tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/new-media-3189/articlesNew media – The Conversation2023-05-23T11:14:46Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045672023-05-23T11:14:46Z2023-05-23T11:14:46ZHow Alien mutated from a sci-fi horror film into a multimedia universe<p>A new life form was born on May 25 1979 when an alien exploded from the chest of a bewildered officer aboard the commercial towing vessel, Nostromo. The alien that comes to be known as the xenomorph escapes, grows, stalks and kills all but one of the ship’s crew. The lone human survivor, Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, blasts it into deep space turning it and her into icons. </p>
<p>We are, of course, talking about the cinematic classic, Alien.</p>
<p>But what was born that day was not just a horrifying monster. It would become a fully fledged fictional world that, in the four decades following, has become an indelible part of our popular culture. And it is a topic we explore in our new book, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/alien-legacies-9780197556030?cc=gb&lang=en&">Alien Legacies</a>.</p>
<p>Though initially conceived as a cash-in on the popularity of science fiction in the aftermath of Star Wars, Alien grew from a hugely successful film into not only a franchise but a whole universe. It spawned three sequels - James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), David Fincher’s Alien3 (1992) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Alien Resurrection (1997). </p>
<p>There were also two prequels - Prometheus (2012) and Alien Covenant (2017), which were both directed by Scott. And finally, there was a spin-off “mashup” franchise - Alien vs Predator directed by Paul WS Anderson (2004), and its sequel Requiem (2007). </p>
<p>It has inspired innovation and creativity beyond the films. There have been novelisations, video games, audiobooks, comics and <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/%E2%80%98Ages-five-and-up%E2%80%99%3A-Alien-toys-for-children-and-the-Antunes-Plowman/37a5b6f9d25db0aa08a24322bd82cbcd7bd87d87">toys</a>.</p>
<p>The first two films, Alien and Aliens, have enjoyed considerable scrutiny given their cultural presence and resonance for debates concerning gender, technology and genetics. </p>
<p>But what has received less focus is what Alien has become. The franchise has proliferated and mutated across various forms of media while staying true to its cinematic origins.</p>
<p>Alien, like Star Wars, is what we can now call a “transmedia franchise”. It has pioneered ways of expanding storytelling across media boundaries. Our book examines the transmedia universe as a whole, addressing the original films, the prequels and everything that followed. </p>
<p>The franchise has been open to adopting new methods and ideas, as well as adapting to changes in new media technology and politics. </p>
<p>In fact, one almost entirely neglected aspect of the Alien universe we explore are documents purporting to be “real” crew profiles, training manuals and diaries that expand upon and develop our knowledge and understanding of this fictional world. </p>
<p>One of the extras on the 2010 Alien Anthology Blu-ray collection was a special feature called Weyland-Yutani Inquest: Nostromo Dossiers. This was a collection of corporate documents detailing the professional lives of the Nostromo spaceship crew.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">From The Weyland-Yutani Report: A look at the Nostromo’s crew including past employment and personal life details.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Some of this material, such as the <a href="https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Aliens:_Colonial_Marines_Technical_Manual">Colonial Marines Technical Manual</a>, has been created by fans. It found its way into gaming instalments of the franchise having been picked up and explored by the many creative artists and writers who have worked in the Alien universe. These include Aliens versus Predator, Aliens versus Predator: Extinction and Aliens: Colonial Marines (2013).</p>
<p>The attempt by media companies to control and manage fan practice is not new, but it demands our attention. <a href="https://ew.com/movies/2019/03/13/alien-trailer-shorts-40th-anniversary/">Inviting people</a> to pitch their own short films set in the Alien universe to mark the fortieth anniversary in 2019 was a canny means by 20th Century Fox to curry favour with the fans of the series. </p>
<p>Similarly, transmedia marketing campaigns have grown to include fictional evil corporate websites, exclusive events at conventions, personalised advertising and franchise universe websites. </p>
<p>We argue that Alien’s transmedia marketing is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dorothypomerantz/2012/04/18/prometheus-when-movie-marketing-goes-very-right/">particularly captivating</a> because it is closely linked to the film’s production. As a result, these marketing campaigns are arguably becoming as creative and entertaining as the films themselves. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The transmedia marketing campaign for the Prometheus film.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Alien series asks existential questions uncommon in mainstream blockbuster cinema about the origins and destiny of humanity and the dividing line between the human and the machine. </p>
