Tuesday 16 September 2008
Sunday 14 September 2008
Dan Gillmor: Web Censorship and Citizen Journalism
Very profound statement by Dan Gillmor, the author of "We the Media" in 2004, on censorship and citizen media/journalism.
Monday 31 March 2008
David Silver: History, Hype, and Hope: An Afterward
This Silver's text published as part of special issue of First Monday dedicated to Web 2.0 is a shortcontribution which does not bring profound insight into the "history, hype and hope" of Web 2.0, but at best (implicitly) grounds some of the issues that need to be addressed: first, re-writing the history of the notion of Web (2.0) and its embeddedness into the politically, economically and culturally specific social contexts; second, a question how to approach the notion of the audeince and its history in the context of the Web 2.0.
Bled: It felt like Apple "1984" Commercial
Commissioners Viviane Reding and Janez Potočnik were to give opening statements at the conference The Future of the Internet, however, they had other things to do. Instead, the PR office of the European Commission recorded commissioners' statements and projected the recordings to the big screen, so that the people at the conference could enjoy them. These two short speeches were political statements on the importance of further internet evolution - some words were given also on the importance of internet participation, however, the latter was missing in Bled. Simple, old-school one-way flow of communication ... No interactivity, no audience participation ... As Maja Turnšek said: "This two statements were a symbol of European Commission's way of communicating to the public."
It felt like the Apple "1984" commercial - with one small difference, instead of the athlete smashing the screen in Bled people at the conference gave a round of applause at the end of Potočnik's statement.
It felt like the Apple "1984" commercial - with one small difference, instead of the athlete smashing the screen in Bled people at the conference gave a round of applause at the end of Potočnik's statement.
Bled: Everything 2.0
I just got back from Bled where I have attended the conference The Future of the Internet together with Maja Turnsek. The conference is organized under Slovenian Presidency with the support of the European Commission. I have listened to opening statements and to the first session - its objective was to outline the socio economic drivers of the on line economy and usages. It was intended to identify how the medium to long term evolution of the networked economy and society will influence technological, regulatory or policy requirements. The speakers one after another glued "2.0" to several terms (Citizen 2.0, Participation 2.0 etc.) and used "Web 2.0" in different fashion and did not even question the meaning. It is clear that the Web 2.0 is a buzzword and it is difficult to follow heterogenity in meanig behind the phrase. It seems David Silver gives a good point in his introduction to the text History, Hype, and Hope: An Afterward (which feels more like an outline to a more profound contribution than a completed scientific text): "There’s something quite brilliant, from a corporate–consumer–marketing perspective, about the term Web 2.0. Its very name – Web 2.0 – embodies new–and–improvedness: a new version, a new stage, a new paradigm, a new Web, a new way of living. Attached to any old noun, 2.0 makes the noun new: Library 2.0, Scholarship 2.0, Culture 2.0, Politics 2.0."
Friday 28 March 2008
Web 2.0: The End of the Audience?
The notion of audience has been strongly contested in communication studies since the 1990s through the prism of cultural and technological transformations in media production and consequently fragmentation and specialization in media consumption (cf. Marshall, 2004; Livingston, 2006). These inclinations are also embedded in critical discussions on the phenomenon of Web 2.0 included in the special issue of First Monday – Critical Perspectives on Web 2.0: a new kind of media consumer who is more engaged, active and a participant is emerging in “the key business of the Internet”: creating, maintaining and expanding content (Allen, 2008); the users/producers are “immaterial free labor” and “the base to the superstructure of virtual real estate owners” (Scholz, 2008); the silent and obedient audiences of broadcast media are fading in favor to “the writable generation” (Silver, 2008). These authors approach the construct of the Web 2.0 from different perspectives: Scholz (2008) debunks the myths of the Web 2.0 brand and argues that the popularized phrase limits public media discourse, Allen (2008) approaches Web 2.0 by locating its emergence and significance within the broad movement of convergence of old and new media, Silver (2008) merely briefly »organizes thoughts around history, hype, and hope« of the Web 2.0. However, what seems to be a common conceptual issue of these reflections on Web 2.0 and debates on the online communication in general is the question of the theoretical and empirical fading of the notion of audience. It seems that the future investigations would have to deal with this question: How to approach the audience in contemporary media landscape?
In communication studies audience research – one of the pillars of communication research in the 20th century – has been partitioned according to the type of media consumed with two salient research focuses: contexts of media use and the interpretation of media content (Livingstone, 2006: 339). It seems that within the domain of what Jenkins (2006) calls “convergence culture” or what Deuze (2007) understands as “liquid media life” the term audience poorly fits, because it only satisfactory covers the activities of reading, listening and watching, moreover, it neglects the activating of the users “from a corporate-consumer-marketing perspective” (Silver, 2008) accelerated by “market ideology” (Scholz, 2008) or “ideology for the creation of new forms of dependence between individual humans and corporations” that “by monopolizing and controlling the network activities” benefit from this dependence (Allen, 2008). The term user that has consolidated in the investigations of online communication in recent years seems to allow for the greater variety of modes of engagement, although it tends to be overly individualistic and instrumental, with no specific and necessary relation to communication and neglecting the sense of collectivity and activity (Livingstone, 2006: 353). Therefore, there have been some examples of constructing new phrases – for instance produsers (Bruns, 2008) – that stress the activization of the online audience or online user/s.
Despite superficially presented terminological problem, which derives from related theoretical and empirical issues, the investigations into this “imaginary entity” (Ang, 1991) in the contemporary media landscape should try to be a reminder of constant changes in understanding of the notion of the audience framed by research interests in communication studies in transforming media landscapes specific of politically, economically and culturally specific social contexts from 1930s onwards. In this respect the historical review of the audience should be the theoretical groundwork to contemporary investigations into people’s media engagement in the context of Web 2.0 and broader, however, S. Livingston (2006: 356) acknowledges, that “both in looking back and in looking forward, it is already providing easier to investigate the contexts within which people use media-as-objects than it is to identify the interpretive ‘work’ within audiences engage with media-as-texts”.
Igor Vobič, March 2008
References
Allen, Matthew (2008). Web 2.0: An Argument against Convergence. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2139/1946, March 28, 2008.
Ang, Ian (1991). Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). The Convergence Culture. New York, London: New York University Press.
Deuze, Mark (2007). Media Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Livingstone, Sonia (2006). The Changing Nature of Audiences: From the Mass Audience to the Interactive Media User. In: Angharad N. Valvadia (ed.): A Companion to Media Studies, pp. 337–359. Oxford: Blackwell.
Scholz, Trebor (2008). Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2138/1945, March 28, 2008.
Silver, David (2008). History, Hype, and Hope: An Afterward. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2143/1950, March 28, 2008.
