Inform me! News media

 Inform me! News media

Extra!.... extra!......read all about it!.....Paper!!

Today, in our digital age we are at an exciting time in the history of Journalism.

We are able to access the best of both worlds in relation to news and information - traditional media and new media or digital journalism.

The slow demise of the daily ritual of buying the paper cannot be denied. And we don't have the paper seller on the corner shouting out “Paper” any longer.Classifieds are now online and the newspaper industry is loosing revenue so the very nature of journalism is changing. 

My view is, we are in a position in this transition period to access news in a myriad of ways depending on the situation we are in and they all have merit.

Is this the future of newspapers?

The newspaper is still an important source of news.  Rich in tradition and daily ritual such as when we are commuting to work or taking a coffee break at a café or lazing around on Sunday morning.These are all great opportunities to read the paper that continues to be part of our lifestyle and I don’t think the newsprint media is about to end just yet. We source our news also by listening to the radio when travelling or when working and we listen to talk-back news related stories in the car.

Television news from early morning shows to the late night news reviews are a popular,major source of our news information.
On the other hand online news is rapidly becoming the norm especially in relation to the news of “Defining moments” as discussed by Harper.¹  When defining moments occur what do we do? 

                cartridgesave.co.uk                   

With 9/11 it was definitely television that we were all glued to, when John Lennon was shot it was the paper and earlier when JFK was assassinated it was the radio that we sourced our defining moment news from.We use the best or most advanced source of news available at the time.We check our phones and online news sources or we turn on the television, we do not rush out and buy the paper. The speed of news sourcing and retrieval is so fast with phone apps and online news sites that is not comparable to print media, although we may return to print media for editorials and further news after an event or to local and regional papers. Online news reporting is changing the nature of the reporter as well because journalists are able to be directly involved in every aspect of the storytelling, creating multiple layers linked to other stories using a variety of media to tell the final story. Leah Gentry calls this "Nonlinear storytelling" as discussed in Harpers article.¹ 
Linking one story to another or telling the same story from several points of view. Gentry states "Journalists who succeed (online) will do, solid reporting, careful editing, compelling writing, and visual storytelling using the latest tools available.They will tell their stories in whatever medium people use. But the tenets of the industry will remain the same." ¹

This is my view as well, we will have more involvement in the product of news and it will be more layered but basically it is the same - News. There is a plethora of news options online but it comes down to what is your own favourite site, mainstream or alternate that suits you and your interests and of course what source you trust.The one aspect of online news that print media will never compete with is the extent of choice. We are able to subscribe to exactly the sort of information, the style and the delivery we want for specific detail and regular updates with thousands of options so online news can be personally tailored to you.

aiourdubooks.com 

Updates of news online is fast and regular so we can check the latest story. If the update is too old we quickly move on to another site.This is the flighty nature of todays news audience, constantly moving from one source to another and seeking updates.We use the best or most advanced source of news available at the time.We check our phones and online news sources or we turn on the television, we do not rush out and buy the paper. The speed of news sourcing and retrieval is so fast with phone apps and online news sites that is not comparable to print media, although we may return to print media for editorials and further news after an event or to local and regional papers. Online news reporting is changing the nature of the reporter as well because journalists are able to be directly involved in every aspect of the storytelling, creating multiple layers linked to other stories using a variety of media to tell the final story. As Pavilk explains in his book Journalism and New Media  "Storytelling journalism in an online electronic environment is best described as contextualised journalism which has 5 basic dimensions or aspects;
 1. Breadth of communication modalities 2.Hypermedia 3.Heightened audience involvement
 4 Dynamic content and 5.Customisation"²

www.strategoconsulting.com

I do not agree with Harper when he says that the online audiences for news remains small. Harper ¹ Consider the  breaking news of Whitney Houstons death - a Tweet was sent twenty-seven minutes before mainstream media broke the news. On the other hand I would agree that television news remains the largest source for mass audiences.I was interested to hear in our i-lecture Chris Thomson speak about Rupert Murdoch in his speech to an International News Conference in 2005 announcing that it was necessary for News Limited to pitch their readership towards "digital natives" (those born after 1990's onwards) and not to "digital immigrants".(those born before the digital age)³
The decade the consumers were born into, therefore their age,computer literacy as well as availability of technology is a large factor in the move from traditional television news and online news sources.The digital immigrants may consider the changing of their news habits to be too difficult and so continue with radio, television and print media.

