Christopher Harper (2003). Journalism in a digital age. In H. Jenkins & D. Thorburn (Eds), Democracy and New Media (pp. 271-280). Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
· Media plays a significant role in agenda setting in that it can shape what consumers think about.
· The media emphasize specific events ideas and social values and frame the stories they present in particular ways that affect the way they are interpreted by consumers. I agree with this point but think in a digital age it is easy for consumers to source different articles on the same topic from different news sources to form a more rounded and balanced opinion; thus any bias in reporting from one news source can be more readily identified.
· By choosing what news and how it is present news media sources are acting as the gatekeepers of “what is news” and can thus filter particular news that does not fit the demographic for their target audience, or the overall values of the dominant culture at the time meaning news from smaller social, cultural or ethnic groups is seldom heard with popular news sources.
· In contrast to this gate keeping within the old media model however, the online media model with its low barriers for entry mean that these groups can freely create and distribute media that is relevant to them as proposed by Jenkins in his reading in week one and two of Med104 – creating tighter and wider ties within their community, and because of the searchability of the internet meaning that people from outside of that culture can now more easily access this media as seen with the pop-cosmopolitanism – in the world of new media I think news-cosmopolitanism is becoming more frequent also with people looking for news from localized sources (i.e. why have news from the middle-east re-iterated to us via channel 7 news when we can go online, or use a mobile app to get middle-eastern news from a news source such as al-jazeera)
· The mass broadcast of news of old media is perhaps giving way to more tailored news delivery within new media – which could also mean a more targeted economic model via the use of targeted online marketing though tool such as Google ads where adverts relate both to the content being consumed and the consumers overall browsing habits.
· Harper sates early on that the World Wide Web (WWW) cannot set the agenda as the audience is still too small and thus the old media still maintains control. In the context of today I disagree with this notion as this paper was released in 2003 and the research done even before this. I think that today online news and citizen journalism is beginning to dominate how certain generation, generally under forty I would guess, access news media. Today consumers want to be able access media though a converged space rather than having a computer for work a phone for calls, and a TV, or radio, or newspaper, for news. Online news also seems more immediate these older news sources.
· It seems that the role of journalists due to economic and time constraints is diminishing within media organizations where perhaps the immediacy of the WWW is meaning that they are unable to write with the depth of knowledge that they once did. Perhaps in my opinion news sources, such as Reuters and AAP, will become more prevalent for online news, with affiliated journalism originations linking more in depth analysis later to these more generic reporting pieces.
· Online Journalism can:
o Place the power in the hands of the audience as they can now monitor news more easily
o Supply new ways of telling news by remediating via a number of new online platforms (Blogs, Twitter, YouTube, FlickR, etc, etc)
o Supplying Nontraditional news sources with a method to produce and distribute material globally.
· The Harper paper cites statistics gather from 1998 when the WWW was in its infancy and the ability to publish online took a reasonably high level of technical skill, and the ability to search for information was even harder. In contrast today anyone can publish and distribute media with the Web2.0 platforms freely available using nothing more than a laptop or perhaps even a Smartphone. And everything is easily searchable in a few clicks.
· Even in 2003 however it was noted by Harper that “online news has began to outpace radio and newspapers for the first word on breaking news”. So even back in 2003 old media outlets were finding it easier and faster to publish online and thus was outpacing old media broadcasting and publishing methods (battle for media attention by supplying breaking up-to-date news first).
· Harper then posits that future news audiences will not have the basic interest in news to be fully engaged with it. I think this has become reality in a sense that people will only engage with what interests them and thus they have become more interested in niche topic news rather than broadcast generic news stories. The abundance of media online also means that this is perhaps a cultural trend that has been forced upon consumers where they have become their own news gatekeepers via subscriptions, RSS feeds, Twitter feeds, Facebook groups etc etc.
· Michael Kolowich of newsedge.com listed these reasons as to why he thinks people are turning to online news sources:
o Make sure they get all the news ‘they’ want (tailored, niche news)
o Finding and searching for news (ability to search for news and find relating news not easily done with old media)
o They trust some news media outlets more than others (Authenticity, credibility and trust gained by audiences who can assess a news media source materials)
o Online community interactions
· The role of gate keeping is raised when Harper questions their role in deciding ‘what is news’ is questioned. Online I think there is a greater question mark over the authenticity and credibility of any online news article, this now has to be assessed by the audience themselves rather than having faith within a news organization as a whole. By this I mean that with the lowered barriers to entry anyone can publish information online via websites, blogs or social media – and it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true or been checked for accuracy, and in a time of abundance and easy sharing of information mistruths can spread rapidly. This is why it’s an important for the audience to assess credibility and authenticity. But even within trusted organizations I think we a seeing more and more the use of online sources and information from citizen journalists rather than researching the information themselves, so the context and accuracy of the information can be lost, and their credibility can be questioned.
· In the positive what citizen journalism can do is free information from the regulation of the old media, which can be good for repressed cultures or groups to get their message out into the public sphere.
· Harper mentions five facets to take into account for gate keeping within digital journalism:
o Reporting of news of large or increasing magnitude
o Unexpected or breaking stories
o Socio-cultural values of the audience and media outlet
o Continuity of stories and themes
o Cultural proximity and relevance
· Harper then assesses the differences between the traditional and digital editions of the Chicago Tribune, and notes them to be:
o The online edition offers most is what is found in the print edition
o The online edition also offers other in depth stories, special reports, games and discussion groups.
o Online edition also offers other more engaging media such as audio and video that is not available in print
o Online news offers non-linear story telling which enable readers to use hyper-links to access information relating to the story can see the story from many view points and in more detail – giving the consumer a broader context for the online media – and increase the authenticity and credibility of the writer.
· Harper then assesses some the attention grabbing techniques used by the New York Times. The times create a series of easily digestible sections that they can assess for interest and then click on them to access more in-depth information. And how a more succinct style of writing is also more suitable for online writing which I agree with as online hyperlinks can be used so that not all of the detail required in print has be written down, and supporting information can be easily found online.
· Harper categorized in her paper 3 types of journalist:
o Benevolent revolutionaries – enthusiastic to online possibilities
o Nervous Traditionalists – not enthusiastic
o Serene separatists – Don’t fear it but don’t think it change anything journalistically
· I can understand how these groups can easily form and it would be interesting to do a statistical analysis on each group and see if there is a generational trend amongst each group. At a guess I would expect, in context of today’s society, a mixture of GenY and GenX to be benevolent, baby boomers to be the traditionalists, and probably GenX to also be separatists.
· A quote from a traditionalist which caught my attention is that “as media becomes more dependent on high tech inventions, speed, I fear, will outweigh quality”.
· To some extent I agree that in today’s era of media abundance headline grabbing and sensationalist summaries often controls attention rather than the actual content of the media. I think to combat this news organizations may focus on more specific niches rather than trying to be a broad based media outlet as seen within the old media. There is simply too much news though social media outlets for old media constructs to keep up with and thus it is not in their interests to try and do so as it would be a waste of resources. If they focus on a strong niche, or handful of niches, they could produce higher quality engaging content with a well defined audience for advertisers to help these media outlets economically.
· Online production and distribution would also negate the high costs of printing to paper and distribution of that print further increasing economic returns. The Age currently has a digital edition which is an exact replica of its print edition with clickable adverts so I think this shift has already started. As technologies such as the kindle, iPad and other mobile devices grow I think digital subscription could be a way of the future.