In communication studies audience research – one of the pillars of communication research in the 20th century – has been partitioned according to the type of media consumed with two salient research focuses: contexts of media use and the interpretation of media content (Livingstone, 2006: 339). It seems that within the domain of what Jenkins (2006) calls “convergence culture” or what Deuze (2007) understands as “liquid media life” the term audience poorly fits, because it only satisfactory covers the activities of reading, listening and watching, moreover, it neglects the activating of the users “from a corporate-consumer-marketing perspective” (Silver, 2008) accelerated by “market ideology” (Scholz, 2008) or “ideology for the creation of new forms of dependence between individual humans and corporations” that “by monopolizing and controlling the network activities” benefit from this dependence (Allen, 2008). The term user that has consolidated in the investigations of online communication in recent years seems to allow for the greater variety of modes of engagement, although it tends to be overly individualistic and instrumental, with no specific and necessary relation to communication and neglecting the sense of collectivity and activity (Livingstone, 2006: 353). Therefore, there have been some examples of constructing new phrases – for instance produsers (Bruns, 2008) – that stress the activization of the online audience or online user/s.
Despite superficially presented terminological problem, which derives from related theoretical and empirical issues, the investigations into this “imaginary entity” (Ang, 1991) in the contemporary media landscape should try to be a reminder of constant changes in understanding of the notion of the audience framed by research interests in communication studies in transforming media landscapes specific of politically, economically and culturally specific social contexts from 1930s onwards. In this respect the historical review of the audience should be the theoretical groundwork to contemporary investigations into people’s media engagement in the context of Web 2.0 and broader, however, S. Livingston (2006: 356) acknowledges, that “both in looking back and in looking forward, it is already providing easier to investigate the contexts within which people use media-as-objects than it is to identify the interpretive ‘work’ within audiences engage with media-as-texts”.
Igor Vobič, March 2008
References
Allen, Matthew (2008). Web 2.0: An Argument against Convergence. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2139/1946, March 28, 2008.
Ang, Ian (1991). Desperately Seeking the Audience. London: Routledge.
Jenkins, Henry (2006). The Convergence Culture. New York, London: New York University Press.
Deuze, Mark (2007). Media Work. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Livingstone, Sonia (2006). The Changing Nature of Audiences: From the Mass Audience to the Interactive Media User. In: Angharad N. Valvadia (ed.): A Companion to Media Studies, pp. 337–359. Oxford: Blackwell.
Scholz, Trebor (2008). Market Ideology and the Myths of Web 2.0. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2138/1945, March 28, 2008.
Silver, David (2008). History, Hype, and Hope: An Afterward. First Monday 13 (3); available at: http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2143/1950, March 28, 2008.
Sunday 23 March 2008
Google Book Srearch and Google Scholar as research mechanisms
This weekend I have been reading Media Research and Its Histories edited by David Park and Jefferson Pooley - especially one chapter stroke me: Walter Lippman, Straw Man of Communication Research. This chapter deals with "preferred readings" of Lippmann in communication studies and its objective is "to clear away some of the litter and suggest alternative interpretative frames" of Lippmann's work. The authors included in this analysis were selected because they have been most influential in shaping views of Lippmann within the field of communication; new electronic databases make it possible to identify these patterns of influence. Google Book Search and Google Scholar make it is possible to track the frequency of citations as well as patterns of influence by pairing names in the search engines. For example, pairing Walter Lippmann and James Carey identifies all books in the database in which third authors refer to both men as well as the page numbers of these references. The text of the joint citations can then be accessed to determine if an author is basing claims about Lippmann’s work on a primary source, a secondary source, or both. In addition, third and even fourth degrees of separation can be identified, when for example, an author relies upon and acknowledges Carey’s interpretive influence, as Jay Rosen does, but then others build upon Carey’s interpretation without acknowledging it; this can be done by comparing frequencies of references to Rosen and Lippmann to references to Rosen, Carey, and Lippmann. Scholars presumably, as it is stressed in this chapetr, display biases in favor of citing more recent sources, especially in the case of secondary sources (Ewen rather than Schramm); to cite more prominent scholars (Chomsky rather than Jansen); and those with name recognition in their own discipline (in communication, Carey or Schramm rather than Blum or Riccio).
Wednesday 19 March 2008
Assignment posting on "Alternative" Online Media
Till today I did not now that the postings on the blog will be coded as 'discovery postings', 'substantive postings' and 'assignment postings' as part of the grading mechanism at the course New Media and Society. I have purposely left some of the latter out to save the comments, questions, critique for our weekly web-conferences - I am certain that some of the classmates did similarly. I have probably misunderstood the initial guidelines, therefore, I post some of the comments I planned to make last week and I intend to make tonight. It seems that in the core of this misunderstanding is a question of public and private.
----
Salter, L. (2006). Democracy & Online News: Indymedia and the limits of participatory media.
»We can consider media technologies and the uses of them through such a framework – they are democratic to the degree to which people can participate in the production process on their own terms.« (p. 1) This sentence is ideological and it is acctually expression of what Pickard identifies as radical democracy. What does it mean »on their own terms«?
The question I would like to rise in connection to Salter's article is: To what extent is the reproduction of the dichotomies between mainstream media and alternative media, mainstream news and alternative news legitimate and appropriate in academia? Aren’t these dichotomies simple ideological generalizations?
Pickard, V. W. (2006). Assessing the Radical Democracy of Indymedia: Discursive, Technical, and Institutional Constructions.
I have really enjoyed this article especially the part on the three tyrannies: the tyranny of structurelessness, the tyranny of ideology, the tyranny of the editor. This article is a great insight in the practice of IMCs and it delivers what it promises in the introduction: the illustration of how radical democratic principles are manifested across Indymedia practices, their advantages, lacks and paradoxes.
Herring, S. et al (2005). Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis “From the Bottom Up”.
It is a strong article through the prism of research interest and conclusions as well. Mezhodology could be questionable in regard to research interest (communication between bloggers), because they started sampling with A-list blogs and then went on. It demystifies understandings of blogging as a democratizing force in public communication. This is reflected in the last sentence of the Discussion: “blog conversation appear to be a perceptually salient phenomenon.”
»We can consider media technologies and the uses of them through such a framework – they are democratic to the degree to which people can participate in the production process on their own terms.« (p. 1) This sentence is ideological and it is acctually expression of what Pickard identifies as radical democracy. What does it mean »on their own terms«?
The question I would like to rise in connection to Salter's article is: To what extent is the reproduction of the dichotomies between mainstream media and alternative media, mainstream news and alternative news legitimate and appropriate in academia? Aren’t these dichotomies simple ideological generalizations?
Pickard, V. W. (2006). Assessing the Radical Democracy of Indymedia: Discursive, Technical, and Institutional Constructions.
I have really enjoyed this article especially the part on the three tyrannies: the tyranny of structurelessness, the tyranny of ideology, the tyranny of the editor. This article is a great insight in the practice of IMCs and it delivers what it promises in the introduction: the illustration of how radical democratic principles are manifested across Indymedia practices, their advantages, lacks and paradoxes.
Herring, S. et al (2005). Conversations in the Blogosphere: An Analysis “From the Bottom Up”.
It is a strong article through the prism of research interest and conclusions as well. Mezhodology could be questionable in regard to research interest (communication between bloggers), because they started sampling with A-list blogs and then went on. It demystifies understandings of blogging as a democratizing force in public communication. This is reflected in the last sentence of the Discussion: “blog conversation appear to be a perceptually salient phenomenon.”
