Presentation to staff, students and invited guests at School of Communication, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 12 October 2012

1. The Digital Transformation of 21st
Century News Journalism
Presentation to Conference on Digital Media and
Journalism, School of Communication,
Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan,
12 October, 2012
Professor Terry Flew
Creative Industries Faculty
Queensland University of Technology

3. Drivers of Digital Transformation
• Convergence of media industries and content
• Distribution of content across multiple delivery platforms
• Media globalization
• Exponential increase in information and entertainment
content available to consumers
• User-created content, participatory media, and blurring
of producer/consumer lines

4. It’s not just the Internet
• Rise of knowledge-intensive industries and creative
industries
• Network externalities
• Rise of peer production and sharing – openness and
mass collaboration in Web 2.0 environments

5. From mass communications media to social
media: the crisis of news
MASS COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA
(20TH CENTURY) (21ST CENTURY)
MEDIA DISTRIBUTION Large-scale; barriers to entry Dramatically reduced barriers to entry
MEDIA PRODUCTION Complex division of labour; media Easy to use web 2.0 technologies;
professionals as content ‘gatekeepers’ small, multi-purpose teams as
“preditors” (Miller)
MEDIA POWER Assymetrical – one-way communications Greater empowerment of
flow users/audiences through interactivity
and choice
MEDIA CONTENT Tendency towards standardised “mass Segmentation of media content markets
appeal” content and “long tail” economics (Anderson)
PRODUCER/CONSUMER Mostly impersonal, anonymous and Potential to be more personal; rise of the
commoditised (audience as mass market produser (Bruns); user networks and
RELATIONSHIP target) communities
PAYMENT SYSTEM Audiences cross subsidised by Not clear as yet: subscription,
advertisers (commercial media) or tax “freemium”, free?
revenues (public service media)

6. Ways of thinking about digital
transformations
MAJOR INCREMENTAL
TRANSFORMATION CHANGE
OPTIMISTIC Democratization of journalism New ways of accessing
with rise of participatory media and delivering the news
culture e.g. Clay Shirky, Charles – journalists have always
Leadbeater, John Hartley, Henry dealt with technological
Jenkins change
PESSIMISTIC “Cult of the amateur”; loss of Strengthening power of
maninstream journalism jobs major media
not compensated for by the corporations
Internet

7. OECD, Evolution of News and the Internet
(2010)
1. Declining sales of print newspapers
2. News consumption migrating to the Internet
3. Structural crisis of newsrooms – shift of classified and
print advertising
4. New opportunities online, but new competitors (e.g.
sports organizations)
5. Move to digital-only newspapers?
6. Online advertising generates less income

8. Decline in newspaper sales

9. U.S. advertising spend 2011
Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2012

10. Shift of young people to online news
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11. The new online news media ecosystem
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12. Newspaper advertising revenues

13. The crisis of mainstream journalism
• Undermining of traditional news business models
• Falling share prices/rising debt for established news
media businesses
• Shift in the “attention economy” of users
• Crisis of authority for professional journalism
• Growing public distrust of journalists
• Rise of the “PR state”

14. The renewed appeal of alternative
journalism
• The “Fifth Estate” (Dutton, Benkler)
Non-profit [organizations] focused on bringing to light
direct, documentary evidence about government behavior so
that many others, professional and otherwise, can analyse
the evidence and search for instances that justify public
criticism … [they use] uses a combination of
volunteerism, global presence, and decentralized action to
achieve its results (Benkler, 2011: 55).

15. Monitory democracy (John Keane)
• solving a basic problem facing contemporary
democracies: how to promote the unfinished business of
finding new ways of democratic living for little people in
big and complex societies, in which substantial numbers
of citizens believe that politicians are not easily trusted,
and in which governments are often accused of abusing
their power or being out of touch with citizens, or simply
unwilling to deal with their concerns and problems
(Keane, 2010: 354).

16. Lessons from the online alternative
journalism movement
• A sustainable business model matters
• Continuing advantages of mainstream media: brand,
workforce, audience
• Challenge of the news/opinion relationship
• Potential for access to information to become stratified
by income
• Shifting role of public service media – from PSBs to
multi-platform media

17. Wikileaks as an alternative

18. Pros and cons of Wikileaks
• Challenge of tech-savvy “critical outsiders”
• Need in democracies for transparency and information
access
• “Wikileaks effect” will be felt for a long time
• But …
– Very reliant on Julian Assnage as charismatic figurehead
– Dilemma of internal accountability
– Balance of fact and advocacy
– Continued reliance on mainstream media outlets