29 May Has there been a shift from ‘fortress’ to ‘networked’ journalism? – Yasmine Taviot
Much like all forms of media, journalism has been reconstructed and transformed over time. Martin Conboy (2004) states that journalism is “the working and revision of a combination of novelty, information, and entertainment”. To add, journalism is “formed by a combination of elements which must be negotiated, on a regular basis” (Conboy, 2004). It is important for the elements of journalism to be negotiated because it needs to be acceptable and viable to a reader. Before journalism existed, news culture struggled with the “flow of public knowledge which is fundamental to any form of journalism” (Conboy, 2004). Additionally, over the course of four centuries, journalism has been experimented on to discover the proper method to deliver accurate news. Journalism has aided in reviving social activity by introducing different areas to analyze. Furthermore, journalism has evolved from “the margins to the centre of our culture” and it has been “shaped by constant opposition to the vested interests in society” (Conboy, 2004). Social media has had a large impact on the practice of journalism which has led to an increase of participatory and networked journalism.
Changing times as well as social media has intensified reporting, and as more issues continuously begin to conspire, reporters and news agencies must be the first ones to get it out to the public and rely heavily on the help of the internet. According to Oscar Michael (2017), social media works in tandem with journalism by bringing “new characteristics like interactive dialogue and social interactions”, in order to facilitate a real conversation with the audience. Since an article must be liked and shared multiple times before many people see it on their social media feed, social media platforms have control over what news and information is shown to us, and the people we follow on our social media have a big role in deciding what news we see. Essentially, the internet and social media are influencing journalism by converting conventional one-way conversations into two-way conversations. Moreover, social media’s influence on journalism has been beneficial due to the rise of participatory journalism, increased access of content given to journalists through social media, and social media’s influence resulting in networked journalism.
The idea that journalism was changing was pioneered by Dan Gillmor and his 2004 book “We the Media”. The book provides an analysis of how bloggers and other internet journalists have changed the way news is handled. Indeed, one of the book’s main points is that, nowadays, the news can no longer be controlled by a few big media companies since new information is being published by regular people instantly thanks to the internet.
Citizens have become more and more engaged in journalism since the beginning of the internet through not only blogs but social media. However, journalists have a duty of objectivity and accuracy in their work even while working within social media while citizen journalists do not, so their opinions can easily take over the information. Journalists are required to maintain a certain organisation and quality in their works. This constitutes of not only objectivity and accuracy but also a clear news agenda while civic journalism can easily spread fake news and are “not highly responsive to the day to day needs of the audience” (Bowman and Willis, 2003). Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor at New York University, put it succinctly by saying “the order of things in broadcast is ‘filter, then publish’. The order of thing in communities is ‘publish, then filter” (Bowman and Willis, 2003).
But today, people are more and more likely to get their news anyway from online sources and social media. In a study conducted by the University of Oxford, 51% of respondents said they used the BBC online as a source of news, whereas 28% said they used Facebook for news in 2016 (Nielsen, 2017). The BBC has become the sole media organisation to reach more people with news online than Facebook in the UK (Nielsen, 2017). However, online websites for news outlets and mobile applications remain important, especially thanks to news alert notifications. Audiences can get the latest news and receive updates on their mobile phones, in their email inbox or on their social network pages (Stassen, 2010).
Participatory journalism is defined as the “act of a citizen, or group of citizens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information” (Bowman and Willis 2003). This goes against the idea of the traditional journalist, where an individual is solely responsible for the entire body of work from beginning to end. The rise of participatory journalism has been heavily credited to the rise of social media, but older forms of internet discussion, such as online forums, have long utilized this practice (Bowman and Willis 2003). People enter into such groups to discuss a wide array of topics and to do so immediately through a consistent chain of messages. Bowman and Willis (2003) highlight the strengths of such chats for their self-correcting process as they use monitors or self-monitor to curb inappropriate responses, and say their weakness lies in how it may be too open for anyone to participate. These sort of forums have now transcended to another level since it is possible to have discussions like these on relatively any social media platform, regardless of if it is classified as a forum or not. This has increased the use of participatory journalism since it is so easy to go online and share a post which may then be dissected by all those who can access it.
Nevertheless, Paulussen and Harder (2014) show us how journalists are also using social media and how it has become an important source for them. Studies suggest social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, have become an essential tool for news research in several areas such as politics or foreign news. So relations between journalists and social media in today’s society exist and are sometimes necessary (Paulussen and Harder, 2014).
This relation is also called network journalism. The network journalism model describes the interactive way in which journalism organisations operate today (Mcgann, 2010). The journalist and audience are closer than they never been before because of the way they intertwine. The traditional journalism approach has transitioned because of the audience interaction allowed, blurring the line between private and professional (Hedman & Djerf-Pierre, 2013). Heinrich (2012) states that networked journalism takes into account the collaborative nature of journalism now. Professionals and amateurs work together to obtain the real story, connecting with each other across brands and boundaries to share facts, questions, answers, ideas, and perspectives, illustrating the complex relationship that produces news (Heinrich, 2012). Network journalism focuses on the process more than the product.
A good example of network journalism is Al Jazeera’s beta site where anyone can submit events, from protests to violent incidents, using SMS or Twitter (Duffy, 2011). They track the submissions on a map which offers users an insight of the geography of conflict especially in regions where it is not as easy to get the news out of like the Arab world. Thus, Al Jazeera has many citizen journalists in the Arab world, who can follow events, mixing the work of professionals with that of regular people.
This is an example of how social media is being exploited by news outlets to interact with the audience. News organizations have to adapt their products to stay ahead and need to embrace technological advancement so their products can be consumed in the ways that add values to what they do. It is vital for news corporations to have an up to date website where you can scroll the content as well as maintaining social media platforms, enabling them to communicate with their audience and give the latest updates (Stassen, 2010).
Even the newspaper “The Telegraph”, which is known for having an older audience, now has a Snapchat in the hopes of attracting a new, younger audience. The Telegraph had to adapt to Snapchat and its new range of readers. To attract this younger demographic the Telegraph make sure the topic is always relevant to teens and young adults (Taviot, 2018).
It is safe to say that social media has influenced journalism in many ways. The rise of participatory journalism has given increased access to continuous content and updates of news, from all around the world through the use of social media. Social media’s influence has led to the creation of participatory and network journalism. Social media now works in tandem with journalism. Journalism and journalists have had to adapt themselves to modern society and so has their content.
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Taviot, Y. (2018). How Snapchat is changing conventional news environment? – Yasmine Taviot. [online] Yasmine Taviot. Available at: http://www.lsbu-multimedia-journalists.co.uk/taviot/2018/10/29/how-snapchat-is-changing-conventional-news-environment/ [Accessed 28 May 2019].
