“Published by  Juan Antonio Giner, founder of the media consulting company Innovation International”

 Any words with those PICTURES??

 Is there such a thing as polarised blog-points? We’ve exited BuzzMachine’s essay written posts and are now entering the multimedia world of  Innovations in Newspapers.

There were a lot of posts discussing issues brought up in our weekly readings.

• The concern for decreasing integrity and credibility in journalism
• The increase of Internet traffic specifically to online news and networking sites.
• Citizen journalism from ‘far off places’
• Blogging  

Titles of posts include; OBAMA: MORE SERIOUS FACT-CHECKING, MORE CONTEXT, PLEASE, ONLINE METRICS, THE BIZARRE ESPN PAID-CONTENT MODEL, AND THE LESSONS FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES, IN THE NEWSPAPER INDUSTRY, NOTHING CHANGES, AND EVERYTHING HAS TO CHANGE.

Despite its few words and large pictures I didn’t WANT to read this blog. I couldn’t connect with the words or the voice behind it. I do like the posts concerning Barack Obama, I was one of those Australians who wished she could vote in the last US presidential election. Obama’s opinions and therefore the quotes used in this blog are thought provoking and articulate making them stand out amoungst the blur of pictures.  

“I am concerned that if the direction of the news is all blogosphere, all opinions, with no serious fact-checking, no serious attempts to put stories in context, that what you will end up getting is people shouting at each other across the void but not a lot of mutual understanding,” – Barack Obama

“Professor Jeff Jarvis looks at new media issues in the context of current events”

‘BuzzMachine’  is a  highly written blog with the occasional embedded video, unlike the blogs we have been instructed in construct  Jarvis has used very little multimedia. Looking at, and trying to read his blog I understand the need for multimedia, while his opinions are interesting the block of text post after post is far from engaging.

The range of issues discussed is diverse yet predominatly concern the internet; twitter, Murdoch’s plan to charge for online content,  google, Aspen Institute FOCAS event, podcasting.

Titles of posts include; Wave and news, Internet bigotry – again, The Nielsen revolt , geoTwitter and news and more, Sustaining journalism

A notable feature of ‘BuzzMachine’ is the sporadic personal posts. This isn’t unusual for blogs in amongst opinions and rants aspects of the bloggers life tends to drift in. However for a blog discussing new media to come across ‘the small c and me’ posted on August 10 made me stop and take notice.

“I have cancer, prostate cancer…Why am I even telling you about this? As I wrote in What Would Google Do?, I gained tremendous benefit sharing another ailment – heart arrhythmia – here on my blog” – Jeff Jarvis

The Future will be:  FASTER, MULTIMEDIA, MOBILE, IMMEDIATE. Sound familiar? It’s already started.   

The Insiders: Nick Penniman on the Future of Journalism

Camera Phones are spreading across the globe, newspapers are moving online and starting to consider charging for that online content, twitter is breaking news, camera crews are being traded in for a internet connected phones with Qik software and your average Joe is providing better images, accounts and footage than the mainstream media.  

 The digital future is already upon us, the future of journalism will more than likely continue down this path. While there are endless positives to 24 hour news there are several faults, one being the lack of regulation of citizen journalism.

 I also think it would be a very sad day when you can no longer buy an actual newspaper, sure they make our hands black and the broadsheets are impossible to read on trains but there is something comforting about reading a paper. An absolute digital future could not be realised until every person has a camera mobile phone and internet access

 Cartoon Source: http://witnessla.com/category/future-of-journalism/

 This week’s reading presented a range of opinions on the quality, maintenance and future of journalism.  At a glance: Fear of moving away from old media, the degradation of the prominent role newspapers have in society, holding public trust and the costs of funding a newsroom.

While it appears the digital future is the road we will continue down the question remains can we continue the way we are going or:

“Do we need altogether new models to ensure that mass quality journalism remains viable?” -Doogue

I’ve never really thought about the sheer number of mobile phones at use in the world.  

