Second assignment on future of journalism

1. Assignment #2
Due April 27 AT CLASS TIME
The following assignment marks the last formal assignment for this class.
Your goal is to pick two news organizations – one legacy/traditional, one new. (E.G., CNN &
Buzzfeed; The Washington Post & ProPublica). These organizations may be print, digital, radio,
or television. Even mobile and social apps can be included if you really want (e.g. stand-alone
companies or efforts like Apple News and potentially depending on how you talk about it, even
Facebook and its news efforts, Twitter, etc.,but see me first before you select this option so I can
give you additional guidance).
Your goal is to do the following in a 10-12 page double-spaced paper,which will rely heavily
on news articles from journalists covering the media industry—news about the news. In addition
to major periodicals (NPR,the NYT, etc.),recommended outlets include Poynter, MediaShift,
Nieman Journalism Lab, Columbia Journalism Review, Nieman Reports, the American Press
Institute, Pew Research Institute,Digiday, Fortune (specifically Mathew Ingram), Fusion
(specifically Felix Salmon), Medium, AdAge, Re/Code, Politico’s Jack Shafer, etc.,comments
from Emily Bell etc. (For some guidance, check http://observer.com/2015/05/17-people-who-
should-write-the-new-york-times-media-column/, those featured here at the conference I am
headed to in Italy http://www.journalismfestival.com). You can estimate about 5 pages spent on
each news organization, plus intro and conclusion. If you are having trouble finding information
you’d like, I recommend you take this Google Advanced Search tutorial:
https://newslab.withgoogle.com/lesson/6537916658483200
All content must come from 2015-2016 unless you ask me first.
1) Offer a very briefrationale for why you chose the two organizations
2) Provide a case study ofeach news organization. This will include:
a) An analysis of its current business model. Be sure to take into account any hard factors
you can find – ratings, profit, page views, earning reports, 990s for non-profit journalism
outlets (non-profit earning statements available here
https://www.guidestar.org/Home.aspx), etc. Be sure to look for any mention of cuts,
hiring, firings, etc.,major donations, major funding rounds, etc.,advertising plans, etc.
b) A brief analysis of their journalism – look to see if there have been prizes won (e.g.
Pulitzers, Peabodys,prizes for investigative journalism, complaints about the journalism,
etc.).
c) a brief discussion of the online user experience on mobile and computer
d) This is really important! Be sure to note 3-4 new innovations these organizations have
made to stay on top of the future of journalism. These should not repeat any articles
discussed in class unless there are new sources used. These innovations can include
anything from announcements about citizen journalism, programming efforts,virtual
reality, etc. any of the innovations of the style we read about. You can draw on company
memos that have become public, but the goal is to learn about new innovations
happening in the news organization.
3) In a concluding section,explain potential strengths and weaknessesfor the organizations
going forward
a) In a brief section, please address what advantages and disadvantages each
organization will have going forward
b) Explain what advantages your traditional organization might have over the non-
traditional organization and vice versa.

2. You can separate the paper into sections – this doesn’t have to be one coherent cohesive essay,
and can be organized into these sections if you’d like.
4) Please provide a clear list ofreferences.Please be sure to provide references in APA
form, not footnotes. For howto use APA form, please see here
(https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/05/). DO NOT JUST DROP LINKS into
your references. Please use in-text citations and a reference list.
News article reference:
Author, A. A. (Year,Month Day). Title of article. Title of Newspaper. Retrieved from
http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/
Parker-Pope,T. (2008, May 6). Psychiatry handbook linked to drug industry. The New York
Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/psychiatry-handbook-linked-to-
drug-industry/?_r=0
5) Hand in a paper and electronic document. Your electronic document should have all
reference links enabled.