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Learning Outcomes
By the end of the session learners should be able to: Identify what online journalism is. Identify the ways in which online news
differs from traditional news sources. Identify how Web 2.0 has changed
perceptions of who can be a journalist.
Week 7 Outline
What is journalism? How has Web 2.0 changed
journalism and the news? How do we get our news? How do we interact with our news? Who provides our news? Conclusions. In the seminar…
What is journalism?
According to A Dictionary of Media and Communication: 1. Writing about news and
current affairs in a range of media including print, television, radio, and the internet.
2. A profession in democratic societies that acts as an intermediary between the public and government, informing the public about important issues and enabling them to make informed choices as well as holding politicians and other powerful figures to account for their actions.
3. Pejoratively, a form of entertainment that reports the sensational or lurid aspects of news and also gossip about celebrities.
Online journalism
Web 2.0 has arguably altered journalism in 3 key areas:1. How we get our news.2. How we interact with the news.3. Who provides the news.
How do we get our news online? Websites (BBC News) Online newspapers (
Huffington Post) Blogs (Perez Hilton) Facebook apps (
The Guardian on Facebook)
Mobile apps (The Telegraph apps)
Twitter (@LivEchonews)
Web portals (Google News)
How is this different to traditional news formats e.g. newspapers, TV and radio? Consumer can directly access the news
that interests them. Can get breaking news before it’s reported
thanks to micro-blogging outlets like Twitter.
News can be accessed from both professional and amateur sources.
More opportunity to comment on the news (more on this later).
Consumers able to access news content no matter where they are.
How do we interact with news? Traditional news
formats offer very little chance of interaction beyond sending in letters or emails.
Online news provides a wealth of interaction opportunities that arguably encourage a greater understanding of our news media.
How do we interact with news?
Most news websites, online papers and blogs feature a “comments” section for readers to engage in conversation with each other about each news item.
Facebook apps offer a similar, even more personal feature, as well as telling us what our friends are reading and vice versa.
How do we interact with news? Micro-blogging
sites like Twitter offer the opportunity to directly reply to journalists and spread news ourselves via the retweet function.
Users can also quote and comment on stories.
How does interaction affect our news consumption?
Arguably, the more we interact with news media, the more we will critically analyse what we read and view.
E.g. Deirdre, USA’s comments (right) on a Daily Mail article analyse the meaning behind a picture used.
If consumers become more analytical of news items, they will be less inclined to believe everything they read.
Who provides our news?
Trained journalists. “Civilian” journalists. Amateur bloggers. Bloggers/site owners
with a specialist field of interest.
Members of the public using sites like Twitter.
But does this make them all journalists?
Is everyone a journalist?
“Citizen Journalism – What Is It?” Cambridge Community Television
“Bloggers, Not Journalists” Fox News, 22 December 2011.
Conclusions
The internet has altered: How we access news. How we engage with news. Who provides news.
This has the potential to make people more news-media-savvy.
However, it also means consumers have to be even more careful about whether their news is reliable.
In the seminar…
Key reading: Allan, Stuart (2006) Online News. Maidenhead:
Open University Press (Introduction, Chapters 2, 3, 5 and 7).
In this seminar you will work in groups to analyse a specific type of online journalism and informally present your findings back to the class.
This seminar will be in a computer suite! Eleanor Rathbone Building Teaching Centre, Room
201, 2nd Floor Eleanor Rathbone Building.