4.2 billion!

Half of which are equipped with cameras. I think the thing which sticks with me the most is with the rise of the MoJo – mobile journalist and specifically the citizen MoJo there are potentially 2.1 billion journalists at large in the world

SPOT THE CAMERA – SPOT THE MOJO

Source: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/obama-tries-to-stop-the-silliness/

Day in the life of a Mobile Video Journalist

Professional MoJo’s conduct Journalism from inside a car , while sitting on a train or riding a bike. Bascially they work everywhere and everywhere except at a desk!  Mobile Journalism has come along long way since 2004 when for the first time The New York Times published a photograph taken with a mobile phone.

You just have to look at the Newsplex Project, which allowed reporters to file campaign news as it was happening in the process creating an unique, layered and engaging moblog.  Or look at the BBC who during the Boxing Day Tsunami created a specific space for survivors to tell their story along with photographs and video items sent in directly from thier mobile phones.  

Keeping up with technological advancements critical if you are working in journalism industry even more so if you are a student and graduate wanting to break in. Media organisations are now under the constant pressure of delivering fast, continuous and breaking news.

The moment a story breaks it becomes old news, different angles and indeed another breaking story is needed. At the same time media organisations are attempting to cut down on costs therefore making perfect sense to ditch the desk reporter for a mobile one.

Picture Source: www.nokia.com/…/mobile-journalism

               Déjà vu first ohmynews now stomp.

Everything you need to know about STOMP

The user generated approach is becoming extremely popular with both media outlets and the audience. With 75% of the material available on STOMP has been supplied by your average Joe.

It’s no secret that mobile phone cameras have been a catalyst for change, creating photojournalists left right and centre. Not surprisingly STOMP receive around 100 amateur photographs a day what is surprising is the majority of all content submitted to the site www.stomp.com.sg is actually posted.  

http://123mobiles.blogspot.com/2007/12/samsung-10-megapixel-camera-phone.html

This week’s reading also introduces the mojo, mobile journalist also known as a backpack journalists. The mojo show how flexible and mobile, journalists can be when it comes to covering and reporting news. In this case it’s more like the citizen mojo like that prevalent during the 2005 London bombings.  As eyewitness accounts, pictures and footage, predominantly captured by mobile phone technology, saturated the media it was accurate of the Guardian Media cover story in the week after the attack to note ‘we are all reporters now’.

That’s what STOMP contributors do, report on the everyday and the strange occurrence around them. Like the citizen who witnessed a man pushing his girlfriend onto the train tracks, he whipped out his trusty mobile phone and managed to get the only photo of the event.

“It is not serious journalism in the form that The Straits Times offers…Stomp does deal with journalism that affects people’s lives.” -  Felix Soh, deputy editor for digital media at The Straits Times

 Changes in demographics have resulted in a larger portion of consumers seeking easily accessible content 24 hours a day.  

Credit: Pew Internet & American Life Project

            Source: www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Search-Engin…

 

What is Skype?

A new way of keeping in contact

A better way of keeping in contact

A cheaper way of keeping in contact

No more excuses not to keep in contact when travelling the globe

 

 

 

 

 

 

PODCASTING

Picture Source: http://ithinked.com/archives/2007/10/

A voice blog is a wondrous thing! I remember my second year listening to a lecture taken by Tony Chalky, he’s telling the students in the lecture hall that most off campus students would be listening to the recorded lecture on a completely different day to when it was recorded, that they would be on the couch and probably still in their pj’s. I laughed, looked down at my pj’s , he was right.

Downloading the Hamish and Andy podcast to my ipod is another example of this technology. Podcasting represents another example of 24hour access; individuals choose what they want to hear and when they want to hear it.           

TWITTER

 No doubt twitter is conquering the globe, I can’t really comment as I don’t have a twitter account I am well and truly a facebook gal.

