Future of Journalism?

Journalism is transforming into a multi-media source. No longer can TV and newspapers dominate the delivery of news. The internet has lead to the convergence of traditional types of media into one ‘mega’ news system containing video images, voice, words and interactivity between the receiver and provider of news content.

The future of journalism is without doubt online.

VJ and MoJo

Above : Reuters are equipping Journalists with everything they need to file a report.

Developments in technology are revolutionising the way journalists work. Not only do camera phones allow citizens to record pictures and send to news organisations, but the technology is reaching such high quality that Mojo’s or Mobile Journalists are taking the world by storm. Equipped with only a mobile phone, reporters in Scandinavia, the UK, Europe, USA and Africa can record and upload news items to the internet. Stephen Quinn’s article ‘Who found my MoJo’ highlights reasons why Australia is lagging behind in the area. Basically, it costs too much money to surf the internet and upload data in the ‘Land Down-Under’.

STOMPing into the 21st century

STOMP (Straits Times Online Mobile and Print) is allowing Singaporeans all a chance to act as citizen journalists. An offshoot of the island’s primary media outlet, it generates all its content from contributions of everyday people who snap photos/video or would like to bring an issue into discussion. The innovation, commented upon by Stephen Quinn in “Citizen journalism gets things done in Singapore as digital revolution moves forward” is having quite an effect, with government moving to alter grievances of the public. It appears there is also quite a demand for it with social networks sprouting up. The site is upbeat and casual with photos, polls, gossip and discussions. For Singapore, whose media was once rigid and controlled, this is a massive step forward and proceeds other countries adaptation of convergent media on the internet. It is almost the ultimate Facebook friend whom everyone chats to daily.

Videoblogging

Video blogging was the natural progression for bloggers writes Jennifer Woodward Maderazo in “5 Videoblogs That Do It Right”. Having trawled the net for various videoblogs, I agree that the most appealing are those with fairly high production quality, run for no more than a couple of minutes and follow a consistent sequence (eg regular format – starting credits etc). The charm of many is their ability to entertain or inform in such a short period of time we do not feel as though it is robbing us of valuable time in our overwhelmingly busy lives. Ask a Ninja and Alive in Baghdad were excellent. However, localising this phenomena, Frezned (aka Tom Mclean), a Geelong local, launched a series of YouTube videos that attract up 500,000 views each. He now also writes a weekly column of ramblings for the Geelong Advertiser. Just shows that filming yourself, in your bedroom, talking about nothing in particular can make you seemingly popular and interesting to others. Whatever people post, someone, it seems, is bound to watch it!

Sharing photos online

There are a number of free web based tools that allow individuals to create a compilation of photos to music in a ‘slide show format’. This weeks reading “Which is the best photo gallery editor? Part two,” published by the Online Journalism Review examines four of the webs most popular, concluding Google owned Picasa the winner. Each was judged on user-friendliness and compatibility with various browsers. Jumping online I decided to test just how easy Picasa was. Without a Google account, there was a little messing about creating an account, and I did become slightly confused at times, the whole process took substantially longer than I anticipated. I suspect there must be a much easier way. The program seemed to upload every picture I had on my laptop…

South Korea – taking the world by storm

OhmyNews seems to have not only revolutionised South Korea but the journalistic world as well. I was…well impressed reading Stephen Quinn’s article ‘OhmyNews in South Korea’.

Gone are the days when South Korea can be ignored. Now possessing the highest number of broadband connections per capita and high economic growth they are an international competitor in anything technical, launching many new mobile phone technologies.

OhmyNews, may in fact make South Korea one of the world’s most democratic countries. Not only can anyone submit articles, but should they remain unpublished the author is entitled to an explanation why. This is designed to maintain the news services integrity.

In addition, restrictions on media ownership prohibit cross-media ownership. Therefore along side the 120 dailies, various TV stations and OhmyNews the audience are undoubtedly able to access a variety of news sources.  

When’s the next plane to South Korea?

