Doing Journalism in a Changing Ecosystem

Eugenia Siapera and Jane Suiter

FuJo

News as an Ecosystem

• Central metaphor takes into account dynamism, complexity and mutual adaptations and accommodations between different organisms, but also the evolution and emergence of news forms of life

• Various component parts depend on, and mutually condition one another but without assuming they are equal

Research focus

• Rapid and seismic changes in the media landscape

• Within this context, how do various news organisations adapt to the changing media environment?– Are there any differences between different types of

organisation and what do these tell us?

• What kinds of new practices have emerged to enable different news organisations to operate more effectively (and survive!) in the social media environment?

• What other ‘forms of life’ have emerged in the news ecosystem?

Empirical research

• A series of interviews with digital editors, social media editors and people in digital innovation roles => a very specific perspective

• A range of news organisations:

– Television

– Radio

– Print national

– Print local and/or niche

– Online only

Analytical steps

• Identify challenges and tensions in doing journalism

• Identify adaptations

• Adaptations do not correspond to challenges in a direct way but may also represent adaptations to past challenges and tensions and to anticipated future ones

• Identify new actors and factors

Challenges Tensions

Challenges and Tensions Adaptations

New forms of life

Characteristics, attributes and identity of organisation

Main Challenges[Challenges are interrelated and to an extent overlap]

1. Control over contents and the role of platforms– Online 1: “how much we use Facebook as we move more of our content to

other platforms, how much of our power our we giving away because we are putting our content on Facebook? […] But my concern is that if we are just giving content to Facebook and we are just making our content, our articles free to readers all the time, there is something about that that doesn’t sit quite right with me, I just feel like that’s for me the big disruption at the moment.

– Print National 1: “you can never hand over everything you have to Facebook to be honest. You have to proceed advisably, particularly when you have a meter paywall.”

– Print National 2: “: It is that is a massive concern. Facebook is cannibalising publishers, I think instant articles is a step toward that which is great for the users and while it is a great opportunity for publishers. I think Facebook are continuing toward cutting out the middle man so to speak, they want everyone to stay on Facebook and not leave to visit other sites. […]”.

2. Control over audiences, algorithms and going ‘native’: where are the readers and how can you reach them

– Radio 1: “You have to go where the consumers are, their usage changes and they are using social platforms”

– Print National 1: “I think the reality is they are there, and their daily lives are on Facebook and it is part of their lives”

[…] “I guess we are very aware of them (algorithms), we have increased the frequency, we know Facebook likes Facebook, we know as soon as you go native on Facebook they reward you.”– Online 1: They are spending a lot more of their time on Facebook, so

Facebook is trying to be more sticky and keep people for longer and I am wondering when are people going to click into [news org name]? When is our time?

– TV1: “But it's almost like a necessary evil, you need to do it to reach your audience.[..] I call it 'media and social - best 'frienemies'. They are a friend but also your enemy, because they help you reach your audience but then you need them in a way.”[…]“So if you are not there being part of somebody's habit when they check, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, then you won't be part of that habit. There is so much competition for peoples’ attention and if you are not part of that--. We are in an attention economy. It’s not just about eyeballs on the content it is about how much attention you can get and how you can engage them on those platforms.”

3. Continuous and uncontrolled changes:• Online 2: “The number one problem is the capriciousness of Facebook

because we are reliant on something that is effectively beyond our control. But we marshal that, we analyse it and look at it as much as we can. But is an issue that someone on Palo Alto can switch and--like they cough and they whole world catches it.”

• Online 1: “How Facebook keeps changing how it works probably, in a very practical way that would be the most problematic. There was a while there no one was seeing our stuff and we didn’t know why but they just changed algorithms and we have to look at it and figure out why that is and why we are not popping up on peoples feed anymore.”

• Print local/niche 1: “So it is not stable, you might look at Twitter a few months down the line and it might look totally different. and we might have to can get the format in the way we write for them, that is one of the other challenges is to constantly adapt to how they change the rules that they don’t necessarily tell us.”

• Print National 2: “They [FB] know more than we know about our audience so that is really valuable. That works for now the problem is if they decide down the line to pull the plug in that we are left with a massive gap in what we do. So it is kind of keeping tabs on what Facebook are doing and developing and seeing warning signs.”

4. Monetisation/commercialisation:

Radio 1: “But the challenge lies in the movement to Facebook instant articles. And it is something that we are exploring at the moment and I guess it all about the user experience and it is all wonderful and unfortunately for us the data and engagement is within a platform we don’t own but we own the content. So as a commercial entity how do we commercialize that?”

