The Digital Transformation of 21st Century News Journalism

Presentation to Conference on Digital Media and Journalism, School of Communication, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan,

12 October, 2012

Professor Terry FlewCreative Industries Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

Drivers of Digital Transformation

• Convergence of media industries and content• Distribution of content across multiple delivery platforms• Media globalization• Exponential increase in information and entertainment

content available to consumers• User-created content, participatory media, and blurring

of producer/consumer lines

It’s not just the Internet

• Rise of knowledge-intensive industries and creative industries

• Network externalities• Rise of peer production and sharing – openness and

mass collaboration in Web 2.0 environments

From mass communications media to social media: the crisis of news

MASS COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA (20TH CENTURY)

SOCIAL MEDIA (21ST CENTURY)

MEDIA DISTRIBUTION Large-scale; barriers to entry Dramatically reduced barriers to entry

MEDIA PRODUCTION Complex division of labour; media professionals as content ‘gatekeepers’

Easy to use web 2.0 technologies; small, multi-purpose teams as “preditors” (Miller)

MEDIA POWER Assymetrical – one-way communications flow

Greater empowerment of users/audiences through interactivity and choice

MEDIA CONTENT Tendency towards standardised “mass appeal” content

Segmentation of media content markets and “long tail” economics (Anderson)

PRODUCER/CONSUMER RELATIONSHIP

Mostly impersonal, anonymous and commoditised (audience as mass market target)

Potential to be more personal; rise of the produser (Bruns); user networks and communities

PAYMENT SYSTEM Audiences cross subsidised by advertisers (commercial media) or tax revenues (public service media)

Not clear as yet: subscription, “freemium”, free?

Ways of thinking about digital transformations

MAJOR TRANSFORMATION

INCREMENTAL CHANGE

OPTIMISTIC Democratization of journalism with rise of participatory media culture e.g. Clay Shirky, Charles Leadbeater, John Hartley, Henry Jenkins

New ways of accessing and delivering the news – journalists have always dealt with technological change

PESSIMISTIC “Cult of the amateur”; loss of maninstream journalism jobs not compensated for by the Internet

Strengthening power of major media corporations

OECD, Evolution of News and the Internet (2010)

1. Declining sales of print newspapers

2. News consumption migrating to the Internet

3. Structural crisis of newsrooms – shift of classified and print advertising

4. New opportunities online, but new competitors (e.g. sports organizations)

5. Move to digital-only newspapers?

6. Online advertising generates less income

Decline in newspaper sales

U.S. advertising spend 2011

Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2012

Shift of young people to online news

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The new online news media ecosystem

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Newspaper advertising revenues

The crisis of mainstream journalism

• Undermining of traditional news business models• Falling share prices/rising debt for established news

media businesses• Shift in the “attention economy” of users• Crisis of authority for professional journalism• Growing public distrust of journalists• Rise of the “PR state”

The renewed appeal of alternative journalism

• The “Fifth Estate” (Dutton, Benkler)Non-profit [organizations] focused on bringing to light direct, documentary evidence about government behavior so that many others, professional and otherwise, can analyse the evidence and search for instances that justify public criticism … [they use] uses a combination of volunteerism, global presence, and decentralized action to achieve its results (Benkler, 2011: 55).

Monitory democracy (John Keane)

• solving a basic problem facing contemporary democracies: how to promote the unfinished business of finding new ways of democratic living for little people in big and complex societies, in which substantial numbers of citizens believe that politicians are not easily trusted, and in which governments are often accused of abusing their power or being out of touch with citizens, or simply unwilling to deal with their concerns and problems (Keane, 2010: 354).

Lessons from the online alternative journalism movement

• A sustainable business model matters• Continuing advantages of mainstream media: brand,

workforce, audience• Challenge of the news/opinion relationship• Potential for access to information to become stratified

by income• Shifting role of public service media – from PSBs to

multi-platform media

Wikileaks as an alternative

Pros and cons of Wikileaks

• Challenge of tech-savvy “critical outsiders”• Need in democracies for transparency and information

access• “Wikileaks effect” will be felt for a long time• But …

– Very reliant on Julian Assnage as charismatic figurehead– Dilemma of internal accountability– Balance of fact and advocacy– Continued reliance on mainstream media outlets