multimedia journalism

“Convergence offers the audience new ways of absorbing news rather than offering journalists new ways of presenting it”

Kerry Northrup, Ifra’s director of publication

Media Convergence is when different media are bringing together all their stories into one platform in different formats. This platform is a website.

Convergence is happening worldwide.

It’s very easy to seek out information after the media convergence.  And the readers can now do more than just read. Because some of the good old newspapers now got a website with video, tv-news, podcasts and encourages interactivity by readers, listeners and viewers to comment on stories.

After the media convergence journalists are forced to learn new skills and are therefore more useful and they can find more areas to excel at.

So the convergence can seems like one brilliant idea. But there are still some issues.

The quality of the reporting can probably go down when the journalists are so tied up to many things. And the journalists will become jack of all trades and master of none.

By: Henriette Slaatsveen

New technology has created the backpack journalist, also called the Mojo journalist. The backpack journalist carry a kit of tools and skills to cover a story in whatever form it can be best told. Unlike the specialist who either write or roll film, the backpack journalist is capable of producing a story that includes text, audio, still-photos and video ─ a single reporter who can do it all.

The best known backpack journalist is Kevin Site, who went to different conflict areas with only a video camera and Mac-book. He felt that the wars/conflicts were not covered the way he wanted to see them. He covered the smaller stories so people easier could connect with persons who have suffered, lost their home and family. Site traveled alone for one year.

The backpack journalists are an answer to low-budget media companies to provide multimedia storytelling. They save money by sending out only one man to make the video, take still-photos, tape audio and write, than by sending out four journalists to do the same. However, the downside is that a journalist can be good at writing, but may produce poor-quality video. Some will say that quality comes from those who practice a defined job. Despite the quality concerns, the backpack journalist will continue to grow in popularity.

By Tone Aleksandersen

The lecture this week discussed ‘story building’, the process of adding to your story by adding photos, video and audio to help tell your story.

Story building is particularly relevant in breaking stories.

For example first reports are usually just audio or text, then come quotes from people who are witnessed the event, and then images and videos are added to the story.

Increasingly these videos and photographs are coming from the general public, or citizen reporters who often publish their experiences on the web.

The fact that journalists are able to create such a comprehensive story is due to the ever-developing technology that is available relatively cheaply to anyone who wishes to use it.

Mobile phones, digital cameras and video cameras are so cheap, lightweight and small that most people carry at least one of these items with them constantly.

Usually the first images used for breaking news stories are those taken by witnesses with their mobile phones or digital cameras, just think back to the Boxing day tsunami and the London bombings.

The result of this is that poor quality images are being used, however one could say that a poor quality image is better than none at all.

London train after bombing. Photo courtesy of flickr.com
By Anthea.

“Every citizen is a reporter. Journalists aren’t some exotic species. They are everyone who seeks to take new developments, put them into writing, and share them with others.”

Oh Yeon Ho, founder and CEO of OhmyNews.

Number of citizen reporters exploded from 727 to more than 60,000 by mid 2008. But what will happen to the good old journalists?

Maybe the society got enough space too both citizen journalists and professional journalists? Because citizen journalism is not always professional journalism, but equals “eye-witness reporting” of dramatic events. 

Media commentators think the London Bombing of July 2005 was a watershed moment in terms of the public interacting with the media by sending in large numbers of mobile phone photos. The second story was the Tsunami in December 2004!

In Australia most citizen journalism at present involves the public sending in mobile phone stills of dramatic weather events.

The other way that the public contributes is by sending in comments to newspapers articles. This is a new function made available by some Australian news papers.

The Herald Sun and The Telegraph pick the stories carefully for comment and tend to steer from the controversial ones.

By: Henriette Slaatsveen

Technology has changed dramatically and is still changing. The market can one month offer the latest and newest in technology, but the next month there will be something newer, better and different. The technology is developing so fast that people do not have the chance to keep up with it.

Along with this development comes not only the technological changes, but also the social and cultural. The new media has changed the way people get information and the way they communicate with each other. Not only socially, but also in the business world. Broadband, ISDN, cable, digitalization, direct broadcast satellites and internet have made it possible to send information around the world in just seconds.

Consumers take a bigger part of the media world as new media become more available. The producers do not have all the control anymore over the information, the experience and the recources. A development that has given and will give the journalists a challenge on how to be a head of the audience.

By Tone Aleksandersen

The lecture for Deakin University‘s ALJ301 this week focused on trends in relation to newspapers and the Internet.

Although people spend more time on the Internet than reading a newspaper, the Internet generates much less revenue.

While the general audience for newspapers is getting older, younger generations are relying on the Internet rather than newspapers for their news.

Newspapers are losing circulation slowly but steadily, while online sites gain a greater audience.

Although a lot of newspapers are embracing online journalism to try and get a share of the market, they are still losing the regular newspaper readers.

Some newspapers, such as The Age, have tried major advertising campaigns to try and increase circulation.

But as the audience for these newspapers dies out, so too will the newspapers.

If we want to save the newspapers then we need to get the younger people interested in reading them.

However, this is not as easy as one might think.

Because let’s face it, in an age when people are time poor, and cost of living is continually increasing, if you can get the news you want, for free, with a simple click of a button, why wouldn’t you throw away the newspaper?

By Anthea.

Technology is a main tool for today’s journalists.  There is not enough to know how to use typewriters anymore. There is not enough to know how to start Word anymore. There is not enough to know have to develop photos. In the last couple of years, the technology has exploded. The journalists use such as an Imate Jas Jam PDA. Which is called the “swiss army knife of journalism”. It can shoot videos and stills, it records audio. It got Word and Exel.  And it also got a wireless internet access, of course.

When we see what have happened this last couple of years too technology, you really can’t stop think about the future. What will happen? Will the technology continue to develop so fast?

That’s a hard question to answer.

But one thing is for sure. Its getting a lot more easy to be journalists, but its also getting a lot harder.

By Henriette Slaatsveen