TV1: “So this is where the dilemma comes in, even with something like Facebook articles, you want to reach your audience but you also have a remit to make money from that and you can’t. And what Facebook do is they go and they sell that and they give you a rev (revenue) share. But the rev share is tiny compared to if you were to sell that yourself. Because they sell at such scale that they can afford to charge 10, 20, 30 times cheaper than you charge for advertising.

Tensions• Representing one’s self or the brand?

– Tension between journalists’ own social accounts and those of their organisation

• Time and the always on element– Social media is 24/7, can you afford not to be present?

• Tension between the culture of the internet and the culture of the news– Pressure to grow but keep content relevant and stay true to brand

• Tension between knowledge that comes from metrics/analytics and journalistic common sense, a nose for the news

• Tension and pressure that comes from analytics– More and more journalists work in the presence of real time analytics

• Other issues:

– Trolling and comment moderation

– Licensing, copyright, privacy

What kinds of adaptation? • Evolutionary Theory: three types of adaptive responses

to environmental challenges:

– Structural => develop features that address the new environment (change or adapt size, shape and internal organisation)• In news orgs these refer to restructuring of external and internal

organisation and relationships

– Behavioural • Learning and feedback

• Cultural adaptations (shifts in attitude, how an organism is positioned in the world)

– Physiological => development of new features to perform special new functions• The main way this is done in organisations (and humans) is through

developing new technologies that allow the organism to perform special new functions

Organisational adaptations [internal and external]

Behavioural Adaptations !:Learning

BehaviouralAdaptations II:Culture

Technological adaptations

Fragmentation (multiple social media accounts in multiple social media platforms)

Learning through experimentation, trial and error

Flexibility, adaptability Apps

Compartmentalization(different contents or tone for different platforms)

Learning through metrics and data

But also: staying true to the brand

Production and metrics

Createstructures/hierarchies(prioritise certain accounts and certain platforms)

Rise of the digital/social natives (i.e. millennials)

Innovation and constantexperimentation

Automation (e.g. automatic post scheduling)

Designated data and social media teams

Developing common sense, relying on ‘instinct’

Journalism as a process Adoption of new technologies (Instant Articles, Google AMDs etc)

Targets/KPIs for social/closely managed social team

Learning from others Journalism a conversation, even a ‘trialogue’

Internal communication systems, e.g. Slack or WhatsApp;

Learning from users (reading comments, doing polls and surveys)

Journalism as community building

Organisational AdaptionsOrganisationalAdaptations

TV Radio Printnational

Print local/niche

Online

Fragmentation (multiple social media accounts in multiple social media platforms)

XXX XX XXX XX XX

Compartmentalization(different contents or tone for different platforms)

X X X XX XX

Createstructures/hierarchies(prioritise certain accounts and certain platforms)

XX XX XX Fewer overall accounts and no presence over all social media

X

Designated data teams X Plannedfor the future

X Not in the horizon

X

Designated social media editors

X X X X Mixed

Targets/KPIs for social/closely managed social team

XX XX XX X More ‘native’ teams, more collaborative approach

Behavioural Adaptations I:Learning

TV Radio Printnational

Print local/niche

Online

Learning through experimentation, trial and error – the most common form of learning

X XX XX XXX XX

Learning through metrics and data

X X X X X

Rise of the digital/social natives (i.e. millennials) – new hires will almost definitely be millennials .

X X X X X

Developing your common sense, relying on ‘instinct’ –applying (journalistic) common sense

X X XX XX XX

Learning from others - what have others done?

X X XX XX X

Behavioural Adaptations II:Cultural changes

TV Radio Printnational

Print local/niche

Online

Flexibility, adaptability: a key value

X XX XX X XX

But also: staying true to the brand, staying true to what your organization is about*

XXX XX XX XX XX

Innovation and constantexperimentation

XX X XXX X XX

Journalism as a process* X X XX XX XX

Journalism a conversation, even a ‘trialogue’ *

XX XX X XX XX

Journalism as community building and maintenance*

XX XXX XX XX XX

Authenticity, tone, brand

TV1: ““The way, to deal with that (social media/fast changes) is to be consistent in your brand, be consistent in your tone, in what you stand for. To be really clear on your north star of what your brand means.”