Guardian.co.uk: Top 50 Blogs
It is not clear how the list of "World's 50 most powerful blogs", but here it is made by Guardian. It is a wide array of different themes, topis and approaches followed in these blogs, moreover, it is hard to find a pattern. Making a list of "most powerful blogs" is against the primary idea of blogs, blogging and blogosphere, because it opens the door to the notion of power and dividing inside "blogosphere" on the basis of it.
Saturday 15 March 2008
Citizen Journalism Debate
On Guardian.co.uk I have found a debate on citizen journalism among leading industry figures and representatives of the blogging community on the citizen journalism phenomenon. The panel, chaired by Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, includes: Carol Hall, Rights Manager, BBC News; Kyle McRae, Scoopt.com; Fiona Brownsell, CEO, Youview; Eddie Gibb, Head of External Relations, DEMOS; Bill Hagerty, Editor, British Journalism Review; Vicky Taylor, Editor, Interactive, BBC; Jemima Kiss and John Thompson journalism.co.uk; Simon Waldman, Guardian Unlimited. It is very interesting how the big players understand citizen journalism and blogging in changing media landscape. Do not miss it ...
Sunday 9 March 2008
Indymedia.org: nothing similar in Slovenia (yet)
Before, during or after reading this weeks assigned texts (Salter, Pickard and Herring et al) check out Indymedia.org established in 1999 for the purpose of providing grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) protests in Seattle. The Independent Media Center is "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth. We work out of a love and inspiration for people who continue to work for a better world, despite corporate media's distortions and unwillingness to cover the efforts to free humanity". In Slovenia nothing is happening in this direction this is very unfortunate from the point of journalism and news media research ...
Friday 7 March 2008
YouTube: A Mirror?
YouTube is really a fascinating online environment. I often use it for finding good interviews for my undergraduate students, searching for cartoons from my childhood, remembering great goals from the football history etc. However, through a specific prism YouTube is worrying ... I try to build this paradoxical prism of values by pasting links below. If we understand YouTube as a product or "a mirror" - as Andrew Keen would put it - of our political, economic and cultural system we should probably be very worried ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgru4doIm_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnzwgBrIr1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgru4doIm_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnzwgBrIr1s
Tuesday 4 March 2008
David Domingo's PhD
I have found David Domingo's (University of Iowa) doctoral disertation titled Inventing Online Journalism. He reviews the theoretical and empirical investigations of online journalism and analyzes three Catalan online newspapers. His approach is ethnographic. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to ... As soon as I do I will share my impressions.
Monday 3 March 2008
Searching the Internet: Journalism on the Web
On the basis of Guide to Effective Searching of the Internet prepared by Bright Planet and UC Berkeley library I have made a arbitrary list of free search engines (Yahoo!, Ask.com, Google, Google Scholar, and Msn.com) and conducted a search using a number of recommended procedures. My topic of interest was journalism on the web and I gradually narrowed the search:
- First, in scientific literature often used phrases such as “online journalism”, “web journalism”, “internet journalism”, “cyber-journalism” etc., therefore, I used the operator OR (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism”).
- In the second step I narrowed the search on full scientific texts, therefore, I searched for pdf-files that are commonly used for documenting such literature (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism” AND pdf).
- Third, because journalism on the web or online journalism to use the most common phrase is a broad subject I narrowed the interest to texts that deal with online journalism and changes of the newsroom by truncating words, using operator AND, and parentheses (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism” AND pdf AND (chang* OR transform* newsroom*)).
Msn.com
1) First step search gave us over 1,760,000 results. First result was Journalism.co.uk, a site that deals with on a array of issues linked with journalism. The second result was a reperot of The project for Excellence in Journalism from 2006. Among top ten results were blogs dealing with online journalism, Wikipedia’s article dealing with the subject and sites of news organizations (i.e. Pbs.com).
2) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first search. It did not offer a pdf-file in top results.
3) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first and second search. Dominant results were blogs on online journalism, j-blogs and activist sites made by journalists.
Yahoo!
1) First step search gave us over 4,600,000 results. The first result was Online Journalism Review a site that evaluates happening in the field of online journalism and is sponsored by Yahoo!. The second result was Wikipedia’s article on the subject. The third result was Mark Deuze’s article Online Journalism: Modelling the First Generation of News Media on the World Wide Web from 2001 published in The First Monday. Journalism.co.uk, a site that deals with on a array of issues linked with journalism. The second result was a reperot of The project for Excellence in Journalism from 2006. Among top ten results were blogs dealing with online journalism and activist sites made by journalists.
2) The results changed and they were narrowed to 439,000. In the first ten results were among others a survey on the roles of journalists in online newsrooms conducted as part of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and a complete Handbook of Independent Journalism, written by Deborah Potter, the executive director of NewsLab.
3) The results changed and they were narrowed to 1,390. Among top results was a number of pdf-files on online journalism and changing newsrooms: for example a report from the symposium held at the University of Texas, articles from Nieman Reports, and reviews made by professionals from couple of news organizations. Among top results were some j-blogs and educational blogs.
Ask.com
1) The first search gave 11,190,000 results. Among top results were among others Online Journalism Review a site that evaluates happening in the field of online journalism, Poynter.org that “helps journalists do their jobs better and to serve their communities”, and Journalism.org that conducts the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Other top sites were blogs and sites dealing with online journalism.
2) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first search. It did not offer a pdf-file in top results.
3) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first and second search.
Google.com
1) The first search offered 595,000 results. Among top sites were almost exclusively collective sites and blogs made by journalists on the subject of online journalism (i.e. Journalism.org, Poynter.org, Journalism.co.uk).
2) The number of results narrowed to 56,000, but among top sites were almost exclusively collective sites and blogs made by journalists on the subject of online journalism. Less than a handful of pdf-files that could hardly be useful for serious insight into the matter of journalism on the web.
3) The number of results narrowed to thirty. Among top results still dominated blogs and collective sites made by journalists. Two of the results were interesting and worth checking them out: Nisar Keshvani’s PhD titled Integrated Newsroom, and article titled Interactive Options in Online Journalism: A Content Analysis of 100 U.S. Newspapers, written by Tanjev Schultz from the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen.
Scholar.google.com
1) The first search gave 2,370 results. You get an insight in what was written by the academia on the subject of journalism on the web, the most important authors, and issues regarding the matter. However, you are only offered abstracts of articles or first pages of related books, no full text documents were among top results. Therefore, the results could be used as guidelines for further search on literature databases (i.e. Routledge online and Sage online) through universities’ libraries or for buying books on online book stores.
2) The number of results fell to 1,500 and a number of complete texts were offered among top results as pdf-files on a number of issues of online journalism – however, there texts were merely research reports by more or less internationally unknown authors. Despite this the readings are interesting and could be worth checking out.
3) The third search narrowed the results to 19. Similarly to the second search the sites offered literature written by more or less internationally unknown authors concentrated on specific national contexts. Through this prism they could be worth checking out.
- First, in scientific literature often used phrases such as “online journalism”, “web journalism”, “internet journalism”, “cyber-journalism” etc., therefore, I used the operator OR (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism”).
- In the second step I narrowed the search on full scientific texts, therefore, I searched for pdf-files that are commonly used for documenting such literature (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism” AND pdf).
