Journalism as an industry is changing. Print journalism is taking a back seat, and the internet is a major contributing factor to this. Web 2.0 has provided a platform for user-generated content, and media consumers are more selective about how and what they choose to consume. As a result, this has caused print publications to re-think their business strategies. Blogs have become hugely popular, with some blogs becoming web publications in their own right, such as The Huffington Post and the Gawker network of blogs.
Although the Internet can considered as having a negative effect on journalism, it is actually an incredibly useful tool for any journalist. Sites like Google News and Google Reader help you to keep your finger on the ever-changing world of news – both online and on the go with mobile devices. Twitter is a great self-promotion tool in terms of being able to get your opinion or work across to a big audience and also has built in features which can help with gauging opinion on stories and breaking news, and also following news as it develops.
Admittedly, journalism is becoming a bit more of ‘DIY cottage industry’, with the ability to create and generate your own content much easier than it was 10 years ago. You no longer need to be in London or in a central press hub to be able to make it as a journalist. All you need is a computer and a (fairly) steady internet connection. This does mean that the industry is becoming more competitive… traditional journalists are now finding themselves competing with the man from the street.
Online publications are starting to provide content as a package rather than focusing on one medium. The general trend at the moment is favouring a mix of video, audio, text and social media-based content all in one webpage. It is beneficial to the consumer as they can absorb the content they want, in the way that they want. This multi-platform content provides greater depth and context to a majority of news stories. News stories are no longer just text – they have accompanying videos, interactive features such as maps, pictures and audio.
Many sites are also linking in with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to encourage the sharing of their content. Often you can share an article with just one click. You open up the ability to have the whole world at your fingertips by doing this.
The changing face of journalism is simply an addition to the foundations we have built with print journalism. We are providing the consumer with more options and opportunities and putting them in the driving seat, rather than telling them what to consume.
Rick Politz-Damergi Promotes Clik Clique
Rick Politz-Damergi Promotes Clik Clique
I initially set out to make a podcast about music and record a technology-based interview. The timing of the projects meant that iPad 2 was just being launched so I intended to go out on launch day and interview Apple fans queueing to get their hands on the latest iPad. After reading the brief and discovering that the interview could only be with one person, I stuck with the original ideas but switched around their platforms. I set out to record an interview with my friend Ross Drummond who is an ex-Westminster student and carving out a successful music career for himself, and then make a podcast about Apple and iPad.
After drawing from my experiences from the video module, I planned everything meticulously – I wrote the interview questions, prepared further questions in anticipation of responses and storyboarded the podcast in terms of timings and how I was going to edit everything together. I decided to record more audio for both the interview and podcast than was required in case I stumbled into any difficulties.
What I didn’t anticipate was turning up to Westfield London on iPad launch day and being asked (begged) to work. Fortunately I had a back-up plan in the form of another musician friend, Sam Isaac, who kindly agreed to let me conduct an interview with him via Skype. He’s currently in Canada at the moment so there were some audio challenges and I spent quite a lot of time effecting the audio to get the cleanest sound possible. I had enough material from Ross to recut his interview and turn it into a podcast.
I was frustrated that both of my submissions were on the same topic but I was pleased with the quality and editing of the work. I have a background in audio so I felt quite confident in the approach to both projects. It has taught me that news and journalism can be unpredictable and from this I learnt that I need a couple of back-up plans in anticipation of anything going wrong.
I struggled initially to conceive an idea for my video. I’m not confident with being in front of a camera so I knew that I wouldn’t be comfortable putting together a vox-pops piece or an interview.
I watch a lot of documentaries and I wanted to tell a story in a slightly less conventional journalistic way, so I decided to make a short film. I had a couple of ideas as to the subject of the short film but eventually settled for the area I currently live in: Harlesden. I was inspired after meeting Louis Theroux, who is our ‘town champion’ and talking to him about how the town is perceived by people who do not live here. At this point I had only lived in the area for a short period of time, and I had formulated my own ideas and opinions – which were mostly negative – but wanted to challenge these. I also wanted to challenge the perceptions that non-residents had and aimed to change these with this film.
Admittedly, I didn’t plan the film at all, in terms of storyboarding or planning technical aspects like the type of shots I would use. I went out with a camera over two days and walked around the main areas of Harlesden, just filming. I wanted people to see Harlesden as I saw it everyday. I also hadn’t practiced my camera technique so the camera is fairly shaky during the whole of the finished film. This eventually worked in my favour as it added to the ‘mood’ of the film.
