Enabling:
The internet provides access to media sources all over the world. Information is available on every topic imaginable in the forms of news stories, blogs, videos and websites. Some of this information filters through to our local media.
Disabling:
The internet can be regulated by media ownership giants or government forces, e.g. there is significant censorship over Singaporean media. To varying degrees, what we can access is determined.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Thoughts on the future of journalism continued...
Since my previous post I have stumbled across another blog exploring the same issues. It raised a few new points so I thought I would share:
http://earleyedition.com/2009/10/16/decline-and-fall/
The blog is by Dave Earley, who works in a metro network television newsroom. Although it is his personal blog, it offers some interesting insights. In this particular post, "Decline, yes. Fall? Maybe not", he refers to Barker's essay, The Crumbling Estate, which explores the reasons behind the failing newspaper industry.
Summarised, Barker’s 10 trends killing (newspaper) journalism in Australia are:
1. Managerialism displacing journalism as the dominant newsroom culture
2. Perpetual efforts to cut costs and staff
3. Changing work habits cutting journalists off from outside world
4. Young journalists less likely to see the job as a vocation and more of a stepping stone
5. Journalists out-gunned, out-thought, out-paid by armies of communications advisers
6. Cost-cuts that lead to buying more content from notable international papers
7. Avoiding difficult issues and highlighting sensationalist material, emphasising sex and sport
8. Breakdown in separation between editorial and advertising
9. Little sustained investigative journalism
10. Downplay coverage of foreign and national news in favour of local news
http://earleyedition.com/2009/10/16/decline-and-fall/
The blog is by Dave Earley, who works in a metro network television newsroom. Although it is his personal blog, it offers some interesting insights. In this particular post, "Decline, yes. Fall? Maybe not", he refers to Barker's essay, The Crumbling Estate, which explores the reasons behind the failing newspaper industry.
Summarised, Barker’s 10 trends killing (newspaper) journalism in Australia are:
1. Managerialism displacing journalism as the dominant newsroom culture
2. Perpetual efforts to cut costs and staff
3. Changing work habits cutting journalists off from outside world
4. Young journalists less likely to see the job as a vocation and more of a stepping stone
5. Journalists out-gunned, out-thought, out-paid by armies of communications advisers
6. Cost-cuts that lead to buying more content from notable international papers
7. Avoiding difficult issues and highlighting sensationalist material, emphasising sex and sport
8. Breakdown in separation between editorial and advertising
9. Little sustained investigative journalism
10. Downplay coverage of foreign and national news in favour of local news
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Thoughts on the future of journalism
Following a tutorial focusing on the future of journalism, I thought it a good idea to jot down a few thoughts that were raised:
Point number one- shouldn't the fact that there are so many new media forms mean that there should be more jobs for journalists? Personally, I think yes it should. But no, it doesn't. Nick Scully, the second presenter, pointed out that media convergence means that journalists are being expected to undertake more responsibilities instead. And the quality of journalism is suffering as a consequence.
Another consequence is job losses, particularly of sub-editors. Wendy Bacon points out that this not good for journalism, as sub-editors are the ones who shape the story and write the headlines. Christina Koutsoukos elaborated on this point, saying that it is the sub-editors, not the new graduates, who have the twenty or more years of experience in journalism.
Finally, a genuine concern for our society is the gap that may develop between the information rich and the information poor. If, in the future, we have to pay for online news, does that mean that the wealthy and educated (who are more likely to be interested and have access to a computer), will be the only ones who access the news?
Point number one- shouldn't the fact that there are so many new media forms mean that there should be more jobs for journalists? Personally, I think yes it should. But no, it doesn't. Nick Scully, the second presenter, pointed out that media convergence means that journalists are being expected to undertake more responsibilities instead. And the quality of journalism is suffering as a consequence.
Another consequence is job losses, particularly of sub-editors. Wendy Bacon points out that this not good for journalism, as sub-editors are the ones who shape the story and write the headlines. Christina Koutsoukos elaborated on this point, saying that it is the sub-editors, not the new graduates, who have the twenty or more years of experience in journalism.
Finally, a genuine concern for our society is the gap that may develop between the information rich and the information poor. If, in the future, we have to pay for online news, does that mean that the wealthy and educated (who are more likely to be interested and have access to a computer), will be the only ones who access the news?
Is online news really that threatening?
I've been reading over the "Life in the clickstream: The Future of Journalism" summit report, and something has struck me. The future of journalism may not be so dire after all.
Not that I ever considered it completely and utterly doomed, because otherwise I would not be spending my time and money on a university degree that I believe will be invalid in the long term. However, since the start of my communications degree, my lecturers, tutors, course material and assignment sources have warned me: the field of journalism is changing, and in the future there may be no need for journalists at all. This is usually attributed to the increase in communication technologies, and 'citizen journalism's' rise to prominence.
