Multi-media

Reading 5 Quinn S (2008) chapter 7, “OhMyNews in South Korea” and a youtube video on OhMyNews.

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In Norway, where I come from, the title journalist is not protected. That means everyone can call themselves a journalist. Most of the older generation of journalists do not have an education in journalism. I know a guy that worked as a salesman, started with some freelancing for a newspaper and ended up working full time as a journalist.

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I like the idea OhMyNews has created with the citizen reporter. There are a lot of things happening in the world, and the professional reporters do not have the chance to cover all the stories. With a model like OhMyNews more stories are covered and from different angles.

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The good thing about OhMyNews is that the citizen reporters need to follow ethics and guidelines, and all stories are regulated by editors before they are published. However, the downside is for those taking an education in journalism, like myself. The journalistic world is quite competitive already, and now the rest of the people also want to interact in the creative world. Will the competition get bigger with the citizen reporter?

This week`s readings: “Free! Why $ 0.00 Is the future of Business” by Chris Anderson and “ Make money around free content” from Wired How To Wiki.

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Today we take it for granted that we can get news and information, and communicate for free on the internet. Why pay for a newspaper when you can get free news online? Why send text messages (SMS) to your friends when you can chat for free online? As Anderson (2008, p.4) argues “the web has become the land of the free”.

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The big question is how can free news pay for good quality journalism? The answer is offcourse through advertising. The pressure to keep and get consumers for the news media is about making money. The more audience, the more advertisers. While the advertisements in newspapers usually have a set fee, the advertiser on the internet pays for every click, view and links to their ad.

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Some newsgroups have also found other ways to earn money. For example the Norwegian newspaper VG develop pictures and have their own weight club that people can join by paying fee. I guess it should concern us that a newspaper has a club that moves far away from what we call journalism. But the development of the media world has change the way newsgroups can make money, and this is one of the outcomes. What worries me is if good journalism will survive this.

The multi media story “Drawings from the killing fields of Darfur” is a strong story. The structure of the story with pictures, text, audio and pictures-slides is a good and effective way to get through to the reader. It makes the story stronger than by just using text. The structure gives the audience the opportunity to choose which pathway to take.

A story like this is better told like a multi-media story. The picture is the strongest part in a story like this, and pictures get easier through to the audience feelings.

The strongest part of this story is the drawings done by the kids. It is heartbreaking to see what the kids experienced, and that those bad memories are still so strong for them.

For me this is a good way of telling a story such as the “Drawings from the killing fields of Darfur”. But I wish there was a bit more text for to give me more information. After I saw this story I sit with all of these questions about what happened. But maybe this is one of the effects the producer wanted; Making people wounder and think.

Reading 3 Stephen Quinn and Deirdre Quinn-Allan, “User-generated content and the changing news cycle” (Australian Journalism Review, volume 28, no 1, pp 57-70).

In one of the lectures in Multi-media journalism the professor showed us a comic-picture. The picture shows a man with many cameras standing behind a crowd of people. The guy says: “Excuse me, I am a news photographer”. The people in the front, everyone holding a mobile phone, turn around and say: “So are we”.

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This image really shows us how the term journalist has changed. Now all can be reporters. All you need is a mobile phone with camera and video, and be on the right place at the right time. A good example is from the bombing in UK where the newspaper The Sun used a picture from an eyewitness on the front page.

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By using citizen reporters the media can get breaking news faster and receive photos and videos they maybe would not have gotten. Another positive thing about this development is that journalists get easier access to first-hand victims and witnesses. However, the question is if citizen journalists understand the exactitude and ethics involved in reporting news.

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On the other hand citizen journalists give the news media competition by putting reports and photos on their own blogs. “The Pew Center in the United States reported in mid-2005 that about eight million Americans had created blogs and 32 million read them” (Quinn & Quinn-Allan). The big question is if this development will take over the traditional media?

Reading 2 Quinn S. (2005) Chapter 2: “Why and how convergence is emerging” in Convergent Journalism: The fundamentals of multi-media reporting New York: Peter Lang.

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If there is anything the 21^st century people are scarce on, it is time. Like my grandma always says: “No one has the time anymore to sit down for a coffee. They are always on the run”.

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A busy and hectic lifestyle make people want and need convenience, and convenience changes the way the public get their news. Many no longer have time to read through newspapers, or see the 6 o`clock news. The consumer wants faster and easier access to news. They want it whenever and wherever. The internet gives the audience updatet news 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and because internet is free the declining newspaper sale probably want change.

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Such development not only affects media products, but also changes the processes involved in production, distribution and consumption. This gives the journalist more challenge. They are expected to learn new skills so they are able to work in a multimedia production. This is the start of the Mojo journalist.

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Convergence of the media also changes the newsrooms. The printers, the broadcasters and the onliners inside the same platform need to stick together to make the best multiple news. As mention in the text of Stephen Quinn, same values seem to be the strength to success in a convergence world.