Socio-technological Impacts on Journalism Studies Paul Wedel Kenan Institute Asia
Journalism and Technological Change 2008 Qik goes beta 2006 Twitter launched 2005 Youtube starts 2004 Facebook launched at Harvard 2003 MySpace starts 2001 Podcasting, Wikipedia 1998 Google search engine, first blog 1994 Mozilla, first web browser 1993 First cellphone SMS 1992 voice and video over Internet 1990 worldwide web 1980 Cable television news 1928 Broadcast television news 1920 Radio news 1800 Daily newspaper 1450 Gutenberg movable type 1041 Chinese block prints50 BC Handwritten news Technology changes impacting news
Paradigm of 18 th -19 th century journalism Event Reader Newspaper Editor Journalist Reader’s choices: Read a different story Read a different newspaper Write to the editor
Paradigm of 20 th century broadcast journalism Event Viewer Broadcast Editor Journalist Reader’s choices: Switch to a different channel Phone in a comment
A new, more complex paradigm is developing for 21 st century journalism Event User Website Editor Multimedia Journalist Newspaper Blog Twitter Alert Vodcast Podcast PC Cellphone IPod Kindle Muckrack
Journalism research is needed to… Understand the way people interact with the new devices Find out what works and what doesn’t –Writing styles- Interactivity –Slideshow duration- Design and layout –Video length- Linkages Map how the different media interact Develop new business models to make it sustainable Establish new ethical codes and practices
Choices for the consumer Traditional newspapers, TV and radio Newspaper website News websites (GlobalPost.com) Podcasts and Vodcasts Blogs Twitter and Twitter accumulators (MuckRack) Alerts and search engines Variety of interfaces
A power shift in journalism Old: Owners, Editors New: Consumers, Content providers Socio- technological change
Traditional journalist roles and skills Reporter/writer Photographer Cameraman Reporter Producer Editor Reporter/writer Layout
Journalist roles and skills Mojos: Photographer Reporter/writer Videographer Producer Copy editing Design Programming Entrepreneur
Ethics and standards for the new journalism Manipulating images Speed vs accuracy Plagiarism Fact-checking Correcting errors – name and shame Objectivity
Finding a new business model for news Newspapers and television news have lost: –Classified ads – better done online, searchable, personalized –Young readers – get alerts or Twitter for information online –Breaking news – can’t beat the Internet –Closeness to consumers – can’t beat social networking Possibilities for online news: –Subscription –Personalized ads –Hyper-local news and ads
The challenge for journalism studies To understand the new way the new journalism is working and changing To provide the skills students need to be successful in the new journalism To set realistic standards for the profession To find business models that enable good journalism to survive