convergent journalism

Matthew Ricketson has worked on staff as a journalist at Standard News, The Age, The Australian, The Sunday Herald and Time Australia magazine. Before taking up his position as Media and communications editor of The Age in June 2006, he ran the Journalism program at RMIT for 11 years. He has a Master of Arts (communication studies) from RMIT and is writing a PhD about book-length journalism at Monash University. His biography of the Australian author Paul Jennings was published by Viking in 2000. He has written a textbook entitled Writing Feature Stories (Allen & Unwin) and has edited an anthology of journalism entitled The Best Australian Profiles (Black Inc).

interesting sites
http://www.entropiauniverse.com/

reuters reporter in second life

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/17/MNG9ULQPL61.DTL&feed=rss.phartlaub

www.blackalbinosheep.com - the EPIC video

PERSONALIZATION AND CUSTOMIZATION
www.last.fm.com - customization of music
www.pandora.com - customization of music

VIDEO
www.rocketboom.com

A list of potential questions about convergent journalism for our contacts at the Age and other
newspapers.

1) Is there a difference between reporting styles for print journalism and for convergent/online journalism? (other than of course style of writing)

2) Is there certain content which is not suitable for print and suitable for convergent journalism and visa versa? Print is considered sacrosanct, and therefore is some content deemed unsuitable for print is suitable for online journalism?

3) Is print today considered more credible than online journalism, or are both considered the same?

4) Are same standards applied to both? (Photoshopped picture on age website, original in the newspaper)

5) Citizen journalism: Is it journalism at all? Is it seen to threaten traditional journalism? Or can they co-exist, and perhaps specialize in certain areas? Are there any plans to integrate citizen journalism with news content?

6) Most newspapers have extensive websites and are getting audio visual–how are they coping? What problems are they facing? What do they need to grow further?

7) Newspapers are increasingly becoming audio visual and are sourcing their content from content providers. Is it possible that in the newspapers will rely solely on such providers?

What are the restraints that the newspaper industry faces with convergent journalism?

http://www.filmaust.com.au/wilderness/

(Analysis of the presentation of the website)

Overall presentation: Lacklustre but consistent

Straightforward website–conventional use of HTML
No snazzy flash presentation, no use of audio or animation
Only interesting bit is the menu bar which changes colour

Colours:
Red and blue not the best contrast, blue is not suitable for senior visitors. The contrast of the font against background is ok.

Navigation:
o Confusing navigation. Too many menu bars.
o Search buried at the bottom, not apt.
o Viewers are always aware of which page they are currently on.

The screen is divided into two sort of frames, one for the main DVD promotion, and the other for the sponsor, which is Film Australia. The main menu bar for the DVD is the on top right, sub-menu bar on the left. Menu bar for the sponsor on the top and bottom.

o Took three multimedia students a while to figure it out, which certainly means its NOT user friendly; imagine what a layman would do!

Content:

o No trailer/teaser:
The site is a promotion for a two set DVD of films of wilderness in AUstralia. Considering they have unlimited access to audio and video, the site could have featured a teaser/trailer of the DVD, but absolutely NOTHING. Just a plain written description of the DVD and its main subheadings: eg it isays”theres an intro, there are biographies, and interviews with the film’s producer and director”

o Interviews-only transcripts, not even a snippet:
There was scope to make it interesting, but the site features only transcripts of interviews, no audio or video!! BORING!

o Photo gallery:
According to Jeanie, who’s been a part of the multimedia industry for 3 years, quality is “crappy”.

o Under maintenance: The link under the sub menu teachers is under maintenance: there was no need to tell users this, it is bad practice.

Interesting read…gave me different ideas of convergence–I guess I thought of it more as technological than cultural earlier…but now think that its probably sort of a cycle..something that feeds off each other.

The most interesting bit though, is the idea that convergence and its products are not top-down as most media related products are. Its bottom up too, in a very active, everyday way. Which is why it allows people to see and do the things that are relevant to them, which is why everyone is an author. However, my concern with such freedom is that it is unlimited. Convergence has led to this explosion of expression, creativity and freedom that perhaps has unsavoury consequences. Society I believe, functions efficiently only when there are rules and regulations. With the freedom and opportunity that the internet accords anyone with a reasonably fast internet connection, misuse/abuse is an issue. The article talks of high school soft porn, an apt example. Freedom of expression could be used as a counter-argument, but how far can that be stretched? On the basis of freedom of expression, a Dutch court has refused to ban a political party with a paedophile agenda. (Read the full story at: Dutch will allow paedophile group ) The group supports reducing the age of sexual consent from 16 to 12, believes in legalizing child porn and sex with animals. I know its an extreme example, but hey, they say its freedom of expression. I’m not a strong advocate of censorship, but with everyone capable of being an author these days, I’m concerned that it might be getting too difficult to know where to draw the line.