Storm Chaser

Working for the Sydney Morning Herald as a photographer Nick Moir’s audio slideshow presentation on storms was an untraditional, yet effective journalistic endeavour. Its power lay in its pictures, an array of colour, taken terrifyingly close to deadly weather phenomena. The interactive function of this link allows the user to navigate through two slide shows, bio information about Moir and also links. It’s information by discovery. It doesn’t feel like news, but an adventure.

The beginning intro of sirens, radio warnings and reports was a spectacular addition to the slide slow and immediately had me sitting on the edge of my seat. Sadly this ended with Moir beginning a voice over that initially sounded well-rehearsed and unnatural. As the show proceeded he did relax into it a little more, however the audio of sirens etc could have been effectively used at the end of the show, linking the beginning and end together.

The use of video was not expected and certainly added something a little extra. Although the footage wasn’t fantastic it did emphasise the ferocity of the storm.

This exercise certainly did show me that the way news is presented to the audience is changing dramatically. This style has the ability to educate without the audience feeling like they are being educated.

No price tag, must mean its free!

This week’s readings illustrate the internet’s power in creating a changing society – one that’s free! The internet is largely a free resource (apart from paying a subscription fee, which is also becoming cheaper by the day) which allows all to access it. But if it actually does allow all to access it is another argument for a later date (think undeveloped nations that don’t have electricity let alone computers). And the word ‘free’ works wonders. It seems that whenever we humans see it, it immediately attracts us. Always on the hunt for a bargain, and you can’t go past free.

So how is this possible? In a world where everything comes with a price tag – the internet’s ability to provide free information is enabled by the next step which costs! More often than not, internet content is free up to a point, just to get you interested/hooked, and then to continue a fee is charged. Not only is this a brilliant marketing strategy, but it also works!

Applications like RSVP dating service provide free services (ability to send a kiss to another member) for free, however should you wish to exchange emails this comes at a price, and a hefty one at that. Free music downloads are great – until they get you hooked and marching down to the local Sanity to buy the CD.

I wonder if King Gillette knew what he was starting all those years ago?

A runaway train…

Stephen Quinn, in his article “Why and how convergence is emerging,” commented that in just a handful of years online access has managed to gain the kind of “traction” that it took other media decades to achieve.

This is an alarming point. Although the hallmarks for the World Wide Web were in the making in the late 1960s, it’s uptake and adaptation by the general public has been a whirlwind in the last 15 years. In such a short amount of time, we have witnessed the dot.com boom and collapse, citizen journalists emerge, internet banking and social sites such as Facebook and Myspace revolutionising social interactions. However, when has anyone had time to sit back and digest this new virtual world? Certainly not between answering your mobile, while telling the kids to turn down their iPod which has been plugged into the house stereo and asking Johnny to get off his father’s Ebay account, oh and don’t forget to yell the livin’ daylights out of Mark for running up a $500 internet bill while illegally downloading the whole series of Prison Break.

Quite simply, the internet is such a joyful experience. But one must wonder what future generations will be able to achieve online. Perhaps we will grow virtual gardens instead of real ones and be able to instruct a robot to cook steak and veg for dinner at six.

Week 1: Changing nature of society

Hi and welcome to my first ‘blog’ entry. A somewhat alien term, the commencement of this subject (which I might add is compulsory to gain my degree) has immediately sparked anxiety and despair. Not only am I not a techno-savvy type, but I also possess a deep hatred for the changing nature of society and its quick acceptance of all things electronic in the never ending quest to create the convenient lifestyle.

I think Sandi Thom said it best with her record I wish I was a Punk Rocker. Not only do I also wish I was born into a world where the “media couldn’t buy your soul” but also a time when people appeared to have a soul.

The days of letters, radio stations and kick-to-kick are fading into the background as our new high tech world takes charge. Newspapers no longer sell out, and entertainment news dominates.

Does convergence give the public permission to be ignorant about world events? Is it allowing us to pick and choose our news to the extent that we are no longer informed? This is what I see as an overriding negative of the new information age.