Online 1: “we see the tone of [name of news org] as being so important. So I’d much rather someone get the tone right […] it is a bigger problem for me if they don’t get the tone or the voice of [name of news org] right.

Online 2: “But I think that [name of news orgs] agreed that the content would be how we sell our brand. And the type of content, the tone of the content and that remains to this day a

key element of what we do.

Journalism as a process:

Print Local/niche 1: “Basically it not just about social, it is

about how we report across platforms and how we are getting everybody on board. How they go out on a story it is about how they report on the day and then later on online, and later again in print. The way we are showing them and asking them to do it is use social media first and last. First to show they are there [in the field] […] and then when they have the final sequence done, in print or online, if it is on print it is online anyway because all the print goes online. Then that is again put on social media to show the final result of the work and say this is the analysis or the interview that is coming out of it.”

TV1: “I use the term 'Trialogue' all the time. So instead of it

being a dialogue with the audience you are the person almost curating a topic and it's a many-to-many conversation. If you think of a ‘trialogue’ as a triangle, at the top you decide the topic and they decide to talk to each other about it and then that becomes content for you again. And you curate this ‘trialogue’ dynamic. And every so often you might fuel the conversations with your opinion, but really what you are doing is starting conversation and engaging between people. ”

Radio 1: “. As a culture it is conversational, it is two ways, ergo conversational, it is social, it is not just about pushing and it is about having a slightly less authoritative kind of tone when you are talking. Because you are talking with people not at them.”

The importance of community

Radio 1: “Because they chose to be part of your community. And you want to foster that and get them talking and get them to have a certain affinity for you so they will advocate you to their peers. […]So It is trying to build the community across the channels because everybody is in a land grab at the moment and it is kind of good in a way that it has kind of peaked. People have gotten a bit more selective about who they are letting into their world and who they want to engage with.”

Technological adaptations

TV Radio Printnational

Print local/niche

Online

Apps X X X X X

Production or data or metrics In-house teams

External agencies

In-house FB/Google analytics

FB/Google analytics

Automation (e.g. automatic post scheduling)

X X X X X

Adoption of new technologies (Instant Articles, Google AMDs, but also Slack, TweetDeck etc)

Mixed Mixed Mixed Mixed Mixed

New ‘forms of life’New forms of life Role

Social media agencies (e.g. Simply Zesty or Ican) • Content promotion on social media

Data teams for news/journalism • In-house teams that produce and help interpret metrics and analytics, present them in actionable form, contribute to editorial meetings etc

External social agencies producing data and analytics (e.g. NewsWhip)

• Collect and compile analytics from social media platforms and then offer these to clients

Social media editors • Manage social media accounts on behalf of news orgs

• Typically millennials• Skills vary from classic journalistic to

multimedia• Typically report to digital editor

New kinds of contents, e.g. native advertising, fast/condensed videos with captions, stories around user contents etc.

• Develop new sources of revenue or popularity without compromising journalistic integrity

Hybrid organisations, such as Storyful but other start ups, e.g. NewsLinn

• Combine journalism and core journalistic practices with new forms of income (e.g. from licensing, corporate subscriptions etc)

Some conclusions1. Doing journalism has become a much more complex process that involves building up relationships with several actors outside but adjacent to the field:

– Social media platforms

– Data and tech teams

– Advertising, PR and promotional agencies

– Publics

• This implies that journalism enjoys far less autonomy than in the previous media era with ambivalent results

2. Journalism is no longer only or even primarily about the production of news. It further involves:

– Packaging and repackaging contents for different platforms

– Thinking not only about content production but also content promotion => this is becoming more and more important

– Reflecting upon its own practices (through behind the scenes reporting, metrics, qualitative feedback)

– Developing ways to engage with publics and becoming involved in the reception side

– An intensive process that requires collaboration, coordination between often disparate elements, and often real time adaptation

3. Changes in the workflow and practices of journalism carry important implications about the future of journalism, the skillset required, and recruitment in the profession

– Good writing only a fraction of what journalism is about – a necessary but not a sufficient skill for journalism

– Video and multimedia skills

– Skills in communication and understanding data more and more important

– Attitudinal and cultural changes may be necessary

4. Differences between news organisations tend to be in terms of degree, scale or intensity rather than qualitative

– This shows that the direction taken is the same and there are very few if any diversions

– Adaptation has taken primarily the forms discussed above for all the news organisations we studied

• An ambiguous finding: where is the next radical or disruptive innovation in journalism going to come from if everyone is following the same path?