1. New Media Technologies: Social Media and News COM 300 Kathy E. Gill 3 May 2007

2. Agenda  More On Open Source  Online News, Blogs, Podcasts  Discussion Leaders & Small Group Discussion

3. Recap: Cluetrain  Markets are networks composed of people … and people like to talk (communicate)  Companies can impose barriers to this communication (or not)  Reducing barriers means a community of like-minded people has better chance of forming

4. EC: GNU Project (1/2)  Start of open source philosophy (1985) “The word `free’ in `free software’ pertains to freedom, not price” … think free speech, not free beer!  Four principles … Freedom to: Use the program as you wish Adapt the program Distribute copies to help your neighbor Improve the program and share it with the public to benefit the entire community

5. EC: GNU Project (2/2)  Technologists developing social networks to develop new software … by using communication (technology) networks  Subsequently … Linux, Apache, TCP/IP, SMTP … Important: this internet infrastructure was not mandated by a “government”

6. Online News : Overview  Repurposing electrons from print to new media is a business decision  Few papers have adopted blogs Social system disconnect? Not enough time?  Syndication is an integral part of social system

7. RSS  Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication, RDF Site Summary  XML document that facilitates content syndication This “feed” contains structured data Transformed to information by RSS reader  Ease of syndication, low cost

8. RSS Development Timeline March 1999NetscapeRSS 0.90 July 1999NetscapeRSS 0.91 June 2000UserlandRSS 0.91 Late 2002RSS-Dev Working Group RSS 1.0 January 2003 UserlandRSS 2.0.1

9. Cool/Lame

10. Online News RSS Adoption Apr 2002New York Times (limited to Userland) RSS 0.91 Oct 2002Christian Science Monitor 25, RSS 1.0 Mar 2004Washington Post125, RSS 2.0 Apr 2006Washington Post150, RSS 2.0 Seattle Times47, RSS 2.0 Apr 2007Seattle Times54, RSS 2.0 New York Times101, RSS 2.0

11. Editorial Decision  Not technological decision > in 3 of 15 markets, papers are co-managed Philadelphia Inquirer (16); Daily News (2) Detroit News (35); Free Press (1) Seattle Times (45); P-I (27)

12. Why Rapid Adoption?  Syndication in line with culture  Business model is evolving How to reverse loss in readers? How to generate online revenue?  Recognition of growth of blogosphere, driving readers “Pay to read” barriers (WSJ v CSM)

13. What is Journalism? Journalism is “our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life. That which goes unrecorded goes unpreserved … The creation and preservation of collective memory…” is the practice of journalism. - James W. Carey

14. Participatory Journalism Characterized by expanded two-way communication between media and readers. With blogging, reader becomes author and author (journalist) becomes reader, ending the one-to-many model of communication.

15. Measuring Influence  How to measure intellectual influence? Shaping the news hole Tools to help assess credibility

16. Shaping the News Hole  Trent Lott story (2002) Covered by only one reporter following event Kept alive by bloggers - liberal and conservative  Microsoft “switch” campaign (2002)  LA Times (2004) Supreme Justices Scalia v Ginsburg  Dan Rather (2004)  Colbert’s monologue Press Club Dinner (2006)  Josh Marshall – AttorneyGate (2007)

17. More Questions to Ponder  Which link is the more representative of influence: blogroll or post?  Are several daily short posts more reflective of influence than less frequent longer (more depth) posts?  How do we deconstruct the blogosphere to provide useful information within genres?

18. Podcasts  Audio file + RSS = Podcast Not just iPod, it’s just that iPod created a broad audience Incredibly fast adoption  Entered Oxford English Dictionary in 2005 Started in 2004 by Adam Curry (see Wikipedia on trademark challenge) Wikipedia

19. Videocasts & YouTube  Robert Murdoch buys MySpace Music distribution  Google buys YouTube Army launched YouTube Channel, “cracks down on” soldier blogs (E&P, 2 May 2007)E&P

20. Summary  Blogging (and social networks) technology is having a profound impact on Web content  Neither news nor politics will be the same  Next week: spotlight on politics

21. Resources  Gill, KE (2004). How can we measure the influence of the blogosphere. WWW2004, New York, NY USA. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/w ww2004_blogosphere_gill.pdf http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/w ww2004_blogosphere_gill.pdf  Gill, KE (2005). Blogging, RSS and the information landscape, a look at online news. WWW2006, Chiba Japan. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gil l_www2005_rss.pdf http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gil l_www2005_rss.pdf