ALJ301

Professor Jeff Jarvis’s blog http://www.buzzmachine.com/ (an entry of which I mentioned in my previous post) is an informative analysis on the future of journalism, a future like his own (he writes updates on his battle with prostate cancer) he seems fairly positive about.

In his post from the 13/9/2009 titled: NewBizNews in the Guardian, he discusses how there is a profitable future for news if the media is willing to make changes, and view the industry as a business.  Times are changing and I agree that we need to stop mourning the past and working towards a sustained journalism future.

Many of the posts in this blog discuss a refusal by the industry to accept anything new. In his post titled: A poor craftsman blames others’ tools (10/9/2009); he discusses two journalists rejection of Twitter because it is not a purest form of journalism, despite the fact that it has the capacity to break news first.  In this entry Jeff is basically saying that news makes the journalist and not the reverse. This summation is something I agree with, everyone is a journalist if they have a newsworthy story to tell.

In his blog the professor is constantly praising new media. He stands up for Google (www.google.com) and Twitter (www.twitter.com) against the tirades of their abusers, and is firmly against Internet bigotry. He strongly believes that journalists need to embrace these news tools in order to have success. I for one am going to take his advice.

The face of journalism is changing and Professor Jeff Jarvis’s blog is testimony to the fact that it’s not getting uglier.

taken from (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_Q75UkpJYlrw/SYjon-J1xCI/AAAAAAAACBg/uwIeoGojNN4/s800/dorian_gray.jpg) on 30/9/2009

The topic on how to make money within the realms of multi-media journalism seems to be a popular blog topic. On the home page of http://www.journalism.co.uk/ 5 out of 16 entries were written around this topic (when accessed on the 20/9/2009), which highlights for me the industries concern over its economic future. The question of future economics gives rise to the question of what a job in journalism may mean in the future? And if it was a job solely as a newspaper reporter you were seeking, the future looks bleak indeed. A post in the editor’s pick section, titled: Economics Unbound: the US Journalism job market – plotted, by Judith Townend says, ‘What we have is a wipeout in newspapers, plus what looks like a combination of secular and cyclical declines in other ‘journalistic’ industries’.

www.buzzmachine.com/2009/09/19/did-we-ever-pay-for-content/). This entry linked to http://www.journalism.co.uk/ was a discussion on how media companies can continue to make money by exploiting new technologies. Jeff’s rationale in regards to making money not from the content but rather indirectly from other products it creates, makes obvious sense. He talks about the music industry and making money not from the music itself but rather from concerts and t-shirt sales. Although media companies have always done this through advertising, they now need to get more creative and move in the direction music has.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkRIbUT6u7Q

The more I read, the more I come to realise that the death of the newspaper is imminent. But have hope (like I do) that there is a possibility it is being replaced by something better – multi-media journalism. And this new industry will create better, more diverse jobs.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/saturdayextra/stories/2009/2539281.htm

What the group of panelist was discussing in the above forum for the ABC highlighted for me many of the questions that are being raised by new forms of convergence journalism.

The newspaper is dyeing a slow death – there is no meteor that will wipe them all out in one enormous explosion, but rather each one seems to be slowly succumbing to that deadly disease know as lack of funds.

The biggest concern surrounding the extinction of the newspaper, is what will replace its role in good-quality investigative journalism? The ABC can’t possibly shoulder the burden alone. Will this important part of democracy die beside its host?

The Internet has seen a proliferation in information, and the people supplying it can be an unknown commodity – everyone is a journalist, but who monitors the quality and ethics? In the past we relied on newspapers to supply us with creditable information, from creditable reporters. With so many media sites springing up, how can we measure the accuracy of the information?

The profits of newspapers are inextricably linked to advertising, which is why we are seeing their decline. For advertising companies online advertising is much cheaper to buy and can reach a more specific target audience, but with media sites receiving less in advertising are we going to start seeing product placement in our news stories? Like a can of coca-cola sitting in the foreground of a film shot, will a hero in a news story be meet with an ice-cold Carlton Draft?

I won’t necessarily mourn the death of the newspaper, but I will if it takes a big chunk of investigative journalism with it. I believe that the public has the right to scrutinise those that control things that affect us all, if we lose this, we lose democracy.

taken from (http://img148.imageshack.us/i/attackkp3.gif/#q=extinction%20of%20newspaper) on the 19/9/2009

taken from (http://www.cameraphonesplaza.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/blackberry-bold-9000-2.jpg) on the 30/9/2009

I’ll admit that I have an unhealthy obsession with my BlackBerry. Besides the usual things you use a mobile phone for, I also use mine for emails, taking photos, updating my facebook page, getting directions when I’m completely lost, keeping in contact with overseas friends through BlackBerry chat ,and the list goes on. This obsession could be an indication of why I find the idea of Mojo’s  (mobile Journalist) so appealing.