- Third, because journalism on the web or online journalism to use the most common phrase is a broad subject I narrowed the interest to texts that deal with online journalism and changes of the newsroom by truncating words, using operator AND, and parentheses (“online journalism” OR “web journalism” OR “internet journalism” OR “cyber-journalism” AND pdf AND (chang* OR transform* newsroom*)).
Msn.com
1) First step search gave us over 1,760,000 results. First result was Journalism.co.uk, a site that deals with on a array of issues linked with journalism. The second result was a reperot of The project for Excellence in Journalism from 2006. Among top ten results were blogs dealing with online journalism, Wikipedia’s article dealing with the subject and sites of news organizations (i.e. Pbs.com).
2) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first search. It did not offer a pdf-file in top results.
3) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first and second search. Dominant results were blogs on online journalism, j-blogs and activist sites made by journalists.
Yahoo!
1) First step search gave us over 4,600,000 results. The first result was Online Journalism Review a site that evaluates happening in the field of online journalism and is sponsored by Yahoo!. The second result was Wikipedia’s article on the subject. The third result was Mark Deuze’s article Online Journalism: Modelling the First Generation of News Media on the World Wide Web from 2001 published in The First Monday. Journalism.co.uk, a site that deals with on a array of issues linked with journalism. The second result was a reperot of The project for Excellence in Journalism from 2006. Among top ten results were blogs dealing with online journalism and activist sites made by journalists.
2) The results changed and they were narrowed to 439,000. In the first ten results were among others a survey on the roles of journalists in online newsrooms conducted as part of the Project for Excellence in Journalism and a complete Handbook of Independent Journalism, written by Deborah Potter, the executive director of NewsLab.
3) The results changed and they were narrowed to 1,390. Among top results was a number of pdf-files on online journalism and changing newsrooms: for example a report from the symposium held at the University of Texas, articles from Nieman Reports, and reviews made by professionals from couple of news organizations. Among top results were some j-blogs and educational blogs.
Ask.com
1) The first search gave 11,190,000 results. Among top results were among others Online Journalism Review a site that evaluates happening in the field of online journalism, Poynter.org that “helps journalists do their jobs better and to serve their communities”, and Journalism.org that conducts the Project for Excellence in Journalism. Other top sites were blogs and sites dealing with online journalism.
2) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first search. It did not offer a pdf-file in top results.
3) The results and the number of them changed only slightly in regards to the first and second search.
Google.com
1) The first search offered 595,000 results. Among top sites were almost exclusively collective sites and blogs made by journalists on the subject of online journalism (i.e. Journalism.org, Poynter.org, Journalism.co.uk).
2) The number of results narrowed to 56,000, but among top sites were almost exclusively collective sites and blogs made by journalists on the subject of online journalism. Less than a handful of pdf-files that could hardly be useful for serious insight into the matter of journalism on the web.
3) The number of results narrowed to thirty. Among top results still dominated blogs and collective sites made by journalists. Two of the results were interesting and worth checking them out: Nisar Keshvani’s PhD titled Integrated Newsroom, and article titled Interactive Options in Online Journalism: A Content Analysis of 100 U.S. Newspapers, written by Tanjev Schultz from the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies at the University of Bremen.
Scholar.google.com
1) The first search gave 2,370 results. You get an insight in what was written by the academia on the subject of journalism on the web, the most important authors, and issues regarding the matter. However, you are only offered abstracts of articles or first pages of related books, no full text documents were among top results. Therefore, the results could be used as guidelines for further search on literature databases (i.e. Routledge online and Sage online) through universities’ libraries or for buying books on online book stores.
2) The number of results fell to 1,500 and a number of complete texts were offered among top results as pdf-files on a number of issues of online journalism – however, there texts were merely research reports by more or less internationally unknown authors. Despite this the readings are interesting and could be worth checking out.
3) The third search narrowed the results to 19. Similarly to the second search the sites offered literature written by more or less internationally unknown authors concentrated on specific national contexts. Through this prism they could be worth checking out.
Tuesday 26 February 2008
Nieman Reports: available online since 1998
Now in its 60th year, Nieman Reports serves a unique role in the community of journalism publications. Journalists write stories out of experiences they've had in covering events and issues, and they write about newsroom issues common in the craft. Issues since 1998 are available here.
Monday 25 February 2008
J. D. Lasica: website
I have come across J.D. Lasica's website and I warmly recommend it. He is one of the world's leading authorities on social media and the revolution in user-created media. A writer, strategist, blogger and consultant, he is the co-founder and head of Ourmedia.org, president of the Social Media Group and a partner in Outhink, a company that enables social media and distributed video production. Especially worth checking out is a collection of his articles.
Saturday 23 February 2008
JournalismJobs.com: looking for a job in journalism?
JournalismJobs.com was founded in August 1998 by Dan Rohn, a former copy editor and writer with The Washington Post and editor with America Online. JournalismJobs.com is the largest and most-visited resource for journalism jobs, and receives between 2.5 to 3 million page views a month.
IFJ Research Report: The Changing Nature of Work
If you are interested in changing the nature of work in media in convergent environment, you would appreciate Interenational Federeation of Journalists research report: The Changing Nature of Work from 2006. It is a global survey and case study of atypical work in media industry conducted by people such as
Emma Walters, Christopher Warren and Mike Dobbie. It is worth checking it out ...
Emma Walters, Christopher Warren and Mike Dobbie. It is worth checking it out ...
Thursday 21 February 2008
Alexa.com
Alexa - the Web Information Company is a subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is best known for operating a website that provides information on web traffic to other websites. There is a lot of controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical Internet behavior. Namely, Alexa ranks sites based on visits from users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape. In addition to their own statusbar extension, Sparky (released July 2007), there are several third-party extensions for Mozilla Firefox.
Alexa is an useful tool to start your research of a particular site, however, the stats (i.e. reach, rank, page views) of the site you are interested in are focused only globally. You cannot get answer to the question for instance: what is a reach of 24ur.com in Slovenia. That is a shame ... Try it out.
Alexa is an useful tool to start your research of a particular site, however, the stats (i.e. reach, rank, page views) of the site you are interested in are focused only globally. You cannot get answer to the question for instance: what is a reach of 24ur.com in Slovenia. That is a shame ... Try it out.
Wednesday 20 February 2008
Jay Rosen: "People who were formerly known as the audience"
This is a short interview with Jay Rosen. He presents some of his reflections on journalism and media in convergent media environment. Enjoy ...
Friday 15 February 2008
Jay Rosen and PressThink
In 2003 Jay Rosen, associate professor at NYU, a respected scholar and author of the book What are Journalists For? (1999, sample chapter), started a blog titled PressThink: Ghost of Democracy in the Media Machine, the blog is about journalism and its ordeals. Two years later the blog won Reporters Without Borders Freedom Blog Award. It is worth checking it out ... A few sentences from the introduction to warm you up: "We need to keep the press from being absorbed into The Media. This means keeping the word press, which is antiquated. But included under its modern umbrella should be all who do the serious work in journalism, regardless of the technology used. The people who will invent the next press in America - and who are doing it now online - continue an experiment at least 250 years old."
