There has never been a better time for "innovation journalism" and innovations in journalism.

1. Innovations and Journalism:
Finally Together?
12 April 2011
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford
Dr. Turo Uskali
University of Jyväskylä
Finland

2. First, as a journalist 1987‐1998
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3. Then as a researcher and lecturer
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4. Questions to start with
• What is the role of innovations in news
media/journalism?
• Why traditional news media have been so
poor in innovating in the digital age?
• What are the best innovations in news
media/journalism?
• What is ”innovation journalism”?
• Can ”innovation journalism” be devoleped
as a new news beat?
• How to educate ”innovation journalists”?
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5. Trying to find some answers by working as
a visiting scholar at
Stanford and Oxford Universities
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6. Definitions
• Innovation = the introduction of something new;
a new idea, method, or device
• Since 15th century
• Journalism = the collection and editing of news
for presentation through the media; the public
press; an academic study concerned with the
collection and editing of news or the
management of a news medium
• Since 1828
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7. News media and the need for
innovation
• Kaye, Jeff – Quinn, Stephen. 2010.
Funding journalism in the digital age
• Media companies are some of the
least innovative organizations in the
world because they have often been
unwilling to risk failure, a precursor
to innovation.
• Any solutions to the problems facing
the news media will have to include a
program for ongoing innovation.
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8. This is not enough.
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9. And, maybe, not even this…
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10. Journalism has been for a long
interested in innovations
• The use of
’innovation’ in
The New York
Times since
1851
2000
1500
1000
500
0
1851
1859
1867
1875
1883
1891
1899
1907
1915
1923
1931
1939
1947
1955
1963
1971
1979
1987
1995
2003
ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times
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11. 0
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
1969
1970
1971
1972
archive
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
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1987
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1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
• ”Innovation” in the Factiva digital news
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Already inflation of the very term
11

12. Furthermore…
Google search on ”Innovation”
1. Copenhagen,
Denmark
2. Singapore, Singapore
3. Berlin, Germany
4. Cologne, Germany
5. Mumbai, India
6. Delhi, India
7. Sydney, Australia
8. Melbourne, Australia
9. Washington, DC, USA
10. Munich, Germany
• 4.4.2011: 206 000 000 hits
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13. Uskali 12.4.2011 13

14. Backbones of the innovation research
• Schumpeter, Joseph. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
• Rogers, E. M. 1962. Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.
• Christensen, Clayton M. 1997. The Innovator's Dilemma: When New
Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business School Press,
Boston.
• Chesbrough, Henry. 2006. Open Innovation. The New Imperative for
Creating and Profiting from Technology. Harvard Business School Press,
Boston.
• von Hippel, Eric. 1988. The Sources of Innovation Oxford University Press:
New York.
• von Hippel, Eric. 2005. Democratizing Innovation, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
• Tuomi, Ilkka. 2002. Networks of Innovation. Change and Meaning in the Age
of the Internet. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Kao, John. 2007. Innovation Nation: How America Is Losing Its Innovation
Edge, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back. Free Press.
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15. Global innovation race
Kao, John. 2007. Innovation Nation: How
America Is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It
Matters, and What We Can Do to Get It Back.
Free Press.
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16. EU towards ”Innovation Union”
• http://ec.europa.eu/research/innovation‐
union/index_en.cfm
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17. Innovating innovation
• ”As a student of innovation for
more than twenty years, I still find
it amazing just how difficult
innovation continues to be.”
• ”We need to be innovative in the
area of innovation itself –
innovating innovation.” John Seely Brown
• ”To me, innovation means (Director Emeritus, Xerox Palo
invention implemented and taken Alto Research Center, PARC)
to market.”(2006)
Image: johnseelybrown.com
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18. Two tracks
1) Innovations in journalism
2) Journalism about innovations =
”Innovation journalism”
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19. ”Innovation journalism”
‐ Coined by Dr. David Nordfors in 2003
‐ Combining technology, science, business,
politics, and culture.
David Nordfors
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20. Nordfors (2004)
The Traditional News Room Organisation:
Science
Innovation
Technology
Business & Finance
Politics
Culture
Today: Innovation – a topic within the beats
Vision: Innovation – a multidisciplinary beat
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21. ”Innovation journalism” @ Stanford
• Innovation • The Eighth
Journalism Conference on
Innovation
Fellowships: about
Journalism at
80 journalists from Stanford 2011.
five countries
• http://injo.stanford.
• Sweden, Finland, edu/node/203
Slovenia, Mexico, • Publication series
Pakistan. and a blog
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22. The first ”innovation journalists”…
were focused on
Silicon Valley; Mike
Malone and John
Markoff in the
1970’s. Malone
• (Don Hoeffler (Electric
News) published first the
term ”Silicon Valley” in
1971.)
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Markoff

