[LINK] On Clicks, Paywalls and the Survival of Jouralism
stephen at melbpc.org.au
stephen at melbpc.org.au
Tue Nov 1 17:17:48 AEDT 2011
Thanks for forwarding Karen's behind-the-scenes peek Roger & your comments
Another aspect to journalism in future may be one of more crowd-sourcing
of news etc. Though this will obviously also become a double edged sword,
in terms of a boon for lazy journalists no long pounding their beat it'll
also allow professional journalists such as Karen more time in the office
to research and background crowd-sourced news and commentary. Maybe even,
with future apps, encourage anonymous wiki-leaks type news etc tips? But,
inevitably, the role of journalism and news publishing will surely change
and adapt, but, this growth may well lead to even better news services.
"Newsforce app for readers to contribute to news" October 31st, 2011.
Advertiser Newspapers Pty Limited have launched a phone app to allow
readers to share news tips, video and photos with the newsrooms of the
Advertiser, Sunday Mail and Adelaide Now.
The announcement:
Make the news – with NewsForce
Introducing NewsForce – the new, simple way to send news tips, video and
photos. The smartphone app allows readers to become part of South
Australia’s news and share their content with newsroom of The Advertiser,
Sunday Mail and AdelaideNow.
Launching today, the NewsForce smartphone app is free to download at the
App store and Android Market, giving readers the opportunity to easily
share news on the move and see their contribution published across The
Advertiser, Sunday Mail and AdelaideNow.
In the past year, Advertiser NewsMedia has experienced an increase in
user-generated content – from people on the spot at serious news events;
to photos and videos that share the lighter side of life in South
Australia.
“The NewsForce app will make it much easier for readers to become
involved and engaged, providing them with a sense of ownership” said Mel
Mansell, Editor, The Advertiser.
“The first of its kind in the country, the development of NewsForce
demonstrates the commitment of Advertiser NewsMedia to use state of the
art technology to better engage with the community.”
Designed by Advertiser NewsMedia in collaboration with Okado and
Teknograd, NewsForce will be promoted with a press and online campaign
from Monday October 31.
To download NewsForce head to iTunes, with Android Market available soon.
Those without a smartphone haven’t been forgotten either, with a
NewsForce page set up on AdelaideNow, www.adelaidenow.com.au/newsforce to
allow readers to easily share their content.
Source: Advertiser NewsMedia press release
October 31st, 2011 at 1:26 pm
> Karen Dearne dropped me a note which sums up very well 'the quandary
> of the news junkie'. The Oz has been feral in its political pages in
> recent times, but some parts of the paper continue to publish
> well-researched and well-written articles. There has to be a reason
> why publishers continue to pay people to do such things. (She gave
> me the okay to post her email).
>
>
> Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 12:48:19 +1100
> From: "Dearne, Karen" <dearnek at theaustralian.com.au>
>
> Hi Roger
>
> While I know it's real easy to get around the paywall, it would be
> unfortunate if privacy advocates failed to click on privacy stories,
> as behind the paywall metrics are everything.
>
> So if you want people like me to spend hours trawling through annual
> reports and trying to wrest answers from politicians, then you'll
> have to stump up yr $3 a week from next year.
>
> [And if that's how the market goes, then the same for Fairfax and the
> same for such other outlets as publish relevant stories.]
>
> Because if stories don't get clicks, in future they won't be produced
> or run. What you'll get is lots of quick rewrites of press releases
> and mentions of Apple from kids on $40K.
>
> I think this is the real threat for the future - lack of time to
> investigate stuff, and pressure to keep producing web content means
> our politicians and businesses will not be subject to scrutiny. In
> fact, the digital press corps will be happily if blindly
> regurgitating every word in the press release as fact.
>
> I should also add that the digital approach allows us to publish much
> more material - no longer confined to space available on the dead trees.
>
> At the moment, many many stories get written that don't make it into the
> paper. On the IT section, we've always run that stuff online, but it
> will make a huge difference to many writers, eg health, which always get
> pushed for space, to be able to put their stuff up.
>
> Also want to draw your attention to this new but well hidden resource
> on the website:
>
>
<http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/foi>http://www.theaus
tralian.com.au/news/investigations/foi
>
> Our FOI editor Sean Parnell has been doing a lot of great stuff, and
> one advantage of the new format is that we're able to put up pdfs of
> documents released to us under FOI.
>
> So over time there'll be excellent resources there.
>
> But like I say, if content is seen not to be valued, then it won't be
produced.
>
> At the moment, I'm enjoying the fact that all those ministers offices
> and departments are having to register to read what I write (:-)
>
> Cheers
>
> Karen Dearne
> IT writer
> The Australian
> 2 HOLT STREET, SURRY HILLS NSW 2010 AUSTRALIA
> t +61 2 9288 2659
> Email
> <mailto:dearnek at theaustralian.com.au>dearnek at theaustralian.com.au
web
> <http://www.australianit.com.au/>www.australianit.com.au
>
>
> --
> Roger Clarke http://www.rogerclarke.com/
>
> Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
> Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
> mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au http://www.xamax.com.au/
>
> Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre Uni of NSW
> Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University
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