In reading Harpers article one can see that already the concepts he speaks about are out of date. I think today in 2012 the main reason people go online is to access social networking sites, to have a say, connect with others and be informed not necessarily to email. Moreover, I think as our computers, phones and ipads or tablets alert us with breaking news and it is delivered straight into our devices, it is free, clearly set out and extremely easy to access we are becoming more consumers of online news than Harper states. At a glance we can receive the latest updates, a glimpse by live streaming text on a building or a post from a news blog, or a Facebook comment, twitter tweets, the news is never far away.

http://venturebeat.com

 News corporations are powerful and the online news business is still based on traditional media and alternate online news sites could not exist at this point without them.The print media provides detailed information based on the editor and the agenda they set, whereas radio and television are apt to give a condensed headline style reporting often over sensationalised and not very much specific information.Online news does provide the headline but by the nature of the web and links allows a reader to further investigate if he or she wants more information on a story or topic.The role of the gatekeeper has changed because with tweets and social networking our interactive audiences demand that if a story is not told or not enough information is given they will do it themselves.They become the reporter, the activist, the publicist, the camera person and the editor.This change in the reporting of news and its scope brings up a point in relation to the other reading this week on "Democracy and New Media" by Thorburn and Jenkins.⁴

dailyshotofcoffee.com

Is communication technology the enemy of anti democratic structures or can democratic structures prosper in a digital environment? History will no doubt tell us the answer in time. 

Comparison of form and content of online and print media: 

I access news mostly on Google news or Pulse aggregated news sites with sourced news from around the world via other news corporations RSS feeds.

The form and content is layered with Pulse being more mosaic in style. Google shows the source of the Top Stories for example ABC News and the time of posting.

The article also links to other sources of news on the same story on other sites thereby giving many viewpoints on the one topic.

The ability to comment instantly is available with Google+ whereas with newspapers it takes days if not weeks to make a comment as a “letter to the editor” Column 8 or Heckler in SMH.

So, when you go to Google news you can easily see what all the other main news sources are saying about a story.

We are able to obtain more comprehensive information and points of view on the same story with Google online news.The format is clear, simple, uncluttered and fairly bland which is good for news, not over sensationalised or editorialised although there are other many and varied online news styles some with questionable credibility. 

ftc.gov 

This differs to news print media in some aspects but not all.With print media the categories are available and the format is clear, uncluttered and easy to read but each story only shows what one reporter is telling us at a time and does not allow many viewpoints so is not as comprehensive as online sites.Also the feeds, alerts, updates and subscription capabilities are more user friendly and accessible with online news.

On the other hand the advantage of the newspaper is the agenda for the top stories is broader whereas on Google news site we may just have three top stories at a time.

With print media the gatekeeper is the editor but with online news we the consumer are the gatekeeper as we choose the content and if we require more we can go to the source.

I also like the Sydney Morning Herald site although I miss the actual feel and touch of the paper especially the crossword.There are wider issues to be considered than choice of medium as J.E. Kirkely in her paper Privacy and the News, poses the question."Can journalists be "trusted" to strike a balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the privacy interests of individuals?  A better question might be, can government be "trusted" to strike that balance"? 6 

References:

1. Christopher Harper (2003). Journalism in a digital age. 
2. John Vernon Pavlik (2001). Journalism and New Media. Columbia University Press
3. Chris Thomson I-lecture Curtin University: 3.1 Inform me.
4. Henry Jenkins & D.Thorburn (Eds). Democracy and New Media. (pp. 271-280).    Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

5.Top Image courtesy of http://www.economist.com/node/16321506 > retrieved 2/15/12

6.J.E.Kirkley (1999) Privacy In the News. School of Journalism and Mass Communication

University of Minnesota.