23. Educating ”innovation journalists”
• Mid‐career • Courses for
fellowships at undergraduate
Stanford students in Finland
• (since 2004) • (since 2005)
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24. Research on ”innovation journalism”
(2004‐2012)
• The Finnish Innovation • Funded by the Finnish
Journalism (2004‐ Funding Agency for
2007) Technology and
• The Global Challenges Innovation
of Innovation and • Helsingin Sanomat
Journalism (2008‐ Foundation
2010) • About 2,5 million
• The Ubiquitous euro
Computing in News
Media (2011‐2012)
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25. About the Injo education programs
• The Injo Program has been a success among
its participants. All the nine Finnish fellows
who were interviewed for the study feel that
the program was very rewarding and none of
them regret the experience.
• They do not necessarily think that “innovation
journalism” should be a beat of its own.
(Lassila‐Merisalo, Maria & uskali, Turo. 2011.
How to Educate Innovation Journalists?
Journalism & Mass Communicaton Educator.
Spring 2011, p. 25‐38.)
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26. • Fellowship period tend to strengthen and/or
create some kind of a professional crisis in
which people question their journalistic
identity and their work practices.
• Some interviewees told that their employers
were not at all interested in their experience.
• Many changed their jobs, two have stayed in
the US. (Lassila‐Merisalo, Maria & uskali, Turo. 2011.
How to Educate Innovation Journalists?
Journalism & Mass Communicaton Educator.
Spring 2011, p. 25‐38.)
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27. • One fellow created and coordinates first
innovations in journalism awards in Finland.
• 10 x 10 000 e + 250000 e.
• http://uutisraivaaja.fi/home.html
Tanja Aitamurto
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28. • For the undergraduate students, voluntary
innovation & journalism courses have been
challenging, drop‐out rate almost 50 %.
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29. The challenges of global “innovation
journalism”: some results (N=69)
• Big cultural differences already in using the
very term of ’innovation’ by the journalists.
• In the US, used very often and without almost any criticism.
• In Japan, used almost solely in terms of technological
innovations, not at all with social innovations.
• Almost prohibited to use in Western Europe, especially in
Finland and also in the UK.
• How to write about innovations, if you are not
allowed even use the very term?
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30. Alumni activities: Finnish Society for
Innovation Journalists since 2007
• Trips, visits, lectures
and meetings
• Innovation journalism
awards: What is good
innovation journalism
(Cristal and 3000 euro)
• About 80 members
April 2009 @ Helsinki Media Fair
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31. What is good ”innovation journalism”?
• News
• Multiple sources
• Critical
• Future‐orientation – what next, several scenarios
• Good contextualization: history, statistics
• Well written
• Well illustrated
• Enables conversation, feedback
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32. • Good ”innovation journalism” is good
journalism. ;‐)
• Often long articles or series…
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33. 2007: Sami Suojanen, Aamulehti
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Sami Suojanen
33

