clyde h. bentley, ph.d. associate professor, missouri school of journalism opening the door making...

Clyde H. Bentley, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Missouri School of Journalism

Opening the DoorMaking Citizen Journalism Work


Clyde BentleyMissouri School of Journalism

The Missouri School of Journalism

Established in 1908 as world’s first school of journalism.

Missouri Method: Real experience.



Cowboy Journalism

101



A revised script

The Good

The Hey, This

Might Work…

The Bad



The Newspaper Story

The only game in town

But we go to every house!

We raise rates whenever we want

Just TRY to find our complaint department

The Bad



Then someone had a new idea

Cheaper delivery

Niche customers

Fast - fast - faster

Extensive marketing effort

The Bad



And now they want our presses

No printing costs

Fastest yet

Attractive to youth

Direct delivery

User controlled

The Bad



People still read newspapers

53% weekday

61% Sunday

“Web style” -- 72% Weekday 75% Sunday

(monthly average)

The Good



30 more years of Boomer Times

The Good



Web Use is SoaringThe Hey, This Might Work



Online newspapers are read

A third Internet users (55 million) visit a newspaper Web site over the course of a month.

Unique visitors to newspaper Web sites increased 21 percent from January 2005 to December 2005.

Newspaper Web sites increased the total newspaper audience, particularly among younger readers. Combination of Web and print is greater than either alone.

Source: ADbase -- Newspaper Association of America

The Hey, This Might Work



But … competition is fierce

May 2006 81,565,877 Web Sites

And every site competes for attention with them all…

Source:



First three quarters, 2005

And the money isn’t there -- yetNewspaper Print and Online Revenues

0

5000000

10000000

15000000

20000000

25000000

30000000

35000000

40000000

1 2

First three quarters, 2005

$33,934,000

$1,373,000

Print Online

4.38%

Source: NAA Quarterly Newspaper Advertising Expenditures



The Citizen Connection

Blogging: Easy way to post text. 28 million blogs online, doubling every 5 months

MoBlogs: Blogs driven by photographs. Can be filed from a cell phone.

Social Networking: MySpace, Facebook, etc.

Open Source Journalism: Journalists mediate between the writer and the reader.



So what might work?

The Hybrid



Combining assets at Mizzou

Web and Print

Users with Journalists

Paid with Free

News with fun

The sum is far greater than the

whole



The “other” side of journalismInformation from non-professional communicators Bulletin boards

Civic club presentations

“News” releases

Coffee klatches

Chat rooms

Gossip

Blogs



18 months with “citizens”

A participatory project under “The Missouri Method.”

Real-world challenges, real-world solutions

Empowered students who developed management skills

http://mymissourian.com launched Oct. 1, 2004



Inspired by others

OhMyNews was well known to professors and popular with our Korean students

Launch of Northwest Voice generated a faculty discussion.

Dean Mills recognized the potential and asked us to move quickly.

Proposed in late May 2004, launched

Oct. 1.



A challenge to tradition

Missouri is the home of traditional newspaper journalism education

Some faculty questioned the ability to maintain credibility

Could we teach a journalism where “we” were not in control?



So why do it?

To give voice to those traditionally excluded from the media

To allow non-journalists to help set the community agenda

To test our knowledge of audience values

To train students in a new form of journalism

…And to make money



Online alone is not enough

The revenuelines don’t cross for more than a decade



A hybrid strategy

Gather content via an online citizen journalism product

Use that content to fill a printed TMC product

Use revenue gains in TMC to underwrite the online product

Which led to one more BIG goal…



End Driveway Rot!



TMC = The Money Cow

Total Market Coverage products often produce a substantial portion of a newspaper’s budget.

At the Missourian, our TMC is budgeted at about 25% of our revenue but actually brings in 33%.

Depending how you count it…



It more than adds up

“Also, we will do about $230,000 with the Real Estate This Week magazine this year. That would not be possible if we did not have the Saturday TMC for distribution purposes.”

Dan PotterMissourian GM

“What’s deceptive is that much of the daily revenue comes from the TMC agreements in a forced buy, so even more of our revenue is the result of our TMCs.