If I were to take on a project like this again, then planning would play a major part. I struggled in both shooting and editing the film because I hadn’t planned thoroughly enough. I enjoyed researching the history of Harlesden and also working to create a film that showed a balanced representation – leaving viewers to draw their own conclusions rather than creating something that was one-sided. Overall, I achieved the aims of the film and received positive responses from everyone that has seen the video so far.
The BBC have always provided news on a variety of platforms for as long as we can remember: via TV, radio and more recently, the Internet.
The BBC are working to integrate these platforms into their news website: BBC News. The BBC have a dedicated section on the website for video news content, but are increasingly presenting video content within their text-based articles; particularly on high-profile news stories in conjunction with pictures and interactive features.
The video content is often the same as the content they air on TV – taken from BBC News 24 or BBC News at Six / Ten and takes the same format as broadcast news – interviews and longer news pieces. A presenter or journalist will present or voice the video. The video content is useful to access in one place rather than having to watch BBC News on the television, and the site will often stream content which has not been seen on the TV to add context or provide depth to the story that is being covered online.
The interactive news stories which contain a mix of pictures, audio, video and text usually have a deeper page hierarchy where you can navigate to the different platforms of content – as shown in the image below. For this story, you can read live updates, follow the story in picture form, read an interactive profile and access further contextual content.
Interactive News Story - BBC News
The news site has a standalone section called ‘Watch / Listen‘ for news stories or features which are covered as a video or audio offering rather than as the written word.
Watch / Listen on BBC News
The BBC benefit from having an established broadcasting arm, which means that they can easily provide and integrate good quality video content onto their website. This often sets them above their competitors. The challenge they could face is providing content that is relevant and different from the content that is broadcast via the TV, however, they seem to be overcoming this successfully. An added benefit is being able to access all of the content they broadcast via TV and Radio on their website which makes this appealing to consumers who are based overseas.
Twitter is no longer a place to tweet about what you’re having for lunch. Businesses have realised its potential to promote their brands and products, and the media industry is no exception. Most major newspapers and publications have their own Twitter feeds, alerting their followers to new articles posted online or promotions and competitions they are running.
The catch here is the fact you only have 140 characters to play with. But fear not, enter URL shorteners such as bit.ly and you’re laughing. A URL shortener takes an existing URL which is typically quite lengthy and shortens it to just a few characters so you’re not taking up precious tweeting space.
NME Magazine on Twitter @NMEmagazine
The Guardian Media on Twitter @mediaguardian
It can be a great way to spread the word about your publication or website. It takes just one click or ‘retweet’ to broadcast your news or opinion to a massive audience. The key here is to draw attention to your tweet – and that means summarising it in a way that will catch peoples eyes as they scroll down their Twitter feed. It’s not easy – but I often compare writing a news-based tweet to writing a headline. Practice makes perfect.
Hashtagging is another great feature of Twitter which journalists can utilise. You can use hash tags to ‘categorise’ your tweets. For example, I could link to a story on the Royal Wedding and write #royalwedding at the end of their tweets then it will appear in Twitter’s ‘trending topics’ section. This can also work well to following a news story as it breaks and develops. You can search for hash tags on Twitter and it’s useful on gauging a response to a particular story or event which is happening.
Hashtagging in action on Twitter: #ivorycoast
Twitter can be used as an extremely useful tool for a journalist – as long as it is utilised correctly and the potential for all features is maximised.
Following on from my post on Google Reader, I decided to set-up and use Google News for a week to see how it compared to accessing the news from my news / RSS feeds on my iPhone and iPad.
Conducting this experiment was going to require a few changes – mostly my consumption habits. I would be forced to access the news from a computer rather than my trusty iPhone or iPad (Google News does have a mobile arm but it has less features than the web version). I’m not going to lie to you – I was slightly nervous.
Initially, what I liked about Google News was the ability to tailor the news you wanted to see or was relevant – with RSS feeds, it displays every article from a particular website and it is nigh on impossible to whittle that down any further.
I chose in the settings to see news from The Guardian, BBC News and The New York Times and see less of news from The Sun, The Mirror and the Metro. I like quality in my news. One thing that drew my attention straight away was that the feed isn’t always accurate – within the entertainment section were stories realting to the punctuality of the Tube and also a child who had been suspended over his facial hair. Not strictly entertainment stories at all. However, I suspect that this is common occurrence and there is no quick fix for an issue like this.