Sunday 10 February 2008
E-interview: practice of irresponsible journalists
In journalistic reporting theory e-interview or interview conducted via e-mail is regarded as an example of irresposible journalism that neglects several ground canons of normative journalism. Moreover, questions are risen if e-interview is an interview in traditional sense - it lacks the primary dialogue, time for interviewee's responses is longer, doubt that the responder is not the interviewee, to name just a few. However, it has an advance (in the eyes of lazy journalists) - typing the transcript is not a practice.
The last example of e-interview that went wrong happend this weekend in Croatia. On Saturday editor of daily Jutranji list Davor Butković published an interview with Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader. Prime minister's PR office later that day reported that Sanader did not communicate with that journalist in the last couple of days and that the interview is a lie. Butković responded that he conducted an interview via e-mail and that probably something went wrong. On Sunday Jutranji list's competitor Vecernji list reported that the questions to the prime minister were answer by a 23-year-old, who called Vecernji list and said that he pulled a joke on Butković sending him a SMS for New Year's as Ivo Sanader and then just responding to Butković's proposal for an interview two months later.
Despite the fact that the Internet and the Web brought mechanisms changing news production process. On the basis of above example the "new" technological environment is not a priori positive or negative, but it seems that it accelerates deepening the crisis of the journalistic profession in the context of institutionalisation of journalism as part of political, economic and cultural system.
The last example of e-interview that went wrong happend this weekend in Croatia. On Saturday editor of daily Jutranji list Davor Butković published an interview with Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader. Prime minister's PR office later that day reported that Sanader did not communicate with that journalist in the last couple of days and that the interview is a lie. Butković responded that he conducted an interview via e-mail and that probably something went wrong. On Sunday Jutranji list's competitor Vecernji list reported that the questions to the prime minister were answer by a 23-year-old, who called Vecernji list and said that he pulled a joke on Butković sending him a SMS for New Year's as Ivo Sanader and then just responding to Butković's proposal for an interview two months later.
Despite the fact that the Internet and the Web brought mechanisms changing news production process. On the basis of above example the "new" technological environment is not a priori positive or negative, but it seems that it accelerates deepening the crisis of the journalistic profession in the context of institutionalisation of journalism as part of political, economic and cultural system.
Microjournalism?
Journalists are increasingly finding new ways to use Twitter. The microblogging application is now used by some online journalists in the American campaign trail. Cyberjournalist.net points out John Dickerson, who worked for years at Time magazine, and has moved from print to online articles to blog entries to text messages no longer than 140 characters, or about two sentences. “One of the things we are supposed to do as journalists is take people where they can’t go,” he said in an interview for the New York Times. “It is much more authentic, because it really is from inside the room.” Is "microjournalism" another example of convergent journalism and maybe a future form of providing breaking news?
Monday 4 February 2008
News + Games = Newsgaming.com
In online news industry interactive graphics have become a viable way to explain reported events and contextualize issues, while several game developers, explains Deuze (2007: 152-153), produce games that reflect "real" events using elements of journalistic practice to (in)form their design. Such example is Newsgaming.com where you can play games related to New York and Madrid terrorist attacks. At this Uruguay-based game studio (Powerful Robot) they use the word newsgaming "for describing a genre that is currently emerging: videogames based on news events. Traditionally, videogames have focused on fantasy rather than reality, but we believe that they can be a great tool for better understanding our world. Since newsgaming is so new, it has to find a voice of its own. Therefore, most of our games will be in part experimental".
Reference:
Deuze, Marc (2007): Media Work in a Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Reference:
Deuze, Marc (2007): Media Work in a Digital Age. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Sunday 3 February 2008
Bill Gates's Children and Computers
A year ago Reuters reported that Bill Gates limits access to compter and internet to his daughter and son. Read about it on The Inquirer. This fact spots an interesting light on the issue of children and digital divide - one of the issues of Wednesday's meeting.
Thursday 31 January 2008
MIT Communications Forum Website: The Treasure of Discussions on Emerging Technologies
Check it out if you were not there. This website is the online record of the activities of the MIT Communications Forum.
For more than twenty-five years the Communications Forum has played a unique role at MIT and beyond as a site for cutting-edge discussion of the cultural, political, economic and technological impact of communications, with special emphasis on emerging technologies.
Leading scholars, journalists, media producers, political figures and corporate executives have appeared at conferences and panels sponsored by the Forum.
On the website you can find papers and abstracts of an array of respected people in the field. Enjoy it.
For more than twenty-five years the Communications Forum has played a unique role at MIT and beyond as a site for cutting-edge discussion of the cultural, political, economic and technological impact of communications, with special emphasis on emerging technologies.
Leading scholars, journalists, media producers, political figures and corporate executives have appeared at conferences and panels sponsored by the Forum.
On the website you can find papers and abstracts of an array of respected people in the field. Enjoy it.
Wednesday 30 January 2008
New Technology and News Flows: Journalism and Crisis
Check out John Pavlik's paper from 2002 titled New Technology and News Flows: Journalism and Crisis Coverage that examines the role of new and emerging information technologies in the distribution of news and information during moments of crisis, with a particular focus on the U.S. and North America since September 11, 2001. Among the technologies examined are satellite communications and remote sensing, wireless Internet communications and mobile information acquisition devices.
Thursday 24 January 2008
Be a victim of a serial killer and commercial imperative
Check out this website, where you can send your friend a personalized "journalistic report" that s/he was a victim of a serial killer. The site was set by the producers of American series Dexter. It is funny, however, it is a sneaky way to get personal data, e-mail and occupation of people and exploit this information in commercial matter for instance. Maybe this could also be an issue discussed at today's meeting ...
Thoughts before today's meeting ...
What are the key conceptual issues related to the emergence of digital media and digital communications?
Key conceptual issues related to the emergence of digital media and digital communications are: digitalization and information society; interactivity and convergence; (virtual) community; identity; technology and context; politics, policy and regulation; public discourse; commerce and industry; education. However, these conceptual issues are interrelated and each of them can hardly be studied separately.
What theoretical concerns and kinds of research questions are posted about digital media developments from different disciplines?
The common ground of these issues in different disciplines is ethics. The question is how we should approach ethics related to the emergence of digital media and digital communications. I am especially interested in this issue in the context of producing content, more precisely, news production. I have been reading a book Online Journalism Ethics that is based on consolidated normative framework of »offline« journalism and taken into the context of cultural transformation of journalism (as a »profession« and as a »activity«) on the Web.
How do (some of) these notions (concerns about power relations, distribution of resources, human development and learning, creative expression, political life and organization) find expression in the study of digital media and communication?
These notions find expression inside key conceptual issues related to emergence of digital media and digital communications which are accordant with the chapters of the textbook and should be in this regard approached, studied and researched separately.
Key conceptual issues related to the emergence of digital media and digital communications are: digitalization and information society; interactivity and convergence; (virtual) community; identity; technology and context; politics, policy and regulation; public discourse; commerce and industry; education. However, these conceptual issues are interrelated and each of them can hardly be studied separately.
What theoretical concerns and kinds of research questions are posted about digital media developments from different disciplines?
The common ground of these issues in different disciplines is ethics. The question is how we should approach ethics related to the emergence of digital media and digital communications. I am especially interested in this issue in the context of producing content, more precisely, news production. I have been reading a book Online Journalism Ethics that is based on consolidated normative framework of »offline« journalism and taken into the context of cultural transformation of journalism (as a »profession« and as a »activity«) on the Web.
