The Future of Journalism—Who to Believe (original) (raw)
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The Influence of the Internet on European Journalism
This study investigates how European journalists evaluate the changes that have occurred in their profession since the Internet has been integrated in newsrooms. How do journalists perceive the features and innovations associated with the Internet? What are the principal changes in the profession? Do practitioners believe that the quality of journalism has been raised or lowered? To answer to these research questions, we carried out a survey across 11 European countries–Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden–of 239 journalists, working for 40 of the most-read print/online news outlets in these countries. The survey shows that the opportunity to use the Internet to reinforce the social functions of journalism has not been fully recognised.
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication The Influence of the Internet on European Journalism
2015
This study investigates how European journalists evaluate the changes that have occurred in their profession since the Internet has been integrated in newsrooms. How do journalists perceive the features and innovations associated with the Internet? What are the principal changes in the profession? Do practitioners believe that the quality of journalism has been raised or lowered? To answer to these research questions, we carried out a survey across 11
(If you need the full paper, please contact me) The Italian media system, according to the major global trends, is undergoing unprecedented and tumultuous change. Traditional newspapers are the media sector most influenced by technological innovation and the global economic crisis. Newspapers sales have been in long-term decline, fuelling concerns over whether professional journalism is financially sustainable in the long term. The percentage of readers of printed newspapers has dropped dramatically. A major change in news has occurred in online news, with the creation of tens of small online newsrooms that provide local news and the proliferation of blogs, forums etc., where readers can discuss mainstream media news. Internet take-up at home is plagued by the slow growth of broadband, which lags behind most of the EU countries, and by access divides, particularly between regions in the north and south and between rural and urban areas. Nonetheless, the percentage of regular internet users now represents more than half of the population. Almost 90 percent of regular users are aged 14–29. Internet use is heavily linked to the search for news. More than half of the users who consult the internet mainly for news still consult the websites of the traditional news publishers. Internet use has been marked by consistent growth of the most popular social networking websites (in particular, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter). This project is in the field of media sociology and concentrates on media production (Curran et al., 1982; Hesmondhalgh, 2007). A vital question for media theorists is: who has the power to shape media content and how do they do it? Attempting to analyze media production, social science research in general and sociology in particular, has primarily focused on one kind of media organisation, the newsroom, and one kind of media practitioner, the journalist. In the midst of the changes outlined above there are the journalists and their practices. The standards in the profession are in the process of being set. It is hard grasping what is the impact of these changes on the core democratic service that any media system should provide, namely news about political, economic and social affairs. To understand these changes, this paper presents results from two different and complementary research methods. First it presents results of a survey performed on a representative sample of the journalistic population (122 journalists on quota sample). The survey shows that the representation journalists trace of their job is permeated by a culture that we could define the "who cares journalism” if referred to everyday practices (e.g. low degree of influence of established media accountability instruments) and a culture of “responsible journalism” if related to major values (democratic values, professional journalistic standards, sources, conscience). Secondarily this paper faces an analysis of journalists’ daily routines. Between January and June 2010, 25 professionals working in online journalism were interviewed for this paper. These included 10 journalists in an online newsroom at a media company which also produced a corresponding paper-based newspaper; 5 journalists in newsrooms that produced only online content; 5 bloggers; and 5 managers with responsibility for publishing company websites. In Italy, as all over the world, there is animated debate on the crisis of newspapers. Leading newspaper groups were certainly hit hard by the financial crisis since 2008. Online newsrooms (both with and without paper-based counterparts) are the best places to investigate changes in the production routines of journalists. The greatest change in the past two years has stemmed from the introduction and diffusion of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The future often envisaged by the interviewees for this research was one of convergence, leading to the central management of all editorial products: from videos to photographs, from articles for the newspaper’s online edition to ones for the paper-based version. The majority of newsrooms in Italy are still some way off from this level of integration. Research has observed different degrees of interaction and reciprocity among the parts of the same group, often motivated by the efforts invested by the publisher, both economically and symbolically, in the production of digital content to be distributed mainly through the online edition. This part of paper will discuss the major changes into the journalist daily routines: 1) the absence of deadlines; 2) the importance of time rather than space; 3) the succinct writing style; 4) simultaneous cross-media work; and finally what appears as the most innovative change related to the Italian culture reader feedback as a production practice. The research distinguishes four types of feedback received by online news journalists from readers. It will discuss the more quantitative types, and then consider the more qualitative ones. At the same time the paper will discuss some of the diverse limitation linked to online journalism (use official source or cover “predictable” events—e.g. press conferences, planned events; take for granted press agency content – with the consequences of a standardization of content provided by diverse news organs; depend on public relations material). Overall results show a surprisingly tendency: into the online newsrooms is going to be rooted a transparency culture previously unknown at the Italian traditional journalism culture where, if major values seem to be underestimated, everyday interaction with audience increases in practice the need to be accountable.
News Media companies and journalists have seen their role changed with the rise of a new type of social organisation: the Information Society. The rapid evolution of digital resources transform how audiences respond and interact with new data, faster local and worldwide news. This research reading paper seeks to analyse that hasty change in some media companies in United Kingdom (BBC, The Scotsman), Ecuador (El Comercio), China and USA (The New York Times) in particular, but also will study the implications of the evolution in media from traditional to digital in a wider level. The intention of this research work is to cover some successes, failures, and corrections that traditional media had to face in order to find a place within the information society.
