Mar 6, 2008
March 6th, 2008 by paulbradshaw
A few weeks ago I wrote an 800-word piece for UK Press Gazette on how journalism has changed in the past decade. My original draft was almost 1200 words - here then is the original ‘Blogger’s Cut’ for your delectation…
The past decade has seen more change in the craft of journalism than perhaps any other. Some of the changes have erupted into the mainstream; others have nibbled at the edges. Paul Bradshaw counts the ways…
From a lecture to a conversation
Perhaps the biggest and most widely publicised change in journalism has been the increasing involvement of - and expectation of involvement by - the readers/audience. Yes, readers had always written letters, and occasionally phoned in tips, but the last ten years have seen the relationship between publisher and reader turn into something else entirely.
You could say it started with the accessibility of email, coupled with the less passive nature of the internet in general, as readers, listeners and watchers became “users”. But the change really gained momentum with… [Read more]
Feb 20, 2008
February 20th, 2008 by paulbradshaw
In the second part of this five-part series, I explore how adaptability has not only become a key quality for the journalist - but for the information they deal with on a daily basis too. This will form part of a forthcoming book on online journalism - comments very much invited.
The adaptable journalist
A key skill for any journalist in the new media age, whatever medium they’re working in, is adaptability. The age of the journalist who only writes text, or who only records video, or audio, is passing. Today, the newspaper and magazine, the television and the radio programme all have an accompanying website. And that website is, increasingly, filled with a whole range of media, which could include any of the following:
- (Hyper)Text
- Audio
- Video
- Still images
- Audio slideshows
- Animation
- Flash interactivity
- Database-driven elements
- Blogs
- Microblogging/Text/email alerts (Twitter)
- Community elements - forums, wikis, social networking, polls, surveys
- Live chats
- Mapping
- Mashups
This does not mean that the online journalist has to be an expert in all of these fields, but they should have media literacy in as many of these fields as possible: in other words, a good online journalist should be able to see a story and think:
- ‘That story would have real impact on video’;
- or: ‘A Flash interactive could explain this better than anything else’;
- or ‘This story would benefit from me linking to the original reports and some blog commentary’;
- or ‘Involving the community in this story would really engage, and hopefully bring out some great leads’. [Read more]
Jan 31, 2008
January 31st, 2008 by paulbradshaw
The team at JournalismEnterprise.com have been busy - here are some of the most recent reviews:
Pownce: a Twitter with bells on.
EveryBlock: Adrian Holovaty’s much-anticipated news mapping service gets a five-star rating.
Newstin: multilingual news search: “Its taxonomy engine goes way beyond the usual keyword and tags approach. For each article, Newstin’s engine is able to tell you what it’s about, who was mentioned, where it happened, etc.”
Gnooze: satirical daily news show for YouTube browsers.
Skewz: “a political Digg that goes both ways. You can submit any news story and the community can vote on how “liberal” or “conservative” the story is.”
As always, the review is only the start of the process: please add your own comments on the sites. And if you want to review sites for JournalismEnterprise.com, what’s stopping you? Send an email to info@journalismenterprise.com to join.
Jan 24, 2008
January 24th, 2008 by paulbradshaw
Last week I interviewed Mike Hill, Deputy Editor of the Lancashire Evening Post, for an article on changing tools and approaches in local newsrooms (due to appear on Journalism.co.uk). Mike has some interesting plans on using surveys beyond the simple reader poll (since reported here), and experiences of the weaknesses of geotagging, among other things. The interview can be heard here - it’s around 10 minutes.
Dec 10, 2007
December 10th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
What do they say it is?
“FORA.tv delivers discourse, discussions and debates on the world’s most interesting political, social and cultural issues, and enables viewers to join the conversation. It provides deep, unfiltered content, tools for self-expression and a place for the interactive community to gather online(…) enables a new, global media opportunity by aggregating a daily range of events, produced and electronically shipped by institutions or freelance producers, from around the world.”
What do we say it is?
A top I.Q. multimedia soapbox, where we can find the ideas of “poets, authors, policy experts, activists, madmen, government leaders, visionary thinkers”. A showroom for brilliance and discussion, in various topics from health to religion, from politics to arts. Video is privileged. [Read more]
Dec 4, 2007
December 4th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
Straight from the comments (but I’d prefer an email):
“The Concentra Award for video journalism is now open for entry. [Read more]
Nov 29, 2007
November 29th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
Alex Gamela talks to António Granado, editor of the online edition of Público, a reference newspaper in Portugal, as they relaunch their website.
Público have always been ahead as far as online presence is concerned, and recently the newsroom created a video team, as well as launching a redesigned website. In this short interview, we tried to ask a very busy António about his views on online journalism, a subject he discusses in his blog PontoMedia. Granado is also a lecturer at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and is one of the best Portuguese minds dealing with the new media issues. [Read more]
Nov 19, 2007
November 19th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
Oct 30, 2007
October 30th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
Part four of this draft book chapter looks at how blogs have changed the publishing of journalism through its possibilities for transparency, potential permanence over time, limitless space, and digital distribution systems (part one is here; part two here; part three here) . I would welcome any corrections, extra information or comments.
Publishing
Traditionally, news has always been subject to the pressures of time and space. Today’s news is tomorrow’s proverbial ‘fish and chip paper’ - news is required to be ‘new’; stories “have a 24 hour audition on the news stage, and if they don’t catch fire in that 24 hours, there’s no second chance” (Rosen, 2004). At the same time, part of the craft of journalism in the 20th century has been the ability to distil a complex story into a particular word count or time slot, while a talent of editors is their judgement in allocating space based on the pressures of the day’s competing stories.
In the 21st century, however, new media technologies have begun to challenge the limitations of time and space that defined the news media in the 20th. [Read more]
Oct 26, 2007
October 26th, 2007 by paulbradshaw
Andy Dickinson is conducting a short survey to gather information about how video is produced in newspaper newsrooms and who does it. The results will be made available on his blog - www.andydickinson.net.
Sounds like a great idea - it’s a one-page job so quick to fill out. Fill out the survey here.
Ten ways journalism has changed in the last ten years (Blogger’s Cut)
