Very Straightforward
Ellen Hume is a highly repsected journalist and academic. Her simple, short and sweet summation of the future of news online is worth a quick look. Its only two minutes long but it’s straight to the point and leaves you with no doubt on her take on the subject and what the Net it will do for news.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
Our media outlets are competing hard against each other online in an effort to provide up to the minute and extensive information.
The BBC’s efforts have paid off well and the site is globally popular. So much so that Ireland’s Fine Gael political party has seen fit to provide their online users with the same format as the BBC website.
It seems very unlikely that the Fine Gael site holds as much information or fact behind its homepage as the BBC but at least they’re trying to look professional!
What is the news and what is it worth?
Sam’s Blog highlights government interference in our online freedom of information. The information is disturbing.
The information providers themselvs are also a part of this issue. Robert McChesney has long been an enemy of the converging media giants and when government and media moguls come together the problem is significant.
Google, the worlds biggest search engine, provides your news by trawling through news providers on the net and presenting you with the results of your search. But what if some news or news media get preferential treatment?
Peter Barrons move from editor of BBC’s Newsnight to PR man for Google makes me wonder about the political and financial value of news.
We think the Net willl always be free. How could censor us or charge us? Consider this, Ireland has rainfall almost fifty percent of the year but we pay for water and its not great quality.
Twitterings on bad news days
I have learned to surf the net, use a mobile phone, I’ve even mastered texting and recording on Sky Plus. At 35 years of age the world of communications and information which has opened up to me in the last decade is nothing short of phenomonal.
It is becoming pretty obvious that the internet and assosiated technologies will be our primary news providers within the decade and people must become techno savvy . But with so much happening what do you do?
What is the definition of a journalist?
The internet and all the multimedia facets it offers has raised one question which seems to be very difficult to answer. What is a journalist? A recent blog by Steven Mangan argues that if your news is read you are a journalist.
Old school news hounds will be dismayed at the amount of competition they have these days but the bottom line is if the report is good then thats all that matters.
If I need a carpenter to hang a door I’m just as happy if a handyman can do it for me. And he’s cheaper. The door is hung it doesn’t matter who hung it.
Robert Niles has written a great blog on this very issue and his point is pretty simple; no one owns the news.
Old press hounds beware. If its truthful and well written then its a genuine piece of journalism. Its that simple.
Citizens or Customers; Google boss explains the future to the newsmen of the past
In 2008 the owners of Youtube, Google, announced the beginning of a new era for the video website. Full length re-runs of MacGyver, Star Trek and other old hits were now on the menu meaning an end to the ten minute rule for some.
USA Today reported on plans to turn the website into the cashcow it always had the potential to be. It will mean the eventual replacement of the general public’s random downloads, most of which are pointless anyway.
But they do allow a freedom of expression and transfer of information by ordinary people unconceivable only a generation ago. Last week Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, spoke for an hour at the annual conference of the Newspaper Association of America. Youtube has the entire 53 minutes on one video.
We are all equal, some of us more than others. Will the media giants of today and tomorrow provide not just the tools to communicate but also the rules?
Schmidt seems very cleat that its about looking after customers, not citizens. Is that what journalism is to become in the internet age?
Rebirth Online for Rocky Mountain News
On February 26th of 2009 the Rocky Mountain News, Colorado’s oldest newspaper, printed it’s final edition after nearly 150 years in the business. That’s a hell of a history when you might consider the Colorado of the 1850’s when it started printing the news.
Make or Break
Sales of newspapers appear to be in such a decline that the only way to survive is to attempt to transfer the format online. Even then there are numerous factors which may finish off any formerly successful outlet.
The Christian Science Monitor is ceasing the publication of its daily print edition and is instead concentrating on providing a regularly updated online news edition.
Even then there are no guarantees. Todays reader and surfer is bombarded with messages at a rate he or she can barely comprehend. In this short video Christian Science Monitor editor John Yemma highlights the simple things that will make or break the ‘newspaper’.
Free speech for all isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
The beauty of the internet they say is that everyone hasa voice. Its just that some people really don’t deserve that voice. I lived in Germany in the early 1990’s and I loved it there. Only on a couple of occasions did I run into the dreaded Nazi type skinheads. They didn’t seem particularly intimidating due to lack of numbers. A problem you would assume and hope they would continue to have.
However, by the late nineties friends told me these guys were getting far better organised thanks to the internet and instant communication. They still only seem to be able to attract weird disfunctionals but all the same the webpages that these folk promote as news sites is disturbing.
All you need is a disturbed mind and some basic technical knowledge and hello world! But if we censor them who’s next?
The cost of on-line news
Newspapers all over the world continue to cease business thanks to falling purchasing print readership and advertising revenues. There seems thus far no magic bullet to guarantee the traditional newspaper industry, not only in print, but also on-line. The quality of on-line publications vary wildly. There is no doubt unless revenue can be generated many more will shut their doors, some after many decades in business.
It’s a problem throughout the world but most significantly those poorest countries with the lowest number of newspapers and revenue channels feel it the most. On the other side it is argued that citizen journalism will fill the void, argueably for the better. But in countries notorious for crime and corruption who will trust faceless citizen journalists?
The Nation is Malawi’s widest selling national daily and it has made the transition to on-line aswell. But have a look at the amount of advertising revenue it is currently raising. Staying in print is getting harder and harder and few businesses in Malawi see an on-line market.
