Trends in Online Journalism

Online Journalism
One of the biggest growth opportunities is online journalism
Web Editors often make more money than their print editor counterparts
Expectations include writing AND technical skills

Jobs
Web editor and producer positions pay higher than the equivalent print positions
Web editor (Seattle) $65,000
Web producer (Seattle) $89,000
NOTE: The above info comes from Salary.com survey data

Online Journalism Jobs
Job titles may vary, but there are typically these positions:
Web Editor
Senior Web Editor/Managing Web Editor
Web Producer
Senior Web Producer/Managing Web Producer
Other titles:
Multimedia Assignment Editor
Multimedia Assignment Producer
Presentation Editor
Internet Content Editor

Recent Survey Results
Highest valued “Editing and Copyediting Skills” among New Media Content Producers:
News judgment
Grammar and style
Headline writing for the Web
Story combining/shortening

Highest valued “Content Editing Skills” among New Media Content Producers:
Photo editing
Reporting and writing original stories
Alternative story forms (polls, quizzes, etc.)
Audio production
Video production

Highest valued “attitude and intangible” skills in New Media Content Producers:
Multitasking ability
Attention to detail
Communication skills
Ability to work under time pressure

Reading Habits
Reading online is typically 25% slower than print
Some “tricks” to keep a reader interested:
Layout with bullet points and bold subheads
Break longer stories into “chunks”
Include multimedia elements
Polls
Slideshows
Audio/Video

Web Journalism
What works online?
Breaking news
Links to credible sources
Instant archives
Interactivity
Multimedia

Storytelling or Presentation Convergence
New ways of “telling the story” are emerging
Use more than just audio, video or text
Readers/Viewers can participate
Unlimited “space” to tell the story
Non-linear structure

Example
“Being A Black Man” in The Washington Post

Backpack Journalism
Online journalists need to know how to write, shoot and record
They also have technology skills for posting/uploading stories online
“Backpack Journalism” = All the tools for reporting fit in your backpack
Self-contained reporter from story creation to distribution

“Backpack Journalist”
Employers want to hire someone that can do it all
Write an accurate story fast
Use new media tools to tell the story

Examples
KRON-TV San Francisco
Current TV

Journalists Moving Online
Some established journalists are moving online to have more control over their reporting
Example:
CNN’s Daryn Kagan
Walter Cronkite blog

Welcome to Web 2.0

Web 2.0
The term is subject to “hype” and remains in debate and in flux

Web 2.0
Content power shift to the masses rather than the “mass media”
Mass media is “de-massed”
It’s all about YOU

Web 2.0 & Journalism
Architecture of participation
User-generated content
Blogs
Wikis
“ Crowdsourcing”
Social networking sites

User-Generated Content
These sites build content from the submission of users, rather than staff editors or writers
“ Blogs”/Personal Journals
Photos
Podcasts
Video sharing (“Vlogs”)
Reviews/Advice
Forums

Photobucket vs. Kodakgallery

Beyond the Computer
Web serves as a platform for other technologies to interoperate with
Mobile devices
Home entertainment devices
Appliances

Online Publishing Tools
Publishing information online has become easier due to several self-publishing tools and content management systems

Example: Blogs
Popular Blog Tools
Blogger.com
LiveJournal
WordPress

Blog Popularity
A new blog is started every second
Many remain unread and semi-anonymous
A few end up with a strong following
Most are not created by journalists!

Who is Blogging?
Bloggers are young
More than half (54%) of bloggers are under the age of 30.
55% of bloggers blog under a pseudonym, and 46% blog under their own name.
SOURCE: PEW INSTITUTE 2006 SURVEY

Is it Journalism?
Most bloggers do not think of what they do as journalism.
34% of bloggers consider their blog a form of journalism, and 65% of bloggers do not.

Is It Journalism?
Most have not “trained” to be journalists
57% of bloggers include links to original sources either “sometimes” or “often.”
56% of bloggers spend extra time trying to verify facts they want to include in a post either “sometimes” or “often.”

Beyond Text
Bloggers are using more than simple words to tell their stories
72% Photos
30% Audio
15% Video

“ Moblogging”
Mobile phone blogging
Instant “on location” blogging via one’s mobile phone
Photo share publishing “on the go”
Uses camera phones to see what the publisher sees instantly

Moblogs and Breaking News
U.S. east coast blackout
London subway terrorist bombing

User-controlled News
Internet users like to have some control over the media they consume
Personalized news
Peer-recommended news
“Open-source” news

Personalized News
Google News
No editors are employed
Uses traffic analysis and readership patterns to determine what is most newsworthy

Peer-recommended News
Digg.com
Readers “vote” on what they like
Highest votes = highest news placement on site

“Open-Source” News
OhMyNews
Huge in South Korea
Expanded to international audience
41,000 “citizen reporters”
20% of content created in-house by only 55 staff reporters

“Open-Source” News
WikiNews
User-created news reports
Collaborative editing by peers
A Russian-language version is now available

Mainstream News Dominates
Independent news is thriving, but mainstream news still dominates online
Top U.S. news sites:
1. Yahoo! News
2. MSNBC
3. AOL News
4. CNN
5. The New York Times
SOURCE: 9/7/2006 COMSCORE REPORT

Mainstream News Blogs
Mainstream news outlets are adapting their own blogs
The New York Times
The Washington Post
CBS News
MSNBC

The Aggregators
News site aggregators have proven to be very popular…and influential
They do not write news, but they do create headlines and selectively choose which stories get coverage

The Aggregators
Drudge Report
Conservative in nature
Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton Scandal
Huffington Post
Liberal response to Drudge Report

The Aggregators
Beyond news, there are several popular aggregate blog sites for specific areas of interest
Examples:
Technorati.com
BoingBoing.net

“ Crowdsourcing”
“ Crowdsourcing” is a new trend in online journalism that has many supporters and skeptics

What is “Crowdsourcing?”
A collaborative form of reporting
Each contributor researches and contributes a component to the overall piece
The actual story may or may not be written by a collaborator
Content is usually overseen by a centralized editor

“Pro-Am” Journalism
Crowdsourcing is often referred to as “pro-am journalism”
A combination of both professional and amateur contributions

Examples of “Crowdsourcing”
In Journalism:
Wired.com and NYU: AssignmentZero.com
Minnesota Public Radio: Public Insight Journalism

Gannett Restructuring
Major media company Gannett restructured most of its print and Web operations to include “crowdsourcing” in Nov. 2006
“ Information Centers”
Gannett is the largest newspaper publisher in the U.S. (by circulation)

Pros
Community involvement
Transparency of reporting process
Micro-reporting of events and developments normally missed by mainstream media
“ Hyper-local” reporting
Builds valuable “database” of content
Tomorrow’s “reporters” may also be “database managers”

Cons
“Amateur” reporting has its risks
Majority rules
Stories only developed because users ask for it (or participate in it)
Subject to manipulation
Political or personal agendas might inspire disproportionate coverage of particular issues
Staff reporters might lose some value

“Assignment Zero”
Launched March 2007
Users “log in” to find potential news story assignments that they can contribute to
Suggest questions for the reporter to ask
Conduct research/interviews for the story
In some cases, you can actually write the full story

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Trends in Online Journalism

by Brett Atwood

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