How do (some of) these notions (concerns about power relations, distribution of resources, human development and learning, creative expression, political life and organization) find expression in the study of digital media and communication?
These notions find expression inside key conceptual issues related to emergence of digital media and digital communications which are accordant with the chapters of the textbook and should be in this regard approached, studied and researched separately.
Tuesday 22 January 2008
Blogs on Online Journalism
Check out two of the blogs dealing with online journalism.
Online Journalism Blog: it publishes comment, analysis and links covering online journalism and online news, citizen journalism, blogging, vlogging, photoblogging, podcasts, vodcasts, interactive storytelling, publishing, Computer Assisted Reporting, User Generated Content, searching and all things internet.
Journalism Enterprise: the site is the sister site of the blog mentioned above and it reviews websites that are attempting to make money from journalism in the new media age. That may be a mainstream organisation launching a new media spin-off, an internet startup looking to make millions, a non-profit news venture, or an entrepreneur setting up a solo project.
Online Journalism Blog: it publishes comment, analysis and links covering online journalism and online news, citizen journalism, blogging, vlogging, photoblogging, podcasts, vodcasts, interactive storytelling, publishing, Computer Assisted Reporting, User Generated Content, searching and all things internet.
Journalism Enterprise: the site is the sister site of the blog mentioned above and it reviews websites that are attempting to make money from journalism in the new media age. That may be a mainstream organisation launching a new media spin-off, an internet startup looking to make millions, a non-profit news venture, or an entrepreneur setting up a solo project.
Online Journalism Review
If your are an online journalist or just interested in journlaism you should visit USC Annenberg Online journalism Review edited by Robert Niles. Interesting insights ...
Wednesday 16 January 2008
Dan Gillmor and We Media
Below you can enjoy Dan Gillmor's lecture titled "We the Media: Grassroots Journalism By the People". In 2004 Gillmor published a book with the same title, chronicling how the Internet is helping independent journalists combat the consolidation of traditional media. He is a director of Center for Citizen Media - check out its website, you will find some interesting content there. For those of you who do not know Gillmor check out his homepage and his blog.
Monday 14 January 2008
Message of the Medium: Journalism of the Web and Determinism of Technological Determinism
When a new technological medium enters the world, we tend to think the world of it.
Arvind Rajagopal
“Better” technology does not automatically lead to “better” journalism.
Peter Dahlgren
“Medium is the message.” The idea of this sentence and other insights of its author have implicitly and explicitly entered the debates in the second half of the nineties in journalism studies: as utopia and as dystopia. On one hand, the Web was considered as a hope for ending the crisis of professional traditional journalism and the utopian phrases referred to journalism on the Web as “the revolution” (Stephens, 1998), “the future of journalism” (Newhagen and Levy, 1998; Pavlik, 1999; Singer, 1997), “the age of the net” (Heinonen, 1999; Hibbert, 1998; Kimber, 1997), “a whole new journalism” (Quittner, 1995). On the other hand, in the dystopian view the Web was simultaneously viewed as a threat to professional journalism and to the journalist as a traditional gate-keeper (cf. Dahlgren, 1996; Deuze, 2002; Kawamoto, 2003; Salwen, 2005). These opponent examples of hard technological determinism were raised despite the fact that journalism history acknowledges technology as to shaping journalism in, what Raymond Williams (cf. 1974/2005) calls “the long revolution”.
Departures from these naïve expectations in contemporary research (cf. Deuze, 2004, 2005; Singer, 2006; Dahlgren, forthcoming) are not signs that the Web does not revitalize journalism and democratize the public debate, but are signs that “the medium and its analysis are maturing” (Benkler, 2006: 215). The contemporary journalism studies therefore reject the ideas that the technology exclusively controls journalistic work, content of news, organization of the newsroom and the relationships between journalistic subjects and other hard deterministic explanations at the expense of a much broader cultural perspective on the relations of technology and journalism (cf. Hardt, 2004: 9). But still, soft technological determinism is very much present in the conquest for “better” journalism and is reflected in a number of normative models: “interactive journalism”, “citizen journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “second phase of public journalism” (cf. Nip, 2006). On the other hand, for instance the relationship between professional journalism versus blogging, wikinews and indymedia is understood as a dimishing of the former and the genesis of new forms of journalism: “black market journalism” (Wall, 2004), “personal journalism” (Allan, 2002), “amateur journalism” (Lasica, 2002), “interactive grassroots journalism” (Aufderheide, 2004).
Regardless to more extensive blurring of the lines between journalism and non-journalism in cyberspace than in mass media (cf. Splichal, 2000) even soft technological determinism cannot be generalized. There is a diversity of factors that shape journalism: professional culture, political pressures, economic pressures, pressures of sources of information and technological framework (cf. McNair, 1998; Boczkowski and Ferris, 2005, Quandt et al, 2006), therefore, the new technologies result in a complexity and heterogeneity of adaptability. “[T]he Internet does not simply move in and redefine the way everything works; it is largely assimilated via the already existing local and national traditions within journalism” (Dahlgren, forthcoming). In addition, Klinenber (2005) argues that journalism’s entering on the Web resulted not in gradual transformation of market-driven journalism and its discourse (cf. McManus, 1994), on the contrary, the goals of productivity, efficiency and profitability pushed traditional journalistic values even further to the margins. The Web as a journalistic environment is, in Resnick’s (cf. 1998) terms, “normalizing”. In this context the concept of the “networked public sphere” (cf. Benkler, 2006) can be regarded only as an ideal-typical notion, moreover, Thompson’s (cf. 1995) notion of the “mediatized public sphere” should not be forgotten.
The example of journalism on the Web confirms that technological determinism “is a reductionist reading of the contemporary or future world” (Burnett and Marshall, 2003: 11). However, the works of McLuhan, Innis, Mumford and other labeled technological determinists should not be neglected, in the context of interest the objective should be to highlight their utility by isolating on what their theoretical insights have provided in their work. In addition, technological determinism is in the core of the perennial debate in social sciences between those who emphasize structure and those who emphasize agency. This short text is not the place to attempt to close and overcome such a debate and division, it is rather an opportunity to ask the reader to keep the alternative viewpoints in mind while reading further texts on journalism of the Web. Determinism of technological determinism is the message of the medium.
Igor Vobič, Ljubljana, 2008
References
- Allan, Stuart (2002). Reweaving the Internet: Online news of September 11, pp. 119–40. In: Bardie Zelizer, Stuart Allan (Ed.): Journalism after September 11. London, New York: Routledge.
- Aufderheide, Patricia (2004). Big media and little media: the journalistic informal sector during the invasion of Iraq, pp. 333–46. In: Stuart Allan, Barbie Zelizer (Ed.): Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime. London and New York: Rotledge.
- Benkler, Yochai (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
- Boczkowski, Pablo J., José A. Ferris (2005). Multiple Media, Convergent Processes, and Divergent Products: Organizational Innovation in Digital Media Production at a European Firm. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 597 (1): 32–47.
- Burnett, Robert, David P. Marshall (2003): Web.Theory: an introduction. London, New York: Routledge.
