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Similar to Digital newsroom, threat or opportunity.4
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Digital newsroom, threat or opportunity.4
- 1. By Lucy Gliddon, SabeelaTariq and Lewis Nolan
- 2. Figures such as blogger Perez Hilton who operates a celebrity gossip website could also pose a threat. Although he does not refer to himself as a journalist, he still manages to achieve a large number of hits . This could be particularly threatening to gossip magazines, as their audience can get the information quicker, and for free.
- 3. Hard copy newspapers can only offer the news in print format with photographs, whereas the internet offers extensive choice including video clips and podcasts.
- 4. -500,000 0 500,000 1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 3,500,000 Jan-09 Jan-08 % change Dec-08 January 2009 (without bulks) August 2008 – January 2009 % change on last year
- 5. Cultural Analyst Brian McNair believes that without digital media, stories would be unable to evolve in a productive way.
- 6. Brian McNair believes it aids the evolution of stories EG: Abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers
- 7. With the internet becoming more accessible by mobile phones, news corporations have to adapt to keep audiences. The opportunity of using mobile phone technology is to grab readers attention whilst on the go.
- 8. TheTimes newspapers introduced pay walls in . . .and showed that where the online threat of losing income can be changed by introducing pay walls. Pay walls appear when a user wants to access a site but must first pay a small fee. Using paywalls for newspapers websites is a great way to create extra income, however, could divert readers away.
- 9. Bob Franklin believes new technologies can be problematic for those in the industry: Job Cuts Journalists isolated However… Speed and efficiency, “obvious benefits”
- 10. Journalist Jason Seiken believes an advantage is the vast capacity of the net… “There’s really no limit to what you can put on a website”
Editor's Notes
- The expansion of the digital newsroom creates both threats and opportunities for journalists. With the majority of sites offering journalism for free, inevitably newspapers have suffered from hard copy losses. Some newspapers, an example being The Times, are starting to introduce charges online to combat this. The internet is a platform which is easily accessible by non-journalists, and so it has been responsible for an increase in “citizen journalism”. This could possibly be a threat to trained journalists, and may also result in downgraded journalism which is not as rich in quality as an article may be in a newspaper. Figures such a Perez Hilton could also pose a threat, as although he does not refer to himself as a journalist, he still manages to achieve a large number of hits on his website. This could particularly be threatening to gossip magazines, as their audience can get the information quicker, and for free. The threat that the digital newsroom poses could be considered very much age-related, as the younger generations are more likely to seek their news online than the older generation. This could make it harder for newspapers to sell hard copies particularly in the future
- Non digital media platforms are threatened by the speed at which news can reach the internet. Breaking news stories can only reach a daily newspaper the day following the event, whereas online it can be reported almost instantly. Hard copy newspapers can only offer the news in print format with photographs, where the internet offers extensive choice including video clips. There is competition between online and offline news mediums, as they are competing for the same news. Eventually the same news appears virtually everywhere. The quantity of news that can be reached online is much greater than the amount that can be featured in a single newspaper as there is simply not enough space in a paper to accommodate all the stories which are featured online each day.
- Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter be useful for journalists as particular information can arise on these sites, creating story opportunities that may not otherwise have surfaced. Blogs and columns present journalists with an alternative platform to express opinions, or publish reviews. Journalists who can use the internet effectively are those that are likely to do well from it.
- Brian McNair believes that without digital media, stories would be unable to evolve in a productive way. He offers the example of allegations against the American forces in 2004 involving the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. “Without digital cameras, and the rapid global dissemination of the photographs made possible by new media technologies, and the availability of satellite channels for presenting the US administration’s propaganda counter-offensive the story would not have evolved in that way.”
- Despite the threats that it poses, the digital newsroom is extremely useful, and offers countless opportunities. At the end of an online article, more often than not the audience are given the opportunity to comment, debate in forums or take part in online polls. This presents the audience with the opportunity to share their personal opinions, but is also very useful to news organisations, as they can take comments into account, and improve their websites as a result. News on the web can be reached with greater speed and efficiency than news in a newspaper can, therefore allowing stories to reach their audience quickly.
- Brian McNair believes that without digital media, stories would be unable to evolve in a productive way. He offers the example of allegations against the American forces in 2004 involving the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. “Without digital cameras, and the rapid global dissemination of the photographs made possible by new media technologies, and the availability of satellite channels for presenting the US administration’s propaganda counter-offensive the story would not have evolved in that way.” Bob Franklin thinks that new technologies can prove problematic for those involved in the journalism industry. He sees job cuts as inevitable as a result of constantly evolving technology, and uses the example of Rupert Murdoch sacking 5000 print workers in order to employ new print technology. However he agrees that new technologies also bring multiple opportunities to the media world… “Speed and efficiency are the obvious benefits of this technology which allows a 1000 word story to be filed in seconds without a copy taker.”
- Jason Seiken, ex-editor of the Washington Post believes a great advantage of utilising the internet as a reporting tool is its vast capacity. “There’s really no limit to what you can put on a website. So whereas when publishing the Washington Post, we have to be very cognizant of how many pages we put out, when we’re publishing washingtonpost.com, well, we currently have more than 40,000 pages.”