However, Christopher Warren provides a few observations and statistics that would give any budding print journalist hope. What about the fact that although the aggregate circulation of metropolitan dailies has varied since 2002, it has only slightly fallen. What's more, the national and metropolitan dailies take second place as the dominant source of news in Australia, and that is behind television, not the internet.
What do the public think? According to a study conducted by the Australian Press Council, 71 per cent of respondents disagreed with the proposition "with the advent of the Internet and blogs and other ways to spread information, Australia no longer needs a group of trained, professionally skilled journalists." And 22-32 per cent of respondents stated that news sites and blogs, by their very nature, were superficial and "no substitute for quality journalism and analysis."
This is good news.
Source:
Warren, Christopher., 2008. "Life in the clickstream: The Future of Journalism", The Future of Journalism, accessed 17 August 2010, http://www.thefutureofjournalism.org.au/
Not that I ever considered it completely and utterly doomed, because otherwise I would not be spending my time and money on a university degree that I believe will be invalid in the long term. However, since the start of my communications degree, my lecturers, tutors, course material and assignment sources have warned me: the field of journalism is changing, and in the future there may be no need for journalists at all. This is usually attributed to the increase in communication technologies, and 'citizen journalism's' rise to prominence.
However, Christopher Warren provides a few observations and statistics that would give any budding print journalist hope. What about the fact that although the aggregate circulation of metropolitan dailies has varied since 2002, it has only slightly fallen. What's more, the national and metropolitan dailies take second place as the dominant source of news in Australia, and that is behind television, not the internet.
What do the public think? According to a study conducted by the Australian Press Council, 71 per cent of respondents disagreed with the proposition "with the advent of the Internet and blogs and other ways to spread information, Australia no longer needs a group of trained, professionally skilled journalists." And 22-32 per cent of respondents stated that news sites and blogs, by their very nature, were superficial and "no substitute for quality journalism and analysis."
This is good news.
Source:
Warren, Christopher., 2008. "Life in the clickstream: The Future of Journalism", The Future of Journalism, accessed 17 August 2010, http://www.thefutureofjournalism.org.au/
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Journalism and the public (wk 3)
It is not news that the the role of journalism/journalists has changed over time, and continues to change. For an overview, check out the youtube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG355goqap4. Chapter three of "Journalism: Theory and Practice" provides a more substantial outline of the changed and changing nature of journalism, however both sources draw one conclusion: what was once an (in a way) natural extension of public conversation or communication, has now become a profession.
This has several affects on the role of journalism, which I noted from Chapter three:
a) Meadows explains that "the rise of journalism as an independent professional endeavour has disrupted its traditional links with the public" (2001, pg 40).
b) Journalists are no longer 'of the people for the people.' In fact, Meadows observes that particularly the 'fourth estate' function seperates journalists from the public is 'serves', and even poses journalists against the public (as well as against judiciary, executive and parliamentary bodies).
c) In accordance with the fact that journalism is to a much lesser extent representing or reflecting the public, it can be seen that instead, journalism forms the public's views and opinions.
These affects are consolidated by the development of national media systems, the growth of minority or alternative media, and new communication technologies. Respectively, the powerful players, the bias that is increasingly evident in the recent more personalalised mediums (blogs, youtube clips, facebook, Twitter), and the mere saturation of communication channels, contributes to the evolution of journalism from informing to influencing.
Sources:
Meadows, Michael., 2001, "A return to practice: reclaiming journalism as public conversation", Journalism: Theory and Practice, ed. Suellen Tapsall and Carolyn Varley, Oxford University Press, pgs 40-54.
Gant, Scott., 2010, "The History of Journalism", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG355goqap4, viewed 6th August, 2010.
This has several affects on the role of journalism, which I noted from Chapter three:
a) Meadows explains that "the rise of journalism as an independent professional endeavour has disrupted its traditional links with the public" (2001, pg 40).
b) Journalists are no longer 'of the people for the people.' In fact, Meadows observes that particularly the 'fourth estate' function seperates journalists from the public is 'serves', and even poses journalists against the public (as well as against judiciary, executive and parliamentary bodies).
c) In accordance with the fact that journalism is to a much lesser extent representing or reflecting the public, it can be seen that instead, journalism forms the public's views and opinions.
These affects are consolidated by the development of national media systems, the growth of minority or alternative media, and new communication technologies. Respectively, the powerful players, the bias that is increasingly evident in the recent more personalalised mediums (blogs, youtube clips, facebook, Twitter), and the mere saturation of communication channels, contributes to the evolution of journalism from informing to influencing.
Sources:
Meadows, Michael., 2001, "A return to practice: reclaiming journalism as public conversation", Journalism: Theory and Practice, ed. Suellen Tapsall and Carolyn Varley, Oxford University Press, pgs 40-54.
Gant, Scott., 2010, "The History of Journalism", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uG355goqap4, viewed 6th August, 2010.
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