New Media and Journalism

Published by Emil Abraham, April 9th, 2019

The Internet provides the technical capability for a user to read an article, examine its sources, and interact through a natural conduit that other media do not provide. A newspaper’s Web site can provide e-mail addresses or discussion forums that make journalists accessible while fostering community discussion. A site can offer audio clips from interviews, text of government records, and interactive maps that all can change the way a reader understands a story.

News online provides the opportunity to develop a whole new way to present journalism. Interactivity is one of the things that gives the Internet value as a medium. Newspapers can provide in-depth stories, and television gives pictures and sounds. If interactivity is the Internet’s outstanding characteristic, it seems that online journalism should be taking advantage of it with stories that engage the reader and with tools such as videos, audio clips, e-mail links to journalists and officials, documents available to view, databases, and hyperlinks.

What is open source journalism?

Open source journalism gets its name from open source programming, which involves beta versions of software being critiqued and tested for bugs by the public before the final piece of software is released. Open source pragmatists hold true to the idea that better software will be created from the scrutiny inherent in the collaborative process.

Open journalism approaches the public in a very similar way; as living information with which to engage. In traditional forms of journalism, a ‘source’ was an individual whom provided information for a story, and generally their identity was protected if the information was sensitive. Open source journalism takes those individuals, and metaphorically prints their names alongside the authors (with consent); available to be contacted by other journalists looking to follow a similar story.

The public can be an effective news gathering tool, or means to generate an outside critique of any specific news item. The public is pooling its expertise and ideally helping the journalist get the final product as accurate as possible. This can be achieved through public comments, different modes of collaboration, offering outside ideas and rigorous fact checking of data. Open source journalism is closely linked to citizen journalism (amateur news reporting), participatory journalism and user created content.

Stockpiles and a history of this open sourced data also exist with websites like DocumentCloud. As a web-based software platform created for journalists, it allows the searching, analysing, annotation and publication of primary source documents used in reporting. Newsrooms, including the New York Times, LA Times, The Guardian, PBS, the Las Vegas Sun and other news organizations, have uploaded over 1.5 million pages since June 2011.

Alan Rusbridger, editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media, sees open source journalism not as a threat to journalists’ control over information, but a shared relationship of power and authority. ‘Journalists are not the only experts in the world’, he said. ‘We are describing something that has a far greater joint authority that comes about through shared information and through a shared idea about what the community needs.’

The Guardian is well known for expanding its use of open source journalism, and searching for ways in which it can become a part of a viable business model.

Is blogging considered open source journalism?

Blogs are a significant platform for open source culture. Websites like WordPress.com open their software to the public, to be used and modified to suit the tastes of the user. It doesn’t need any understanding of design or coding.

However, given the legal tradition of copyright, blogs are not ‘open source’ in regard to the content they publish. Much like any academic article, a web surfer is prohibited from taking a bloggers words or user comments, and recycling them in another form without acknowledging the author’s copyright. However in the production of a blog post, in the writing and research phases, blogs are capable of open sourcing their material from the public.

When did the idea begin to influence media?

The term ‘open source journalism’ was first coined by Andrew Leonard in 1999, a technology columnist at Salon. In his story, Leonard identified where a journalist from Jane’s Intelligence Review, solicited feedback from Slashdot readers about an article on cyber-terrorism.

What happened next would begin to share the balance of power and authority between an online media institution and its readers. The Slashdot readers ‘sliced and diced’ the original, chastised its poor quality and identified errors that they could fix. The editor at Jane’s Intelligence Review saw this as an opportunity to improve upon the original feature, and ordered it to be rewritten, only this time with the inclusion of the best Slashdot comments, and compensation for those contributors who made it into the final copy.

This did attract criticism from other journalists, namely online columnist for PBS, Robert X. Cringely, who says it is the duty of the journalist, and the journalist alone, to write the news in the best manner he can. Slashdot is significant because it has pioneered this new kind of journalism. The site rarely features original material, instead offering a rich expertise in its commentary sections by its readers.

What ethical questions are raised by open source journalism?

Credibility: As with online journalism, the rapid writing and publishing of news on the internet, is likely achieved at the expense of accuracy and thorough editing. Throw into this mix additional public material, by those untrained in journalism or industry standards, and the responsibility to get it right becomes even harder to verify. Is the material verifiable? Questions need to be raised about who wrote it, and why?