The news seems obsessed with twitter, they use it to break stories, remember MJ?  And to create stories; way too much discussion went in to whether pro basketball players should be able to tweet in the locker room at half time.  

No doubt twitter can be an effective reporting tool it has however created polarised views, which camp are you in? To tweet or not to tweet that is the question.

BLOGS

It’s true we have to be careful when believing and reporting on online sources. In December of 2005 wikipedia was dealt a massive blow to its credibility, and has never really recovered.

University lecturers tell us every semester not to quote from or rely on information posted on wikipedia, similar caution should be taken when using information supplied via blogs and twitter. Essentially these mediums are written by individuals who are not with bias, prejudice and their own set ideas. To quote from these sources is similar to quoting from a voxpop.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/0,28757,1725323,00.html

This week we once again focus on Citizen jounalism, specifically  a South Korean online newspaper called OhmyNews. The site was founded by Oh Yeon Ho in 2000 and was the first of its kind, an online newspaper in the which the articles were produced solely by citizen reporters. 

Citizen Journalism – Welcome to the Revolution

“Every citizen can be a reporter. Journalists aren’t some exotic species, they’re everyone who seeks to take new developments, put them into writing, and share them with others” -  Oh Yeon-ho,  founder and CEO of OhmyNews

In the past, the Korean government exercised substantial control over the country’s media, Ohmynews has proven to be quite influential  during the 2002 election the site recieved 20 million page views per day. While citizen journalism has proven a valuable tool in gaining first person insite and putting faces to tragedies. Ohmynews has  proven to be an alternative in countries where there is distruct between the public and the mainstream media

The exclusive content and sheer breadth coverage can be attributed to the  number of  citizen journalists writing for ohmynews, by the official launch date, 22 February 2002 they already had 727 citizen reporters. A noteable feature of the site is the ability for readers to comment on the articles. 

YOU CAN BE A JOURNALIST TOO!

Source: http://blog.newscloud.com/startups/  

Anderson’s theory of a ‘free media’ is intriguing, he presents valid arguments however as the old saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Think about it, a Jetstar free flight comes with hidden taxes, a free phone comes with a 24 month locked in contract, to download free movies you have to pay a subscription fee, the phone call telling you you’ve won a free holiday, well that’s never true.

                        Source: http://www.lib.oak-lawn.il.us/downloadfreemovies.shtml 

  Anderson’s discussion of ‘freeconomics’ ties in with a story which broke last month; on behalf of New Corp Rupert Murdoch announced their intention to charge citizens for access to their many online news sites. The drop in readership coincides with a drop in advertising, companies like News Corp are now looking at new ways to recoup their losses.

 “The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites” – Murdoch

 

Matt Wells on Rupert Murdoch’s plans to charge for internet websites - Matt Wells – Guardian UK

While charging for online content is sure to anger many, Anderson’s work shows that by giving us a taste, getting us hooked on the convenience  of 24 hour online news should be enough to convince consumers they need online news access and thus make them willing to pay to keep it.  

 User Generated Content (UGC): Puts faces on tragedies.

Citizen journalism has erupted around the world during several major moments and events including the September 11 terrorist attacks and the recent bushfires in Australia. On a smaller scale numerous cases have arisen where students have captured using the video camera on their mobile phones, a student being beaten up and demoralised in the school yard. The Footage has then been passed on to the media to be played during the six o’clock news. 

To view this phenomenon in its entire glory one should pay attention to the coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Pictures and footage predominantly captured by mobile phone technology, saturated the media, in the first CNN bulletins the presenter relies heavily on an eye witness account via the phone which continues as the second plane hits.

September 11

Boxing Day Tsunami – Citizen Reporter becomes news  

Anyone can have a blog, even the Prime Minister of Australia. The media often use blogs and other UGC to either find stories or substantiate them.

The recent Australian Bushfires  is a good example of the media using blogs and social networking sites to gain information, find families who had been effected etc.