Transcript Ming Chuan University presentation Taipei 12 Oct

The Digital Transformation of 21st
Century News Journalism
Presentation to Conference on Digital Media and
Journalism, School of Communication,
Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan,
12 October, 2012
Professor Terry Flew
Creative Industries Faculty
Queensland University of Technology
Drivers of Digital Transformation
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Convergence of media industries and content
Distribution of content across multiple delivery platforms
Media globalization
Exponential increase in information and entertainment
content available to consumers
• User-created content, participatory media, and blurring
of producer/consumer lines
It’s not just the Internet
• Rise of knowledge-intensive industries and creative
industries
• Network externalities
• Rise of peer production and sharing – openness and
mass collaboration in Web 2.0 environments
From mass communications media to social
media: the crisis of news
MASS COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA
(20TH CENTURY)
SOCIAL MEDIA
(21ST CENTURY)
MEDIA DISTRIBUTION
Large-scale; barriers to entry
Dramatically reduced barriers to entry
MEDIA PRODUCTION
Complex division of labour; media
professionals as content ‘gatekeepers’
Easy to use web 2.0 technologies; small,
multi-purpose teams as “preditors”
(Miller)
MEDIA POWER
Assymetrical – one-way communications
flow
Greater empowerment of
users/audiences through interactivity
and choice
MEDIA CONTENT
Tendency towards standardised “mass
appeal” content
Segmentation of media content markets
and “long tail” economics (Anderson)
PRODUCER/CONSUMER
RELATIONSHIP
Mostly impersonal, anonymous and
commoditised (audience as mass market
target)
Potential to be more personal; rise of the
produser (Bruns); user networks and
communities
PAYMENT SYSTEM
Audiences cross subsidised by
advertisers (commercial media) or tax
revenues (public service media)
Not clear as yet: subscription,
“freemium”, free?
Ways of thinking about digital
transformations
MAJOR
TRANSFORMATION
INCREMENTAL
CHANGE
OPTIMISTIC
Democratization of journalism
with rise of participatory media
culture e.g. Clay Shirky, Charles
Leadbeater, John Hartley, Henry
Jenkins
New ways of accessing
and delivering the news
– journalists have always
dealt with technological
change
PESSIMISTIC
“Cult of the amateur”; loss of
maninstream journalism jobs
not compensated for by the
Internet
Strengthening power of
major media
corporations
OECD, Evolution of News and the Internet
(2010)
1. Declining sales of print newspapers
2. News consumption migrating to the Internet
3. Structural crisis of newsrooms – shift of classified and
print advertising
4. New opportunities online, but new competitors (e.g.
sports organizations)
5. Move to digital-only newspapers?
6. Online advertising generates less income
Decline in newspaper sales
U.S. advertising spend 2011
Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2012
Shift of young people to online news
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The new online news media ecosystem
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Newspaper advertising revenues
The crisis of mainstream journalism
• Undermining of traditional news business models
• Falling share prices/rising debt for established news
media businesses
• Shift in the “attention economy” of users
• Crisis of authority for professional journalism
• Growing public distrust of journalists
• Rise of the “PR state”
The renewed appeal of alternative
journalism
• The “Fifth Estate” (Dutton, Benkler)
Non-profit [organizations] focused on bringing to light direct,
documentary evidence about government behavior so that
many others, professional and otherwise, can analyse the
evidence and search for instances that justify public criticism
… [they use] uses a combination of volunteerism, global
presence, and decentralized action to achieve its results
(Benkler, 2011: 55).
Monitory democracy (John Keane)
• solving a basic problem facing contemporary
democracies: how to promote the unfinished business of
finding new ways of democratic living for little people in
big and complex societies, in which substantial numbers
of citizens believe that politicians are not easily trusted,
and in which governments are often accused of abusing
their power or being out of touch with citizens, or simply
unwilling to deal with their concerns and problems
(Keane, 2010: 354).
Lessons from the online alternative
journalism movement
• A sustainable business model matters
• Continuing advantages of mainstream media: brand,
workforce, audience
• Challenge of the news/opinion relationship
• Potential for access to information to become stratified
by income
• Shifting role of public service media – from PSBs to
multi-platform media
Wikileaks as an alternative
Pros and cons of Wikileaks
• Challenge of tech-savvy “critical outsiders”
• Need in democracies for transparency and information
access
• “Wikileaks effect” will be felt for a long time
• But …
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Very reliant on Julian Assnage as charismatic figurehead
Dilemma of internal accountability
Balance of fact and advocacy
Continued reliance on mainstream media outlets