34. 2008: Leena Halla, Maaseudun
Tulevaisuus
Leena Halla
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35. 2009: Jukka Perttu, Helsingin Sanomat
Jukka Perttu
http://www.finjo.fi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Prize2009
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36. 2010:Tiina Tikkanen, Opettaja‐lehti
(15‐articles)
Tiina Tikkanen
http://www.finjo.fi/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Prize2010
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37. And, The Economist
• The World’s leading
”innovation journalism”
outlet.
• Special issues, rankings,
blogs, seminars, conferences,
awards on innovations.
• http://www.economistconferences.co.uk/
innovation/home
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/29980704/T
he‐Economist‐Special‐Report‐Innovation‐
in‐Emerging‐Markets‐April‐17th‐2010
• http://ideas.economist.com/
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38. II Innovations in journalism
• What links these innovators together?
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39. For example,
students (many drop‐outs) in their early twenties.
Mark Zuckenberger
Chad Hurley Steve Chen Jawed Karim
Sergei Brin Larry Page
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40. I will argue that the Internet Generation have
created their own communication tools and
news services
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41. iGeneration web‐magazines made
by teenagers with the help of
goSupermodel
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42. The biggest success story..so far
http://infolab.stanford.
edu/~sergey/
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43. Much of the search advertising, and
money, goes to ‐ Google
marketshare.hitslink.com
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44. Freedom to innovate
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45. Towards information monopoly?
http://toyology.co.uk/googlopoly‐the‐googlers‐game
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46. 2006
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47. 2010
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48. Facebook’s valuation $ 56 milliard
(12/2010)
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49. The valuation bubble of the social
media?
Image: territoriocreativo.es
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50. Twitter ‐ the breaking news leader
Founded, accidentally, in 2006 in
San Francisco
October 2007: The fires in
California
May 2008: Nasa inform the public
about the Mars Phoenix Lander
mission
November 2008: Mumbai attacks
2008: The use of Twitter during Image: 4.bp.blogspot.com
Barack Obama’s election
campaign)
January 2009: US Airways Flight
ditched in the Hudson River in
New Yor City (first photo)
http://twitterfall.com/journalism
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51. UK journalists on Twitter: how they
all follow each other (The Guardian 11.4.2011)
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52. New innovative news ventures
• Investigative reporting
• Political reporting
• International reporting
• Science reporting
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53. • Hyper local reporting
• Growdfunding in
journalism
Analysing data is the future for journalists,
• Data Journalism says Sir Tim Berners‐Lee (22.11.2010, The
Guardian)
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54. The most innovative traditional news
organizations, any others?
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55. New trend: Journalism is going mobile
(actually, already since 2004)
• Tablets will prevail, when about $10 or
less. (Ross Dawson, 27.2.2011)
Image: The Sydney Morning Herald
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56. Next: Mobile video journalism boom?
The Economist 2.9.2010
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57. Or: Real‐time (social) mobile video
journalism boom?
14%
12%
% Share of Global Minutes
10%
8%
6%
4%
2%
0%
6/06 9/06 12/06 3/07 6/07 9/07 12/07 3/08 6/08 9/08 12/08 3/09 6/09
Yahoo.com Msn.com Google.com YouTube.com Facebook.com
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Source: comScore global, 8/09.

58. Facebook heading to its 1st milliard
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59. The future of journalism?
• https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/journalist
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60. In conclusion
• In order to survive the news media need to
adjust their operations to the Internet and
mobile era.
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61. • The importance of common, shared language
(journalism). Need for new metaphors,
concepts in order to focus on emerging issues.
”Innovation journalism”?
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62. • No one knows the magic behind succesful
innovations in journalism, many experiments
are needed. iGeneration leads the way also in
the future.
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63. To focus more on innovations, and emerging new
technologies: Towards ubiquitous society with real‐
time data streams – the role of journalism?
300 Ubicomp vs. other alike terms
250
200
150
100
50
0 unlockableachievements.wordpress.com
1981
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Ubiquitous computing (since 1987) Pervasive computing (1993)
Ambient intelligence (2002) Machine to machine (1981)
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64. • There have never been better times for both
”innovation journalism” and innovations in
journalism.
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65. Many thanks!
e‐mail. turo.i.uskali@jyu.fi
Web:
http://fi.linkedin.com/in/turouskali
http://jyu.academia.edu/TuroUskali
http://turouskali.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/turo.uskali
http://twitter.com/TuroUskali
https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/home.p
hp?sk=group_166602193373511&id=202313379
802392&notif_t=like
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