Online Journalism theory and practice are two of the classes you may wish to sign up for in Scripps. I'm done with one and still trying to figure out the other and that's because though the profs are great there's no spoon feeding; you've got to grow up and walk from the first day of class! But I'd attempt to walk you through the academic values of online space.
Though online journalism is still at the foundation stage, new entrants and current practitioners can positively impact on the field. I strongly believe that some day online journalism - what some choose to call citizen journalism - will cease to be merely an off-shoot of the traditional media; it will become a distinct field with its own rules, regulations and clear cut elements.
The internet as it stands today offers access to a diverse audience. While access to those living with disability is seldom available, the medium offers inclusion for the underrepresented by featuring a wide range of news material. Online journalism has created enough room for mainstream and unpopular issues. Though the resources – material and human – allocated for both is far from being equal, the fact remains that the non-mainstream audience is being catered for.
Within the mainstream audience there are different categories: 1) Those who follow and swing to the ever changing technology – RSS, Podcasting, Mobile Networks and those who would rather use the old models 2) Those who access the media objectively (traditional journalism) and those who prefer subjectivity (non-traditional blogs). As more advertisers become comfortable with advertising on blogs; what happens to traditional online journalism?
The evolution of the internet has created a new category of haves and have nots on the information highway. The lack of access to computers or internet has created a fast expanding digital divide between those who have the resources, are trained to use and are able to access the internet and those who are either untrained in the use, do not have the resources or are unable (due to disability) to access the internet.
In as much as convergence offers a wide range of opportunities for expansion of the media, it also means fewer journalists are needed to operate. This will not only lead to burn out of the few doing the work but it will affect the delivery – content and presentation – a jack of all trade is usually master of none.
Based on the story The: Targeting Readers the Old-Fashioned Way one sees that there are a number of benefits in registering/subscribing to online materials which include aiding the news media to know its audience and appropriately reach out to them. According to Barbara Rice, group director of research for the New York Times Digital: “Registration lets us build a relationship and communicate with the user much more powerfully… It’s to everyone’s benefit if the ads are more relevant to the user”. But the question still remains, how many people have come to terms with subscribing to online materials? Until, majority of news media makes this the way to go; majority of readers may likely remain free readers.
This Day Nigeria is a local print media in Nigeria. The website is named Thisday Online. With a dot com address, it is immediately obvious that this print media is set up as a commercial website. But whether the economic model is profitable will be a question for the internet or revenue department of the media. The website sells a number of adverts which includes those for banks, pharmaceuticals, stock market and adverts by Google.
Though a number of stories can be read without subscribing others especially archived stories/materials can only be read by subscribers. The stories non-subscribers can read are usually without images or multimedia content which gives me the impression that something is retained for subscribers. I cannot fully articulate the value added services for subscribers but for non-registered readers like me, value added services begins with the access to a number of top stories and the links provided to other non-news resources e.g. City Guides, Hotel, Family Tree, Social Networks etc. But the question is - are these links paid for (in which case the credibility is questionable) or are they simply value added links (in which case the motive is commendable)?
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