<p>Alien should not be seen, as popular culture so often is, as unimportant or irrelevant to our understanding of ourselves as a species. It has the potential to contribute to our knowledge and enlightenment. </p>
<p>The continuing debate among scholars and fans surrounding the Alien franchise demonstrates how popular culture can bridge disciplinary boundaries and make complex academic debates more accessible. It helps us better understand the significant questions we must ponder as humans. </p>
<p>We hope our book will contribute to conversations about Alien. It explores its relevance to contemporary debates and paves the way for future studies on the franchise. After all, it has entered an uncertain <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/World-building%2C-Retconning-and-Legacy-Rebooting%3A-Fleury/01dd0b7bc45907cf1f56e55e1237c6d3678609af">new phase</a> under the control of a new owner. </p>
<p>In 2019, Disney bought Fox and with it the rights to Alien. And Disney is a company that, throughout its history, has shown itself willing and able to adapt and build upon all aspects of its holdings in a variety of ways. </p>
<p>This starts with <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/new-alien-movie-set-to-begin-production-this-month-as-cast-and-synopsis-is-revealed">Fede Alvarez’s untitled Alien film</a>, currently in production, and set for release via Disney’s Hulu streaming service. </p>
<p>Fans and academics will both probably continue to chase Ripley and the xenomorphs across the cosmos for the next forty years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Abrams has received and continues to receive funding from charitable organisations and research councils.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory Frame has in the past received funding from disciplinary subject associations and research councils.</span></em></p>A new book explores the enormous Alien franchise spawned by the 1979 film.Nathan Abrams, Professor of Film Studies, Bangor UniversityGregory Frame, Teaching Associate in Film and Television Studies, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2045092023-04-27T12:31:02Z2023-04-27T12:31:02ZSaving broadcasting’s past for the future – archivists are working to capture not just tapes of TV and radio but the experience of tuning in together<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522861/original/file-20230425-18-ro9r4q.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C6%2C4479%2C2984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How will we preserve technologies so deeply embedded in daily life? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/retro-old-tv-receiver-and-outdated-broadcast-radio-royalty-free-image/1141288438?phrase=radio%20and%20television%20old%20fashioned&adppopup=true">BrAt_PiKaChU/Istock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve lived with broadcasting <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/history-of-commercial-radio">for more than a century</a>. Starting with <a href="https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-states-to-1940/">radio in the 1920s</a>, then <a href="https://dp.la/exhibitions/radio-golden-age/radio-tv">television in the 1950s</a>, Americans by the millions began purchasing boxes designed to receive electromagnetic signals transmitted from nearby towers. Upon arrival, those signals were amplified and their messages were “aired” into our lives.</p>
<p>Those invisible signals provided our kitchens, living rooms and bedrooms with access to jazz clubs, baseball stadiums and symphony halls. For a century, they have been transporting us instantly to London, Cairo or Tokyo, or back in time to the old West or deep into the imagined future of interplanetary travel. </p>
<p>The reception of those radio, then television, signals didn’t just inform us, they shaped us. Everyone experienced broadcasting individually and collectively, both intimately and as members of dispersed crowds. </p>
<p>Radio and television fostered an ephemeral and invisible public arena that expanded our understanding of the world – and ourselves. Whether it was the final episodes of <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/GangBusters.pdf">radio serials like “Gangbusters”</a>, or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/M-A-S-H">television’s “M*A*S*H</a>” or “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Seinfeld">Seinfeld</a>,” Americans often marked the passage of time by shared broadcast experiences. </p>
<p>Even today, more <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/02/13/for-world-radio-day-key-facts-about-radio-listeners-and-the-radio-industry-in-the-u-s/">Americans use standard AM/FM radio broadcasting</a> <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/tiktok-now-150-million-active-users-us-ceo-tell-congress-rcna75607">than TikTok</a>. At a time when most Americans get their <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/local-tv-news/">news from local TV stations and broadcast television</a> networks, and radio remains pervasive, it might seem frivolous to express concern about preserving technologies so deeply embedded in daily life. </p>
