the established media professional who is out of the loop on such reporting techniques and these new strategic communication efforts to reach broader audiences? Newspaper, radio and television have been in the mainstream of society as sources of information for people for decades.
Of course, the established media professional has been taught through the course of years via educational and practical applications on how to develop messages to their perspective target audiences based on demographic criteria. In this Internet driven era, some of the old conventions do not apply.
The Internet and its technologies have eliminated the many distinctions between these mainstream media outlets. Web pages allow users to scan, view and listen to what information is relevant to their needs. It switches the model of the journalism industry from a news-driven profession to an audience-need driven model.
As communication technologies keep developing, novice users can capture images, videos and report real time news events as they happen. Also, users now have the ability to share these stories to other users via social media sites and blogging sites on the Internet.
As audiences eyes are switching to another medium as a source of information, advertising dollars are going with those eyes to catch their attention to sell a specific product or service. What does that mean for the mainstream media?
It is simple. When advertising dollars are being diverted to another channel of communication, there will be less money for that specific outlet. What does it mean for the professional at that outlet? It could be restructuring of the organization or potential layoffs.
What can media outlets do to survive this changing environment? Media outlets are following the old adage, “if you can’t beat them, then join them.” Some media outlets and professionals are joining in with users of online opinion based journalism when reporting news to their mainstream audiences.
Media organizations are recognizing these changes and using these technologies to their advantage enabling viewers to interact and report these stories as they happen. What about accountability?
In this new medium, this seems to be an afterthought. When operating in an Internet reporting environment, viewer attention like everything in the media industry is the top importance.
How does the industry effectively navigate?
* In my opinion, professionals must still adhere to traditional techniques while still applying new conventions when reporting the news or presenting information to the public.
* Know your various audiences. Mainstream media channels must recognize there are various audiences within their perspective markets by segmenting. Once identifying and segmenting the specific audiences, the media channel may have to devote energies into multiple news sites to appeal to each of these markets.
* Adhere to reporting relevance within each of these markets. If community journalism is part of the online rapport, this is one dimension the mainstream media is lacking the public is yearning.
* Gauge your success of the site by the number of hits you have on the site and comments left by viewers of the site of the stories reported or information presented.
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