Journalism’s Dilemmas: Internet challenges for professional journalism and media sustainability
In O. Andreotti ed. (2015), Journalism at Risk
While there is some debate on the usefulness of the notion of ‘disruptive innovation’ (Christensen, 1997), there is little doubt that the Internet has massively disrupted the ways in which journalism is produced, distributed and consumed. Its impact cannot be underestimated even if we cannot at the moment gauge its long term effects on the practices, norms and the social and political role of journalism. The short term effects in the last twenty years or so since the first newspaper appeared online, have been profoundly ambiguous. This chapter will undertake an overview and analysis of the ways in which the internet disrupted journalism with a view to identifying some of the challenges that have emerged or that will emerge in the near future. The ultimate goal of this analysis is to identify a space within which journalism can still fulfil its crucial socio-political role. The analysis suggests that despite the many disruptive effects of the technology, journalism’s dilemma is still the same: how can it function in an autonomous, independent albeit sustainable and viable manner. The chapter is organized as follows. It begins with an overview and comparison of the mass media and new/social media communication cycles. It then discusses developments in terms of the three main processes involved in these cycles, namely production, contents and consumption or use. It ends with a summary of the main developments, trends and challenges, and with a proposal for a re-socialization of journalism.
Changing practices of journalism
2011
Those who consider democracy as a fundamental principle for society have to monitor carefully the status of journalism. As we trust our elected politicians to represent us and our core interests in policy-related issues, we also attribute journalists a core position within that process. Journalism provides the necessary information to citizens to form opinions and to take decisions. Journalism is therefore a key element in democratic societies since journalists have the moral and ethical duty to provide correct and relevant information, and to analyze factual information in context within a critical perspective. In that perspective, the media as representatives of the Fourth Estate, have the obligation to monitor public affairs and to make sure that political or business elites do not cross the borders of their power. In addition to these tasks and functions, as Peter Dahlgren succinctly adds, the democratic role of journalism should even go beyond the information provision and watchdog function: 'It must also touch us, inspire us and nourish our daily democratic horizons' (Dahlgren 2009: 146). In recent years, the journalistic field was challenged by a number of critical developments, among which the ongoing diffusion of interactive technologies, digitization of messages and convergence of media formats are clearly some of the most crucial ones. According to new media proponents, interactive media applications clearly democratize representation by making it a more direct relationship: as citizens gain access to inexpensive communication technologies the gatekeeping monopoly once enjoyed by editors and broadcasters is waning (Gurevitz et al. 2009; Coleman 2005). The Internet has indeed shifted communication to a much more personalized level, and both media and politicians are forced to address more channels in order to compete for the attention of a more fragmented audience, as well as target their messages to more fragmented groups than ever before. Therefore, the new media applications could be called the Fifth Estate, since they possess several key distinctive and important characteristics such as the ability to support institutions and individuals to enhance their 'communicative power' with opportunities to network within and beyond various institutional arenas, and the provision of capabilities that enable the creation of networks of individuals which have a public, social benefit (e.g. through social networking websites) (Dutton 2008). At the same time, however, although there are major changes in the consumption of news and information (Meijer 2006; Mindich 2004; Jenkins 2006), a large majority of the public in many European countries still counts on traditional and professional media for information on political, cultural, economic and societal issues. Indeed, the Internet may have admitted an impressive number of alternative information channels, and the public may have been attributed with more access than ever before to participate in the news production cycle, but traditional journalists in traditional news media still keep their role as main gatekeepers (Domingo et al. 2008). Dynamics of Journalistic Professionalization: Who Are the Professional Journalists Then and Now? Any observer of recent developments and challenges in the media sphere, who keeps a detached and
Journalism and Media
Research on journalism innovation has become increasingly relevant for science and practice. The literature shows a great variety of innovations in a wide range of media fields. However, the question of what the most important innovations in different media systems are has not been addressed. This article attempts to fill this research gap by providing a theoretical framework that deals with the function of journalism in society as well as with the multifaceted meaning of innovation in a time of constant media change. We identify and analyze the most important journalistic innovations in Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom in the last decade. Interviews with 100 experts reveal diverse innovation efforts. From a total of around 1000 mentions, 50 different types of innovations could be identified; from them, 34 made it into the selection of the 20 most relevant innovations in the countries. Different innovations were found to be of varying importance for journ...
Media organizations throughout the Western world struggle to adjust their practices to rapidly changing conditions. Initially, online journalism was celebrated for potentially revolutionizing political reporting due to its new technological possibilities: According to this, it is able to (1) increase transparency by providing hyperlink sources, (2) increase understanding by providing further background information, and (3) add to deliberation and follow-up communication by providing a platform for interactive exchange. A comparative content analysis of 48 news websites from six countries (France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, and United States) examines the degree to which these three potential strengths are fully exploited. By mapping the different news outlets in relation to the digital functions, we identify three models prevalent in different countries and organization types. The first model contains outlets promoting the usage of links to make their sources transparent to the reader ('transparency model'), outlets focusing on the provision of background information to enable their audiences to gain a wider understanding of the reported topic ('background model'), and outlets that mainly avoid the adoption of new technologies ('print-oriented model'). These findings show that different structural developments and professional orientations lead to the adaption of different technologies in digital journalism.