<p>Yet a media evolution is occurring, as paid subscription video streaming and audio services climb in popularity, and fewer Americans are <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/186833/average-television-use-per-person-in-the-us-since-2002/">consistently tuning in to broadcast media</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite reports on the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Demise of shared moments</h2>
<p>The broadcasting era is becoming eclipsed by new media technologies. In the era of TV and radio dominance, “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-media">mass media</a>” was defined by shared experiences. </p>
<p>But now, new media technologies – cable TV, the web and social media – are changing that definition, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01616.x">segmenting what was once</a> a huge, undifferentiated mass audience. All those new media fragmented what were once huge collectives. Bottom line: We’re not all watching or hearing the same thing anymore.</p>
<p>With fewer Americans simultaneously sharing media experiences, the ramifications of this evolution stretch beyond the media industries and into our culture, politics and society. </p>
<p>The shared moments that electrified and unified the nation – from <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-fireside-chat-provided-a-model-for-calming-the-nation-that-president-trump-failed-to-follow-133473">President Franklin Roosevelt’s fireside chats</a> to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-jfk-media/how-the-jfk-assassination-transformed-media-coverage-idUSBRE9AK11N20131121">TV news coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination</a> and up through the <a href="https://archive.org/details/911/day/20010911">Sept. 11, 2001, attacks</a> – have become more rare. Even national events, such as a presidential election, are different today in that our collective experiences now seem more individualized and less communal. People get their news about presidential elections from sources with radically different perspectives on what used to be shared facts.</p>
<p>The very idea of collectively tuning in to history as it happens has been altered, as the profusion of channels and platforms now funnels audience members into self-segregated affinity groups where messages are shaped more for confirmation than enlightenment.</p>
<h2>How to remember</h2>
<p>As we move into this new media world, broadcasting risks being relegated to the rustic past like other old media such as the rotary telephone, the nickelodeon, the 78-rpm phonograph and the DVD. </p>
<p>That’s why, from April 27-30, 2023, the Library of Congress is hosting a conference, titled “<a href="https://radiopreservation.org/2023-conference/">A Century of Broadcasting</a>,” that invites scholars, preservationists, archivists, museum educators and curators, fans and the public to discuss the most effective ways to preserve broadcasting’s history.</p>
<p>The goal of the conference, convened by the Library of Congress’ <a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/about-this-program/radio-preservation-task-force/">Radio Preservation Task Force</a>, is to begin envisioning the future of this technology’s past. As a <a href="https://cmj.umaine.edu/faculty-staff/michael-j-socolow/">radio historian</a> and member of the Radio Preservation Task Force, I was invited to serve on the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/documents/23-LOC-conference-program.pdf">conference organizing team</a>. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/documents/23-LOC-conference-program.pdf">Panels, papers and presentations</a> will look at how broadcasting is currently being archived, and how we, as a society, can think more systematically and formally about how we’ll remember broadcasting. While the task force is primarily concerned with broadcasting’s inception as radio, aspects of television’s past will be included as well. </p>
<p>Preserving radio – and TV – is not as simple as storing machines or tapes. To understand broadcasting history, preservationists must try to describe an experience. It isn’t enough to show somebody the printed script from a 1934 Jack Benny radio program, or <a href="https://www.si.edu/object/archie-bunkers-chair-all-family%3Anmah_670097">the theatrical stage set</a> used when “All in the Family” was taped before a live studio audience in 1973. To comprehend what Jack Benny, Gracie Allen or Jackie Gleason meant to the people of the United States involves trying to imagine, and almost feel, an experience.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A recording of the Jack Benny radio show of Jan. 1, 1955, titled “Jack Doesn’t Have a Script.”</span></figcaption>
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<h2>‘Essential’ first step</h2>
<p>The Radio Preservation Task Force seeks to go beyond the big corporate commercial collections that already exist. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/record/recnbc.html">NBC’s radio and TV archives</a>, as well as the <a href="https://invention.si.edu/rca-corporation-records-1887-1983-bulk-1914-1968">Radio Corporation of America’s</a> and others, are already well-preserved and housed at repositories like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. </p>
<p>The Radio Preservation Task Force is concerned with the diverse universe of broadcasting, including the many types of stations and networks that defined American broadcasting. </p>