- Dahlgren, Peter (1996). Media Logic in Cyberspace: Repositioning of Journalism and Its Public, Javnost/The Public 3 (3): 59–72.
- Dahlgren, Peter (forthcoming) Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Deuze, Marc (2002): Online Journalism: Modeling the First Generation of News Media on the Web. First Monday 6 (10); http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_10/deuze;. 12 January, 2008.
- Deuze, Mark (2004). What is multimedia journalism? Journalism Studies, 5 (2): 139–152.
- Deuze, Mark (2005). What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6 (4): 442–464.
- Heinonen, Ari (1999). Journalism in the Age of the Net. Changing Society, changing profesion. Tampere: University of Tampere.
- Hibbert, Bill (1998). Publishing and the Media Industries in the Digital Age. The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media 1: 393–403.
- Kawamoto, Kevin (2003) Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism, pp. 1–31. In: Kevin Kawamoto (Ed.): Digital Journalism. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers.
- Kimber, Stephen (1997). The Message is (Still) the Medium: the newspaper in the age of cyberspace. Information Processing & Management 33: 595–597.
- Klinenberg, Eric (2005). Covergence: News Production in The Digital Age. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 597 (1): 48-64.
- McManus, John H. (1994). Market-driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- McNair, Brian (1998): Sociology of News. London: Arnold.
- Newhagen, John E., Mark R. Levy (1998). The Future of Journalism in a Distributed Communication, pp. 9–21. In: D. L. Borden, K Harvey (Eds.): The Elctronic Grapevine: rumor, reputation and reporting in the new online environment. Manwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Nip, Joyce (2006). Exploring the Second Phase of Public Journalism. Journalism Studies, 7 (2): 212–236.
- Pavlik, John V. (1999). New Media and News: implications for future of journalism. New Media & Society 1: 54–69.
- Rajagopal, Arvind (2006). Imperceptible Perceptions in Our Technological Modernity, pp. 277–286. In: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Thomas Keenan (Eds.): New Media, Old Media. New York, London: Routledge.
- Resnick, David (1998). Politics on the Internet: the Normalization and the Public Sphere, pp. 48–68. In: C. Touluse, W. T. Luke (Ed.): The Politics of Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
- Quandt, Thorsten, Martin Löffelholz, David H. Weaver, Thomas Hanitzsch, Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen (2006). American and German Online Journalists at the Beginning of 21st Century. Journalism Studies 7 (2): 171–186.
- Quittner, Joshua (1995). The Birth of Way New Journalism. HotWired, http://hotwired.lycos.com/i-agent/95/29/waynew/waynew.html, 12 December 2006.
- Salwen, Michael B. (2005) Online News Trends, pp. 47–80. In: Michael B. Salwen, Bruse Garrison, Paul D. Driscoll (Ed.): Online News and the Public. Mahwah, New Jersey, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Singer, Jane B. (1997). Changes and Consistences: newspaper journalists contemplate online future. Newspaper research journal 18: 2–18.
- Singer, Jane B. (2006). Partnerships and Public Service: Normative Issues for Journalists in Converged Newsrooms. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 21 (1): 30–53.
- Splichal, Slavko (2000). Novinarji in novinarstvo, pp. 47–56. In: Slavko Splichal (Ed.): Vregov zbornik. Ljubljana: Evropski inštitut za komuniciranje in kulturo in FDV.
- Stephens, Mitchell (1998). Which Communication Revolution Is It, Anyway? Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75: 9–13.
- Thompson, John (1995). The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Wall, Melissa (2004) Blogs as black market journalism: A new paradigm for news, Interface: The Journal of Education, Community and Values, http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/02/wall.php, 12 January, 2008.
- Williams, Raymond (1974/2005). Television: Technology and Cultural form. New York: Routledge.
Arvind Rajagopal
“Better” technology does not automatically lead to “better” journalism.
Peter Dahlgren
“Medium is the message.” The idea of this sentence and other insights of its author have implicitly and explicitly entered the debates in the second half of the nineties in journalism studies: as utopia and as dystopia. On one hand, the Web was considered as a hope for ending the crisis of professional traditional journalism and the utopian phrases referred to journalism on the Web as “the revolution” (Stephens, 1998), “the future of journalism” (Newhagen and Levy, 1998; Pavlik, 1999; Singer, 1997), “the age of the net” (Heinonen, 1999; Hibbert, 1998; Kimber, 1997), “a whole new journalism” (Quittner, 1995). On the other hand, in the dystopian view the Web was simultaneously viewed as a threat to professional journalism and to the journalist as a traditional gate-keeper (cf. Dahlgren, 1996; Deuze, 2002; Kawamoto, 2003; Salwen, 2005). These opponent examples of hard technological determinism were raised despite the fact that journalism history acknowledges technology as to shaping journalism in, what Raymond Williams (cf. 1974/2005) calls “the long revolution”.
Departures from these naïve expectations in contemporary research (cf. Deuze, 2004, 2005; Singer, 2006; Dahlgren, forthcoming) are not signs that the Web does not revitalize journalism and democratize the public debate, but are signs that “the medium and its analysis are maturing” (Benkler, 2006: 215). The contemporary journalism studies therefore reject the ideas that the technology exclusively controls journalistic work, content of news, organization of the newsroom and the relationships between journalistic subjects and other hard deterministic explanations at the expense of a much broader cultural perspective on the relations of technology and journalism (cf. Hardt, 2004: 9). But still, soft technological determinism is very much present in the conquest for “better” journalism and is reflected in a number of normative models: “interactive journalism”, “citizen journalism”, “participatory journalism”, “second phase of public journalism” (cf. Nip, 2006). On the other hand, for instance the relationship between professional journalism versus blogging, wikinews and indymedia is understood as a dimishing of the former and the genesis of new forms of journalism: “black market journalism” (Wall, 2004), “personal journalism” (Allan, 2002), “amateur journalism” (Lasica, 2002), “interactive grassroots journalism” (Aufderheide, 2004).
Regardless to more extensive blurring of the lines between journalism and non-journalism in cyberspace than in mass media (cf. Splichal, 2000) even soft technological determinism cannot be generalized. There is a diversity of factors that shape journalism: professional culture, political pressures, economic pressures, pressures of sources of information and technological framework (cf. McNair, 1998; Boczkowski and Ferris, 2005, Quandt et al, 2006), therefore, the new technologies result in a complexity and heterogeneity of adaptability. “[T]he Internet does not simply move in and redefine the way everything works; it is largely assimilated via the already existing local and national traditions within journalism” (Dahlgren, forthcoming). In addition, Klinenber (2005) argues that journalism’s entering on the Web resulted not in gradual transformation of market-driven journalism and its discourse (cf. McManus, 1994), on the contrary, the goals of productivity, efficiency and profitability pushed traditional journalistic values even further to the margins. The Web as a journalistic environment is, in Resnick’s (cf. 1998) terms, “normalizing”. In this context the concept of the “networked public sphere” (cf. Benkler, 2006) can be regarded only as an ideal-typical notion, moreover, Thompson’s (cf. 1995) notion of the “mediatized public sphere” should not be forgotten.
