Elite news may not be the answer

There is a debate in academia as to whether newspapers should continue to provide a diversity of content or whether they should focus their efforts on a few topic areas to survive. Democratic theory assumes that people should actively seek a diversity of information in order to make knowledgeable decisions governing their lives. The question is whether it is one publication’s role to meet those needs. And if one community publication does not exist for readers of all backgrounds, what will this mean? Entman and Herbst argue that democracy will negatively be affected if the press encourages citizens to be ignorant by tailoring information solely for the elite audiences.

However, others argue publications should cater to elites or experts because elites can gather, synthesize, and communicate information to citizens. Phil Meyer, Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, argues that newspapers should concentrate their efforts on creating quality content for well-educated audiences. He argues the quality of news has diminished because of the need to disseminate a diversity of information.

I think it is important to evaluate the potential consequences and consider the audience before making this sort of committment. A recent study published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly by Tewksbury, Hals, and Bibart provides some evidence to counter the argument against creating content for elite audiences. The study divides people into two categories: Selectors (people who use the internet to find information on one topic at a time) and Browsers (those who use information sites to monitor what’s happening in the world). The results show that the majority of newspaper and internet news readers sampled tend to be browsers. These type of readers prefer to scan the publication on a range of topics to be informed on current affairs, and browsers feel more politically and socially aware. Browsers may prefer to scan a publication out of habit because that is how newspapers were read in the past.

I will agree that citizens are not ideal creatures consuming all of the information presented to them, but it is in their nature to connect with other people. But what happens if a publication does not exist to unite people of varying levels of knowledge?

Entman, R.M. and S. Herbst (2001) ’Reframing Public Opinion as We Have Known It’, in W.L. Bennett and R.M. Entman (eds.) Mediated Politics. Communication in the Future of Democracy, pp. 203-25. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Tewksbury, D., M.L. Hals, and A. Bibart (2008) ‘The Efficacy of News Browsing: The Relationship of News Consumption Style to Social and Political Efficacy’, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 85(2): 257-272.

Live from the web

A trend that I am seeing more of is live video coverage of events by news organizations.The Washington Post is providing live video coverage of the election this year. Some issues or events deserve live video coverage because viewers want to follow them closely, and perhaps, access alternative perspectives than what cable news provides.

Mogulus offers a free service that enables people to produce live embeddable content from their web cam. The free version features ads, however users can pay to upgrade to the Pro version. Michigan State University students are experimenting with this site by covering the election live.

Qik enables you to stream videos directly from your phone to the web. The Web site says it works with Nokia S60 phones and several phones running Windows Mobile. You will have to sign up to see if it works with your phone. As a tip, you should be careful not to move the mobile phone around too much while recording because it will difficult for the viewer to watch the video. Try to keep your hand steady while recording.

TechCrunch provides a list of other sites that will allow you to do live video.

Consumption of public affairs online

People remember more public affairs and other types information from newspapers more than any other medium. However, research is unclear to what affect the presentation of information online will have on news users. The fear with the move online is that people will only read news that directly interests them, rather than news that affects the nation and the world. Cass Sunstein, University of Chicago law professor, has argued that the internet may be become an echo chamber because people will only seek information that aligns with their interests. In the past, newspapers provided cues as to what issues were considered important. In the online realm, there may be fewer cues because the vast amount of information available on a home page and because people arrive to the online publication by going through other routes than the home page such as search engines, RSS feeds, and blogs.

An interesting survey by De Waal and Shoenback in Mass Communication & Society found that online news readers were just as familiar with public affairs topics as newspaper readers. The authors suggest that people may run inadvertently accross a diversity of topics through other means such as news aggregators (e.g., Yahoo News, Google News). The authors also argue that print newspapers need to begin differianting their product from their online one, perhaps by focusing on indepth coverage of public affairs topics. Writing for two different publication types would be difficult for journalists to do the because of downsizing and lack of resources. The need to create efficient content is one reason behind the lack of variability between offline and online publication types.

Social networking’s influence on the election

The influence of candidates using social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to reach young voters will not be revealed until after the election. Barack and McCain even have their own own social networking sites. However, if the race rested on social networking site figures, Obama would win. Obama has even made fun of McCain for being out of touch because he does not know how to use email.

Jason Manning, formerly of The Washington Post, now Director of Student Media at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication spoke to my class about whether social networking will influence the outcome of the election. Manning shared an interesting site, TechPresident, that tracks how the candidates are using the web. Based on the number of Facebook and MySpace supporters, Obama would win, however Real Clear Politics poll averages reveal that the race is neck and neck with only a few points difference between the candidates, as Manning showed the class. Social networking sites are more likely used by young people. According to a recent Pew Internet report, “two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.” And young people are more likely to be Democrats. Thus, the outcome of the election may rest on whether young people decide to vote, and perhaps, whether these sites motivate them to get to the polls.

Visual map of your traffic

My student showed me a cool widget, Feedjit, which provides an embeddable visual map of people who visit your site or blog. You can also look to see what pages and links are most popular to readers.

Journalists may increase participation

A common complaint that I hear from journalists and academics is that the public simply does not care about important issues facing the nation and the world. To respond to this issue, news professionals should critically analyze how they can alter content to potentially encourage civic participation.