Loss of balance and fairness: Through under sourced or inaccurate reporting, gathered through public channels of information sourcing, the functions of the Press Council would be increasingly difficult. Press transparency and honesty would be harder to maintain in an environment where there are numerous contributors to one article.

Information as a commodity: The internet has already become a treasure trove of facts, stories and quotes, almost relieving journalists of their need to carry out serious investigations. The idea of open source journalism taps, not into the internet, but into the publics’ combined expertise, making it even simpler to gather information (filtered through a person’s understanding) rather than independently discovering new facts.

Participatory journalism

Participatory journalism which is also known as citizen journalism, street journalism or public media is the act of citizens "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information." According to Shayne Bowman & Chris Willis "the intent of this citizen participation is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires."

Citizen journalism is a specific form of citizen media as well as user generated content.

The spread of the computers and rapid communication systems has induced the people to deal closely with the media. Especially, the fast development of social media networks, provides a new concept all around the world; "amateur reporters". The citizens have started to spread the news that they gather, the research results that they find by completing them with photographs, to the online news websites and online newspapers.

Everyone sees him/herself as a "journalist". Rather, the definition of media journalism has changed.

In recent years, the habits of the readers and viewers have changed because of the rapid development of digital technology. Readers, who have been contended just with newspapers in order to get news for many years, have started to change their attitudes when they see the unlimited possibilities of the internet. New and different behavior modals, trends and preferences have emerged with the technology. Today’s reader and consumer is no longer see the news that are imposed on them by the newspapers sufficient. The reader wants to contribute to the news and they want to be the part of the news. The facilities that are offered by the internet and latest models of 4G mobile phones, allows readers to participate increasingly.

The "citizen journalists" have begun to put forward that they are much more objective and they bring to light stories which the mainstream media does not want to feature, and claim that they have an important role in the fulfillment of democracy.

The newspapers and the professional journalists, was not very pleased with this "citizen journalism" concept previously. They side against the citizen journalists. But later, they have realized that they can benefit from that news. Then they have decided to evaluate these free sources after a strict control.

Language and style of Online Journalism

Online news is a perfect medium for reporting on developing and evolving issues and events. Among the advantages that online news writing enjoys over its competing media are the ability to update and freshen copy on a more-or-less continual basis; the opportunity to include audio, video, graphics and photos; the ability to go into greater depth and provide important background information associated with issues and events; and the ability to help readers gather information on their own by providing links to other websites, documents and databases. Creating compelling, engaging, interesting and entertaining copy is critical when writing news online. Just as in the more traditional journalistic media, ownership, locale and audience characteristics play an important role in determining what style and tone the writing should take. Online news writing should be conversational. It should read much like copy used in radio and television news. It should be similar to how people write when they’re chatting with family and friends online.

Strive for a "telling story" tone. Use simple, colourful words. Use words that paint

clear mental pictures for readers. Avoid the stilted, formal, convoluted style of writing that sometimes can be found in the print media and in technical manuals.

Use simple declarative sentences. The subject-verb-object format works well. Limit the use of phrases and clauses. This doesn’t mean that to ‘dumb down’ a copy. It just means that to write clearly, directly and in a manner that is easy for readers to understand and remember the story. Readers are busy. They turn to websites for quick, easy to comprehend information. Give it to them.

Writing style can be informal and still inform. Writing can be conversational and still impress. There is no need to write in a pedantic preaching manner to appear intelligent and authoritative. The job is to communicate to people who have busy lives and a great deal on their minds. Make it easy for them to read and understand the copy. Make it easy for them to enjoy it. Make them want to revisit the website often to obtain the information they want and need.

Online news writers should use their common sense and critical-thinking abilities to evaluate the accuracy and reasonableness of source copy.

There are a number of things to remember when writing for the web.

News determinants in Cyberspace

Cyberspace is the notional environment in which communication over computer

networks occur. The word became popular in the 1990s when the uses of the internet,

networking, and digital communication were all growing dramatically and the term

"cyberspace" was able to represent the many new ideas and phenomena that were

emerging.

Determinants are the yardstick or the criteria by which an editor determines what

portion of the day's news he/she will use. Online media news determinants have

lost significance in the 21 Century. The higher the rating, the more likely it is to be used.

Ratings will be determined by these questions:

1. Is it timely? -- implies immediacy or nearness to the present.

If it is not timely, it is history or just a prediction.
Event has just happened or will be held in the near future.
In agriculture, a seasonal basis may be considered.
Announced today -- may make timely discoveries or projects in the past.