I like the feature of being able to ‘star’ an article. It moves that story from the main feed into a separate feed and then will alert you when that story changes. A great way to keep tabs on a potentially developing story. It has a second purpose of being able to star news articles to come back to and read later – particularly useful if you’re in a hurry and don’t have the time at that point to read everything.
Overall, I think Google News is a great addition to media consumption. In the time that I have used it, I have found it not to be a replacement for the way I currently consume news, but an addition. I now use Google News when I am based centrally at my computer rather than having a collection of news websites open concurrently in my web browser. I like having the ability to see different takes on the same news stories in one place and also being able to see the story develop in front of my eyes.
I’ve been an avid Google Reader user for a long time. News Feeds and RSS Feeds are a big part of my daily routine. I check my feeds when I first wake up, during breaks at work or university and then again before I go to sleep. It helps me keep my finger on the pulse of the Internet and ensures that i’m not missing out on any important news or trends. When I was asked to set-up and use Google Reader for a week at university, it felt a bit like cheating, because I was being asked to do something that I already do by default on a daily basis.
I don’t use Google Reader online – I simply use it to subscribe to news and RSS feeds. I will only log-in to Google Reader when I want to subscribe to a new feed or unsubscribe from an existing one. Feeds compliment my reliance on mobile devices. I own both an iPad and an iPhone and I have apps on both devices to access all of my feeds. I use NetNewsWire on my iPad and ByLine on my iPhone. I don’t use the same apps on both devices as neither have an app which works well across all mobile devices.
I currently subscribe to a mix of news, music, cultural and design feeds. These are:
- The 405 – an online music, film and arts magazine
- Information Is Beautiful – issues, ideas, knowledge and data visualised
- The Quietus – an online music magazine
- The Guardian Culture – culture section of The Guardian newspaper
- BBC News – news from the UK and around the world
- The New York Times World – news from America and around the world
- Photography Served – the best photography from leading professionals and up-and-coming photographers
- Typography Served – the best typography from leading professionals and up-and-coming typographers / designers
- MacWorld News – the latest Apple news and reviews
- Engadget – the latest technology news and reviews
- Wired – leading technology magazine
- Apple – latest news from Apple, Inc.
I’ll be upfront here. I’m a lazy media consumer. I often don’t have the time or will to sit down at my Mac and trawl through websites looking for the content, so RSS feeds are a great solution for me. Rather than being confronted with a hierarchy-heavy website, I am presented with a list of articles. I can scroll through the list of articles and then decide on the ones I want to read. Job done. The great thing about the apps I use to read my feeds is that they download the content at the point of opening the app and then archive them – so I can carry on enjoying my feeds when i’m without an internet connection. It certainly makes that busy Central Line journey to work a lot less painful.
Days With My Father - Phillip Toledano
Phillip Toledano’s mother died suddenly in 2006. It was following her death that Phillip realised the extent of his ageing fathers mental deterioration.
“After she died, I realized how much she’d been shielding me from my father’s mental state. He didn’t have alzheimers, but he had no short-term memory, and was often lost. I took him to the funeral, but when we got home, he’d keep asking me every 15 minutes where my mother was. I had to explain over and over again, that she had died. This was shocking news to him. Why had no-one told him? Why hadn’t I taken him to the funeral? Why hadn’t he visited her in the hospital? He had no memory of these events. After a while, I realized I couldn’t keep telling him that his wife had died. He didn’t remember, and it was killing both of us, to constantly re-live her death.”
Days With My Father is an reflective and observational photo essay; depicting the last three years of his fathers life accompanied by touching observations about his fathers rapidly changing mental state as a result of Alzheimers disease.
Although it is not a news story, it is still a project which is designed to tell a story through pictures and words – relying mostly on the images to provoke emotion and thought from the reader.
It is an incredibly personal and private story; something that we do not see in the public domain often enough, and it also tackles the topic of mental illness – another subject which is too often avoided at all costs. It’s also a chronicle of life.
I am very fond of this project. It is not necessarily innovative, but it is something that translates well into an online environment as well as into print. The website displays like a book; you can flick through each page as if you had the physical product in your lap. When I was first introduced to this project in the summer of 2010, it struck a chord with me. I cried whilst scrolling through each page. Now, if the project had just simply been words alone, it almost certainly would not have had the same effect.
You can read read the ‘Days With My Father’ photo essay at: www.dayswithmyfather.com
Podcast about Ross Drummond who writes and records music under the guise of ‘Lies’.
Interview with singer-songwriter Sam Isaac