This post derives from the arguments of several researchers, whom are cited below. The authors argue that journalists cannot realistically expect citizens to be politically active by simply disseminating information from the mouths of sources. Instead, journalists should provide details that inform citizens of participation opportunities such as how they can get involved, where they can go to voice their concern, or whom they can contact. These researchers found that journalists rarely explain issues or provide information on how citizens can get involved with issues of direct concern to them. In the past, research has shown that journalists did not include this information because they viewed these details as a violation of the objectivity standard and there was simply not enough room to include them on-air or in print.

However, space is not as much of an issue online. Mobilizing or enabling information could be added in an information box adjacent to almost any type of story. Here is an example of how one news organization provided information to the public on how to participate. Look at the end of the story.

Gans, H.J. (1998). What can journalists actually do for American democracy? Press/Politics, 3(4), 6-12.

Lemert, J. B., Mitzman, B. N., Seither, M. A., Cook, R. H., & O’Neil, R. M. (1977). Journalists and mobilizing information. Journalism Quarterly, 54(4), 721-726.

Keefer, J. D. (1993). News media’s failure to facilitate citizen participation in the congressional policymaking process. Journalism Quarterly, 70(2), 412-424.

Hoffman, L. H. (2006). Is internet content different after all? A content analysis of mobilizing information in online and print newspapers. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 83(1), 58-76.

To what extent should we embrace multimedia?

More news organizations are buying digital video cameras for their reporters asking them to gather video for their stories. I am supportive of this practice, however it is important to understand how people process visual information.

Research conducted by Mendelson and Thorson featured in the Journal of Communication argues that there are two types of learners: visualizers and verbalizers. Visualizers process information more quickly by viewing images, while verbalizers prefer to learn by reading text. In the experiment, participants read two stories: one with a photo and the same story without a photo. Their results showed that the presence of a photo hindered high verbalizer’s recall of the story, while moderate to low verbalizers were aided by the presence of the photo.

This study is interesting because newspapers are a predominantly textual medium, and thus a potentially significant portion of newspaper readers may be high verbalizers. Could newspapers be losing their loyal readers if they provide a photo or video adjacent to every text story? It would be interesting to find out whether the “typical” newspaper reader is a vebalizer and if the move online may affect the liklihood that they continue reading the publication online. Or could online news organizations package information differently, meeting the needs of both verbalizers and visualizers? Perhaps, a site could provide two separate links to a story presented in two different ways: one textual and one visual.

Blogs may not motivate change

A 2008 study, “Credibility and the Use of Blogs Among Professionals in the Communication Industry,” published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly shows that traditional journalists rarely to occasionally use blogs to supplement their stories. The authors (Sweetser, Porter, Chung, & Kim) found that most journalists believe that information found in blogs is not considered credible, but they believed that blogs would have an impact on the news industry.

Younger journalists who read blogs found the application to be more credible than journalists who did not consume information from blogs, according to the study.

Credibility research shows that people who consume a specific type of publication (e.g., newspapers, blogs) will perceive content from that publication type to be more credible. If journalists do not read blogs, they will likely rely on stereotypes when assessing the value of blog content. Thus, if journalists do not perceive bloggers or citizen journalists as a threat or of value, experimentation will not as likely occur in newsrooms because perceived competition from outside sources is not a major motivator for change.

*Sweetser, K.D., Porter, L.V., Chung, D.S., & Kim, E. (2008). Credibility and the use of blogs among professionals in the communication industry. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(1), 169-185.

Using digital photos for self-presentation

There is an interesting research article in the Visual Communication journal addressing how digital photos are now used more often for capturing moments, rather than capturing memories. In the past, the camera belonged to the family, however today it is used more by individuals, especially young people. The digital photograph is now more about visually communicating experiences with friends and family. The process of sharing photos is about confirming a bond or friendship, according to the article, “Digital photography: communication, identity, memory.” For example, on Facebook, users post a collection of photos showcasing their time at a football game or dinner with friends.

I began thinking about how news organizations can use this information to reach younger people:

1. News organizations could encourage the submission of a photo album, rather one photo. One photo does not always sum up one’s experience.
2. Information outlets could send breaking news photos to mobile phones.
3. A blogger could shoot a photo of themselves at an event and tell readers of his/her plan to share his/her perspective.
4. News organizations could ask for photos from users who experienced a tragedy or newsworthy event. This could be a sidebar to many different types of stories.
5. Ask for photo submissions about what it means to be (fill in the blank). Examples include Democrat, Republican, a resident, or a member of a group.
6. One of my students suggested allowing news users to comment on photos, not just text stories.

Encouraging access to research

My goal as a researcher is to share and decipher research found in academic journals on the topic of newer media. However, readers hoping to read an article in its entirety may not be able to do so because its takes some libraries, if they carry it, more than a year to provide access to it online. I have been in contact with professional organizations to see if access to journal articles is possible.

I will summarize and share with you the journal research articles that I have read, however I encourage you to talk to the authors of the research to find out more regarding what they have learned. And perhaps, conversations will lead to the sharing of ideas, and ultimately lead to increased accuracy of research conducted by those in academia.

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