July, 2007
You are looking at posts that were written in the month of July in the year 2007.
Week 3: User generated content & the changing news cycle
Posted on July 31st, 2007 by kmburb.
Categories: Uncategorized.
This reading starts by saying that blogs represent the start of the “personal media” revolution. As this blog is my own response to information, news and media, it’s an apt statement.
The London bombings highlighted that now almost anyone, with the technology, can become an instant reporter and photographer/cameraman for the news.
The information in the reading about the wikis was particularly interesting, showing that the BBC has fully embraced the concept of “volunteer reporters”, setting up websites for people who have relevant and newsworthy information and graphics to contribute.
The huge impact of the internet on the news industry was also highlighted by the development of the “continuous newsdesk”. People now rely on the internet for breaking news, and I know that when there is something major happening and still unfolding in the news, I check all the relevant online news websites for the most current information.
This confirms the statement that “news has become a 24-hour continuous process, as audiences consume more news from more sources”. I wake up to the news when my clock-radio alarm goes off, I check the online news sites daily and read the papers at least 3 days a week and always see one version of the news on TV. Just as multiple media is the reality for me as a news consumer, it is also the new reality for journalism.
Week 2: Why and how convergence is emerging
Posted on July 30th, 2007 by kmburb.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Many people in today’s society are time-poor but asset rich, so with little spare time available to them they expect and need convenience. The convergence of media forms helps make the news more convenient for people, but it is also this desire for convenience that drives convergence.
I was interested to learn that one of the important roles of journalists today is to select and cultivate information to make it manageable for audiences and to avoid information overload. This results in a very different attitude towards news and information gathering, and dissemination, than in the past.
Journalism is also being changed through new newsgathering techniques, such as using phone cameras & digital cameras for photos and video footage, laptops with microphones for interviews and journalists being trained as video-journalists. Again, this is interesting because it is a strong move away from the traditional concept of journalism, which deals with information, not images as well.
There are numerous other issues surrounding convergence such as: media diversity and ownership in news; an understanding of the role of the “culture” that is relevant to the companies’ audiences; working out how to best utilise the time the audience has for accessing news media; and tailoring the presentation of, and access to, news in a way that best suits the changing needs and demands of the audience. These are all issues the journalism industry has to address.
Note to reader
Posted on July 30th, 2007 by kmburb.
Categories: Uncategorized.
So far in my blogs I have responded to articles I have found about blogging and new media. I have done this after reading the sentence in the ALJ301 Unit Guide “The post will be based on the relevant readings for that week for weeks 2-10, anything else you encounter about blogging, and based on your readings of the blogs listed in the “blogs worth monitoring” section.”
Everyone else’s blogs that I have looked at though seem to focus only on the readings, so from now on I will be commenting more specifically on the readings. However, I think it is interesting to discuss other related info which is in the news as well, so I will continue to do that when something interesting pops up.
So read on for my responses to the readings of week 2 and week 3
Gen Y turns off, tunes out & logs on
Posted on July 29th, 2007 by kmburb.
Categories: Uncategorized.
Fitting neatly with my comment in last week’s post: “Forget about watching Desperate Housewives, we’re watching Facebook”, is a statement made in the week 2 reading that in 2003 researchers at the Pew Centre found that people are watching less TV and are spending more time on the internet.
In an article “Dude, where’s my audience” (26/07/07) in The Age it was reported that TV audiences have fallen by almost 6 per cent in the past five years, according to TV ratings group OzTam. Research by Roy Morgan shows that “Gen Y is also spurning newspapers, magazines, radio and cinema in favour of the internet.”
Head of digital marketing agency Hothouse Interactive, Simon van Wyk, says “Media has changed. It used to mean channels Nine, Seven and Ten. Now media means your own website.”
Then comes a comment about media multi-tasking that reflects the usual activity in my sharehouse living room of an evening: “How many people sit at home with one eye on the television and another on the laptop?” asks Dion Appel, founder of young adult research group Lifelounge. Well, a lot. In my experience anyway.
Australian’s Blog less than other nations
Posted on July 23rd, 2007 by kmburb.
Categories: Uncategorized.
After reading the attached article, I thought about why Australian’s blog less than other nations.
I think that it’s mainly because of our culture. Mr Dawson touched on this saying: “Australians are reluctant to shout out. They don’t want to share their views as much as people in other countries.”
You only have to look at the lack of TV talk shows that we have here compared to the US to see that.
Another excerpt from the article reads:“They constantly talked about Australia being ‘behind’ the rest of the world. Mr Eckford had some interesting data about usage patterns of social networking sites such as MySpace, and said that the growth rates in Australia were ‘lagging’.”
We may have been slower to adopt Myspace, but Myspace’s big competitor, Facebook, has had an astronomical level of uptake here.
I built a Facebook profile then forgot about it for a while. Suddenly I received A LOT of emails from friends asking me to add them as my friend. Within two weeks my friends who had profiles had gone from 3 to 43. One friend I spoke to on a Tuesday didn’t have one, but by Thursday she did and soon had 70+ friends with profiles too.
It’s my (and my housemates’) latest addiction. We nerdily sit around our living room with our laptops out, uploading photos onto our profiles, sending friends virtual drinks, searching for more acquaintances with profiles to add to our friends list, writing on friend’s walls and inviting non-Facebook users to join. Forget about watching Desperate Housewives, we’re watching Facebook.