2. Is it Global/Local? -- nearness to the audience -- point of posting the content

3. Is it important? -- Magnitude and significance of the idea, event or situation.

Large numbers of people or large areas
Prominence or person (s) involved or supporting the idea (spokesperson)
Who and how many will be affected -- consequence -- will things change because of it?

There are several other news values too such as oddity, novelty, change, cause, target audience etc.

Do’s and do not’s of online reporting

Dos

1. Write the content in simple language; avoid jargons

2. The content should be as short as possible

3. Create more white space

4. Provide hyperlinks

5. Make it readable by providing photos

6. Provide an eye-catching headline

7. Use colours to attract the readers

8. The language should be direct and in present tense

9. Should contain relevant 5 Ws and 1H in the first paragraph

10. Give sub headings

Don’ts

1. Don’t make the content too lengthy

2. The lead should not contain any jargons

3. Shouldn’t contain flowery language

4. Don’t use too small or too large fonts

5. Don’t publicize other people’s stories:

Telling both sides of the story holds a lot more value than a mere copy and paste of someone else’s work. It is possible to "repurpose" existing content. Repurposing is instead of posting out an article, rewrite the article taking a stance "for or against" the main point. The primary goal is to keep the clients and prospects on the website and videos versus someone else’s.

6.Avoid Plagiarism

Don’t ever try to copy and paste an entire article from one website over to yours. It is stealing someone else’s content, and if it is without permission, it’s called plagiarism. Many people and big companies have "Google Alerts" set up that monitor their content and brand, so if anything is used on the Internet without their consent they are notified right away. In many instances, clients can see through that, and it will dilute the website’s value. Lastly, it is not a very professional thing to do.
Take the time and incorporate original content or repurpose existing content to add value, and keep the clients and prospects close to the site.

Today, the legal right to privacy encompasses four areas:

Intrusion or the unwarranted violation of a person’s physical solitude. For instance, a journalist’s use of a telephoto lens to capture the private moments of an unsuspecting subject can constitute intrusion
Publicity of embarrassing private facts. Public complaints about privacy invasion typically involve a perception that journalists use their freedom to rummage, often irresponsibly and unnecessarily, through the private lives of others.
Placement of a person in a false light, which involves publishing distortions that leave an erroneous impression.
Appropriation or use of a person’s name, picture, or likeness without permission, usually for commercial gain.
Although the same laws apply online as offline, the Internet and other digital technologies can make privacy concerns especially acute. The legal right to publish is important for journalists. But the ethical need for privacy is at just as crucial.
The online legal issues facing journalists are complex, and copyright is just one example, one, where the national law is clear and laws among nations are relatively consistent, at that.

Some of the ethical issues facing online journalists also have legal implications. Although, in general, the same laws apply online as offline, the application of those laws can be tricky. Moreover technology generally changes much faster than the law. The constantly evolving, open networked, global nature of the internet creates new permutations of old issues. For reporters, online privacy issues revolve largely around the question of where to draw the line between a private conversation and public arena-raising concerns about deception, other ethical issues with legal ramifications. It is a lot more helpful to create original content rather than "repurposing" existing content to increase your value proposition going forward.

Journalism Concepts

Concept	Objective	Process	Outputs	Channel
Citizen journalism	Alternative, activistic, democratic news reporting.	Citizens (journalist) collect, report, analyze, and disseminate news and information, often independently.	Blogposts, podcasts, videos, social media posts.	Blogs, own websites, social media
Civic journalism	Make newspapers and journalists active participants in community life, rather than detached spectators	Journaists collect, report, work towards engaging citizens and creating public debate.	Blogposts, podcasts, videos, social media posts.	Blogs, own websites, social media

Community journalism	Focus on city neighborhoods, individual suburbs or small towns, rather than metropolitan, state, national or world news.	Professional journalists report on local events or the effect wider topics have on the local people.	Newspaper articles, blogposts, videos, newsletters.	Weekly newspapers, blogs, newsletters, social media.
Open-source journalism	Provide better news reports from the scrutiny inherent in the collaborative process.	Journalists collect, report, publish and ask for feedback from the public. Then rewrites the report, incorporating points sourced from the feedback.	Blogposts, online news articles.	Blogs, social media platforms, online newspapers.
Collaborative journalism	Supplement multiple organization’s resources and maximize the impact of the content produced	Professional/amateur reporters may work together, on a cooperative arrangement (formal or informal) between two or more news and information organizations to use their resources for a common report. Instances when mainstream media sites gather amateur blog posts to complement reporting.