My mobile phone is a diverse tool and I’m sure if I put my mind to it I could exploit it even further. Mojo’s go out into the field armed only with this powerful tool and make news stories.

It’s not only professional journalists that are harnessing the power of the mobile phone, citizen’s are contributing to the news by capturing images, sounds, or video footage of events as they unfold. The immediacy of news stories is something that has never been able to occur before. In decades past, news stories were generally told after they happen; citizens using their mobile phones now break stories as they happen.

My first mobile phone that I got approximately 10 years ago had the capacity to make calls and send text messages; I look back at it in distain when I think of the capabilities of my current phone. I can’t begin to image what my phone in another 10 years will be able to accomplish, but I can predict that the improvements will be so advanced as to make me laugh at my current model.

As the quality of footage that the mobile phone can capture improves, so will our reliance on it as a news gathering tool. In the future I see the proliferation of mojo’s both professional and citizen as the power of this all-mighty tool grows.

The hanging of Saddam Hussein was captured on a mobile phone the link is below – beware as it is confronting footage.

http://www.livevideo.com/video/DE7A396FC77A4094A98B3E14554F37E7/saddam-hussein-hanging-video.aspxhttp

Sites like Straights Time, online, multimedia and print (www.stomp.com.sg) are providing citizens with a new forum to make changes within their communities, by reporting on issues that affect them. Not only do these citizen journalist sites empower people to tell stories, but also it gives them the opportunity to force change. It is impossible for journalists to cover every story that affects every type of community, like talk-back-radio, citizen journalist sites gives the average person a forum in which to highlight the things around them that need change.

When you go and have a look at this site (www.stomp.com.sq) the breadth of topics covered is huge, but each evidently raises the types of questions the Singaporean community wants answered.

More powerful than a blog, stomp guarantees an audience, meaning  the citizens of Singapore are being heard.

The advantage to stomp over some other citizen journalist sites like http://english.ohmynews.com/ is the fact that editors review and

sometimes re-write all stories before they are published, this ensure clarity and precision that lay citizens are not always capable of imparting. Further, it also keeps the site up to a certain standard and ensures the  stories adhere to a house style. This helps to ensure that site users get consistency across stories, so readability is improved.

The reason sites like stomp work so well is due to the incredible broadband and mobile coverage that Singaporean’s experience every day, it is actually 100% reliable. I know I would be more willing to contribute if my blackberry didn’t take so long to load.

Sites like this are the future. Average citizens will now make the news, report it, and be the audience, ensuring topics that may otherwise be ignored are highlighted.

To see some totally unrelated stomping click on the below link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI7gKhhnB00

It’s amazing how much information can be conveyed in just one hundred and forty characters, especially if you’re not pedantic about grammar.

The above sentence contained exactly that amount of characters including spaces, and this is the maximum allowed in a tweet.  These tidbits of information can be as ordinary as someone telling the world what they had for breakfast, or can be the source of important breaking news.

taken from (http://twitter.com/#search?q=what%20i%20had%20for%20breakfast) on the 29/8/2009

News is becoming more and more interactive. In the old days, the community used to have to wait for a journalist to break a major story. Thanks to the proliferation of things like tweeter, it is now citizens who often break the stories to journalists.

If you type any topic you can think of into twitter some response will appear www.twitter.com. This makes this and other blogging sites like it, an amazing research tool. Just think, if a topic you are researching is a niche topic, it’s a great way to find out who is talking about it, and then you have an instant interview possibility.  This is just one of the many advantages blogs can have for the discerning journalist.

Not only can micro-blogging sites be useful as an information source for journalists, but it is also a way to entice people to visit your news website. If a journalist tweets something of interest, a citizen may not be satisfied by that tiny morsel of information, so will log onto your website to pick up the full news story.

Keeping on top of current technology trends is so important for journalists; it can mean the difference between breaking a story (which can mean thousands of hits on your website) or trying to peddle day old news. With competition so tight you can’t afford to be behind the tweet.

When something of importance is happening in the world (for instance a natural disaster) it is bound to affect a lot of people, and those people want up-to-date information, and they want it quick. Waiting for the afternoon edition of the paper is no longer a viable option.

By embracing new technology, journalists and citizens are now able to feed us the most current information in a way that is easy to digest. Blogs and tweets tend to be sort and sweet.  They provide audiences with tidbits of information that make-up an ongoing story, which unfold as events happen.

A moblog allows both civilians and journalists to relay events as they unfold in front of them. A moblog doesn’t require access to a computer to report the information; it is so fresh you can practically smell it.