The example of journalism on the Web confirms that technological determinism “is a reductionist reading of the contemporary or future world” (Burnett and Marshall, 2003: 11). However, the works of McLuhan, Innis, Mumford and other labeled technological determinists should not be neglected, in the context of interest the objective should be to highlight their utility by isolating on what their theoretical insights have provided in their work. In addition, technological determinism is in the core of the perennial debate in social sciences between those who emphasize structure and those who emphasize agency. This short text is not the place to attempt to close and overcome such a debate and division, it is rather an opportunity to ask the reader to keep the alternative viewpoints in mind while reading further texts on journalism of the Web. Determinism of technological determinism is the message of the medium.
Igor Vobič, Ljubljana, 2008
References
- Allan, Stuart (2002). Reweaving the Internet: Online news of September 11, pp. 119–40. In: Bardie Zelizer, Stuart Allan (Ed.): Journalism after September 11. London, New York: Routledge.
- Aufderheide, Patricia (2004). Big media and little media: the journalistic informal sector during the invasion of Iraq, pp. 333–46. In: Stuart Allan, Barbie Zelizer (Ed.): Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime. London and New York: Rotledge.
- Benkler, Yochai (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.
- Boczkowski, Pablo J., José A. Ferris (2005). Multiple Media, Convergent Processes, and Divergent Products: Organizational Innovation in Digital Media Production at a European Firm. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 597 (1): 32–47.
- Burnett, Robert, David P. Marshall (2003): Web.Theory: an introduction. London, New York: Routledge.
- Dahlgren, Peter (1996). Media Logic in Cyberspace: Repositioning of Journalism and Its Public, Javnost/The Public 3 (3): 59–72.
- Dahlgren, Peter (forthcoming) Media and Political Engagement: Citizens, Communication and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Deuze, Marc (2002): Online Journalism: Modeling the First Generation of News Media on the Web. First Monday 6 (10); http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_10/deuze;. 12 January, 2008.
- Deuze, Mark (2004). What is multimedia journalism? Journalism Studies, 5 (2): 139–152.
- Deuze, Mark (2005). What is journalism? Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism, 6 (4): 442–464.
- Heinonen, Ari (1999). Journalism in the Age of the Net. Changing Society, changing profesion. Tampere: University of Tampere.
- Hibbert, Bill (1998). Publishing and the Media Industries in the Digital Age. The Journal of Policy, Regulation and Strategy for Telecommunications, Information and Media 1: 393–403.
- Kawamoto, Kevin (2003) Digital Journalism: Emerging Media and the Changing Horizons of Journalism, pp. 1–31. In: Kevin Kawamoto (Ed.): Digital Journalism. Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield Publishers.
- Kimber, Stephen (1997). The Message is (Still) the Medium: the newspaper in the age of cyberspace. Information Processing & Management 33: 595–597.
- Klinenberg, Eric (2005). Covergence: News Production in The Digital Age. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 597 (1): 48-64.
- McManus, John H. (1994). Market-driven Journalism: Let the Citizen Beware. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
- McNair, Brian (1998): Sociology of News. London: Arnold.
- Newhagen, John E., Mark R. Levy (1998). The Future of Journalism in a Distributed Communication, pp. 9–21. In: D. L. Borden, K Harvey (Eds.): The Elctronic Grapevine: rumor, reputation and reporting in the new online environment. Manwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
- Nip, Joyce (2006). Exploring the Second Phase of Public Journalism. Journalism Studies, 7 (2): 212–236.
- Pavlik, John V. (1999). New Media and News: implications for future of journalism. New Media & Society 1: 54–69.
- Rajagopal, Arvind (2006). Imperceptible Perceptions in Our Technological Modernity, pp. 277–286. In: Wendy Hui Kyong Chun, Thomas Keenan (Eds.): New Media, Old Media. New York, London: Routledge.
- Resnick, David (1998). Politics on the Internet: the Normalization and the Public Sphere, pp. 48–68. In: C. Touluse, W. T. Luke (Ed.): The Politics of Cyberspace. London: Routledge.
- Quandt, Thorsten, Martin Löffelholz, David H. Weaver, Thomas Hanitzsch, Klaus-Dieter Altmeppen (2006). American and German Online Journalists at the Beginning of 21st Century. Journalism Studies 7 (2): 171–186.
- Quittner, Joshua (1995). The Birth of Way New Journalism. HotWired, http://hotwired.lycos.com/i-agent/95/29/waynew/waynew.html, 12 December 2006.
- Salwen, Michael B. (2005) Online News Trends, pp. 47–80. In: Michael B. Salwen, Bruse Garrison, Paul D. Driscoll (Ed.): Online News and the Public. Mahwah, New Jersey, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Singer, Jane B. (1997). Changes and Consistences: newspaper journalists contemplate online future. Newspaper research journal 18: 2–18.
- Singer, Jane B. (2006). Partnerships and Public Service: Normative Issues for Journalists in Converged Newsrooms. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 21 (1): 30–53.
- Splichal, Slavko (2000). Novinarji in novinarstvo, pp. 47–56. In: Slavko Splichal (Ed.): Vregov zbornik. Ljubljana: Evropski inštitut za komuniciranje in kulturo in FDV.
- Stephens, Mitchell (1998). Which Communication Revolution Is It, Anyway? Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 75: 9–13.
- Thompson, John (1995). The Media and Modernity: A Social Theory of Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.
- Wall, Melissa (2004) Blogs as black market journalism: A new paradigm for news, Interface: The Journal of Education, Community and Values, http://bcis.pacificu.edu/journal/2004/02/wall.php, 12 January, 2008.
- Williams, Raymond (1974/2005). Television: Technology and Cultural form. New York: Routledge.
Thursday 10 January 2008
We do not need just three keys
This is CNN's step aside from their advertisment "You need just three keys: CNN" ... It is an interview with our old friend Andrew Keen and Tyler Brule on the topic of the effect that user generated content is having throughout journalism. Enjoy ...
Wednesday 9 January 2008
Is "our" Understanding of McLuhan a Cliché?
Here is a famous scene from Woody Allen's movie Annie Hall. Is McLuhan a cliché?
Wednesday 2 January 2008
Blogging Heroes
For Christmas I bought myself a new Michael A. Banks book Blogging Heroes. It contains interviews with 30 of "the World's Top Bloggers". How was the list made? "I looked around at who was doing what in the blogosphere. I cosulted the Technorati lists, Digg, Alexa and other resources to get an idea of which blogs were really popular, and which may have simply gamed the system to get on the list. / Sifting through the more active and popular blogs, I came up with a list of itneresting blogs in several categories. I read the blogs to get an idea of each blogger's style and background. I alos looked for buzz about othe popular bloggers and their blogs. Links from some of the blogs I was reading pointed to additional candidates for interviews. Still more were suggested by my editors and the interviewees themselves." (Banks, 2008: xii) Is this the methodology to get to the list of the "World's Top Bloggers"? Probably not - it is confusing and arbitrary ...
However, it is an interesting reading, because it gives you an insight into a broad palette of opinions on blogging, journalism, advertising and internet. I recomend it ...
However, it is an interesting reading, because it gives you an insight into a broad palette of opinions on blogging, journalism, advertising and internet. I recomend it ...
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