Back to print

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Print edition launched Oct. 1, 2005

Allows use of the efficient advertising pattern of print

Increases readership by 23,000 households

Reverses the print-to-Web paradigm



Compelling content is the key

TMC’s are often filled with old, trivial or syndicated material

Lack of reader interest can cause “pickup failure”

Citizen-generated material is unduplicated, compelling and does not compete with our own daily product



Readers reach readers

“I have seen newspaper companies spend thousand of dollars annually to determine what readers expect. Few of their findings, however, are ever implemented.

Hans K. Meyergraduate student

Citizen journalism succeeds where others have failed.



Is there a future for journalists?

YES -- both professional and citizen journalists

Blogs pose both a threat and an opportunity

The power relationship in information is being re-negotiated

Journalists provide continuity and quality control

Story tellers become story guides



New journalism skills

“Covering stories and collecting, cultivating, sharing stories are very different things. Helping others to share their lives is still journalism, and it needs to be taught.”

Brian Hammangraduate student



Inviting the public to our table

Many editors are concerned about errors, credibility and libel

Some fear that citizen writing quality is low

How do we know if those untrained people are lying?

WILL WE LOSE CONTROL?



Mix logic with understanding

Most participants in citizen journalism have little reason to cheat or lie.

The “WBC” category is primarily the realm of blogs.

By and large, most Americans will conform to rules that are both simple and logical.

Focus on broad concerns; keep rules simple.



The arguments

“Decency” - How do we treat profanity and adult topics?

“Commercialism” - What about the promotion of a business, organization, religion, etc.?

“Literacy” - How much editing and rewriting should we do?

“Banalism” Is anything just too stupid to appear on the site? If so, how dumb is dumb?



Logical solutions

“Decency” No profanity, no nudity - use normal newspaper standards of propriety

“Commercialism” Don’t ban businesses that self-promote -work with them

“Literacy” Keep editing to a minimum, focusing on readability rather than style.

“Banalism” Journalists are poor judges of what or who is stupid.



And… Just Four Simple Rules

No profanity

No nudity

No personal attacks

No attacks on race, religion, national origin, gender or sexual orientation



The end of “NO”

“I worked in newspapers for seven years, and as an editor most of my dealings with the public were about telling people “no” due to limited space.

NO, we can't cover your event. NO, we can't run your youth baseball

photo in the newspaper. NO, your story idea isn't good enough for

publication.

Jeremy Littaugraduate student



So let them write . . .



Enlist “senior” photogs





Give them disposable cameras





Gut-level journalism

Everyone has a recipe



Let them express their faith

Religion is one of the most popular topics



Earth Day: Natural news

Annual festival celebrates environmental awareness

Provided wireless laptops so citizens could comment on the spot



Earth Day Photos

Digital cameras loaned to participants produced 100+ photos



And the bottom line?

Less than $1,000 new costs in a year and a half



Unexpected reader issues

Political issues are much less popular than we predicted.

Religion is far, far more popular than we predicted.

Pictures of dogs, cats and even rats trump most other copy.



Unexpected teaching issues

Traditional journalism students want to write, not “guide.”

Many were at a loss at how to cover “non news” topics like Little League.

Few students are well prepared to work with the public.



The hybrid lessons

Use Citizen Journalism to supplement traditional journalism, not replace it.

User-generated copy isn’t free. Online attracts the eager, but print serves the

masses. Give people what they want, when they want

it, how they want it. Americans are better “journalists” than you

think.



And next?

Integrate blogs with print

Multiple Web sites using databases

Mashups like Chicagocrime.org

Citizen advertising

… (Clyde’s list?)



Or a hybrid print / Web daily…

WednesdayCitizen edition

FridayEntertainment tab

SundayTraditional paper

MondayBusiness

focus

SaturdayAuto focus

TuesdaySchool focus

ThursdayHispanic

focus



The Computer Reaction

Blogging: Easy way to post text. 1.8 million blogs online

MoBlogs: Blogs driven by photographs. Can be filed from a cell phone.

Open Source Journalism: Journalists mediate between the writer and the reader.

clyde h. bentley, ph.d. associate professor, missouri school of journalism opening the door making...

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