Podcasts let audiences choose what they want to hear. This allows people to access information that is relevant to them when they have time to listen to it. Not up at six am to listen to your favourite radio program? Listen to it that night on the treadmill. Convenience should be the name of the current generation.

Audiences now want to absorb information as quickly as they can; they want it succinct and digestible. A couple of words (tweet) – good; a voice talking to you as you go (podcast) – better; a quick progression of pictures (vlog) – best.

The job of a multi-media journalist is about the processing of information, whether they are catching it live for a vlog, or processing the various types of information coming back to the newsroom, either way success means embracing the new tools for reporting.

taken from (www.http://english.ohmynews.com) on 15/8/2009

The inclusion of citizens in the media means that stories that represent multiple and differing interests are given attention that standard media may ignore. Niche news markets can be developed and expanded as stories are uploaded. If you look at the titles of the news stories on the page above (taken from http://english.ohmynews.com/ on the 15/8/2009 at 11.19am) they give you an idea of the various news stories that citizen journalist found worthy to report on. The breadth and variety are obvious; there is a link to a story about Brazils anti-smoking laws; and another about a Japanese couple getting ripped off in a Rome restaurant, ‘Too Much For Lunch’.  The page offers viewers links to podcasts, video interviews, and talkback, which encourage interaction from the audience. Scrolling through ohmynews.com it is impossible not to find an item of interest.

Ohmynews.com works on the basis that if a citizen finds a story worthy enough to report on, other citizens may find it worthy enough to read. www.ohmynews.com promotes journalism for the audience, by the audience. The interactive news site, allows citizen journalist to report on the issues that affect them, their stories are then published, which promotes discussion from the reporters peers (other citizens).

Traditional media forms are quickly becoming a thing of the past. The success of ohmynews.com proves that media audiences want and expect their journalism to be multi-faceted, interactive, and voice the stories of the world’s citizens.

As a journalism student onymnews.com offers an amazing opportunity for publication, as well as a forum to practice the multiple skills that will be necessary for a 21^st century journalist.

I have never met someone who doesn’t want something for free. Walking away with a bargain feels great. But when thousands of people are getting something for nothing, who is left holding the bill?

The proliferation of online use means that more and more people are accessing their news for free. The old model of buying a newspaper certainly seems to be on the way out. So how will creditable news sources fund their staff?

The way business and economics work is constantly developing. Industries (including journalism) need to move with changing economies to work out how to make money in this new information age.  Advertising has always driving journalism. It’s what pays the wages. The $2.20 that the consumer forks out for his copy of the paper just doesn’t cut it. Advertising is what will continue to fund media. Media companies will need to sell their audiences time to advertisers. Like when we watch the news on free-to-air television, the time we spend watching commercials, funds the news in between. A similar approach will need to be used on-line, as more and more people use the Internet to access news information.  News companies may need to reach out to companies like this www.exa.com.au

It is the consumer’s time that has become a scarce commodity, and we are now trading on it, exchanging it for ‘free’ consumables. Each time we click on something ‘free’ we are feeding something of value back into the system. We are telling advertisers something about ourselves that they can then trade on. Nothing comes for free. It may be that we no longer have to pay money for news, but what we are selling is a tiny piece of ourselves.

For an example of what great advertising can achieve click on the below link:

http://www.yourdailymedia.com/media/1212061354/Master_Of_The_Internet

(picture taken from: www.zeroinfluence.files.wordpress.com/2006/06/3.jpg)

A citizen on their mobile phone took the above photo during the 2005 London bombings. This picture which was published extensively by the press, doesn’t just paint 1,000 words, it forces us to ask just as many questions. Who is a journalist?  What is their role? And where does the audience stand?

As technology advances so does the audience reach of the average person. Blogs, podcasts, and citizen news sites such as: http://en.wikinews.org or http://english.ohmynews.com/ means that anyone can have a story heard. Does this mean we are now all journalists? And if so, who is our audience? The voice of the common man can no longer be silenced, but with so much too hear, is anyone actually listening?

Readily available technology (such as mobile phones that come equipped with camera’s, video camera’s and sound recording devices) means that most of us now carry around with us, the basic devices necessary to put together a news piece. It is becoming more and more common for citizens to capture news stories as they witness them. With the rise of audience-generated content is the average person replacing the traditional on-the-field role of the journalist? If so, what will be the new role of the journalist? Information sifter? Will they now be condemned to sitting in their multi-media newsroom, sorting through a plethora of emails, podcasts, moblogs, and v-blogs, that has come in from Joe Blow?

The role of the journalist is now changing at a rapid rate, no longer can they choose a single medium e.g. print journalism or broadcast journalism. Journalists now need to be multi-specialised and able to multi-task, in order the deal with the multiple needs of their audience in this multi-media age.