<p>“Millions of Americans listened to college, community and educational radio stations that were less famous than CBS and NBC but still played an important role in daily life,” notes University of Colorado <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/josh-shepperd">scholar Josh Shepperd</a>, chair of the Radio Preservation Task Force. “<a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/idx/j/jcms/18261332.0062.701/--presencing-through-preserving-sound-history-at-historical?rgn=main;view=fulltext">Preservation projects associated</a> with the Radio Preservation Task Force have revealed to us that <a href="https://www.wyso.org/hbcuradioproject">African American radio stations</a> played an important role in helping catalyze the Civil Rights Movement by fostering and inspiring community.” </p>
<p>Shepperd added that “those are just two examples of often-overlooked but essential components of our nation’s broadcast history.” </p>
<p>At the “<a href="https://radiopreservation.org/full-conference-schedule/">Century of Broadcasting” Conference</a>, scholars will examine such varied topics as how gender roles were performed on the air and how Spanish-language radio maintained listener identity with the community while broadening outreach. The conference also includes discussion of international and global radio communities, with scholars presenting on broadcasting history from France, Germany and Latin America. </p>
<p>“There’s even a panel on preserving the history of unlicensed and illegal ‘pirate’ radio,” says Shepperd. </p>
<p>Our media remains so atmospheric – it’s everywhere, all the time – that we too rarely pause to concentrate on how it evolves and how those transformations ultimately influence us. </p>
<p>Radio and TV might not technically be “endangered” right now; after all, we all still use telephones even if they look completely different and serve functions largely unimaginable 40 years ago. </p>
<p>Yet moving beyond the broadcast era holds important ramifications for all of us, even if we cannot precisely discern them in this moment. Recognizing the need to preserve radio and TV’s past marks an essential first step, so that the future will be properly informed about how we lived and communicated for over a century of American history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204509/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael J. Socolow is a member of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force, and was on the conference organizing team for the "Century of Broadcasting" conference. </span></em></p>Scholars, preservationists, archivists, museum educators and curators, fans and the public are meeting in late April in the nation’s capital to figure out how to preserve broadcasting’s history.Michael J. Socolow, Associate Professor of Communication and Journalism, University of MaineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1855412022-06-24T10:55:23Z2022-06-24T10:55:23ZThe untold story of Canada’s journalism startups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470368/original/file-20220622-34601-35c970.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4013%2C3024&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Conversation Canada is celebrating its fifth anniversary. It's one of dozens of digital news organizations that has found a niche in the changing media landscape in Canada.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(THE CONVERSATION)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-untold-story-of-canada-s-journalism-startups" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The fifth anniversary of the launch of <em>The Conversation Canada</em> is an opportunity to reflect on an untold story of the Canadian news media.</p>
<p><em>The Conversation Canada</em> is one of more than 120 novel English-language digital-born journalism organizations to launch since 2000. That’s more than the number of daily newspapers that populated the country in the latter part of the 20th century. </p>
<p>In reflecting on the past five years <a href="https://theconversation.com/its-time-to-start-the-conversation-in-canada-79877">as co-founders</a> and journalism researchers, we locate <em>The Conversation Canada</em> as part of <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3621685">an emergent journalism infrastructure</a> populated by a new group of vital contributors who range from cottage industry to larger-sized established organizations. </p>
<p>These players — such as <em><a href="https://thelogic.co/">The Logic</a></em>, <a href="https://mediaindigena.com/"><em>MediaIndigena</em></a>, <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/"><em>The Narwhal</em></a>, <em><a href="https://www.sprawlcalgary.com/">The Sprawl</a></em>, <em><a href="https://thetyee.ca/">The Tyee</a></em> and <em><a href="https://www.villagemedia.ca/">Village Media</a></em> — are shaping what it means to be a journalist and what journalism could and should do in this country. They have taken advantage of low barriers to entry online and the potential of a digital space that affords a place to experiment with diverse approaches. </p>
<p>Yet the decline of legacy, commercial media has been a singular focus of policymakers and journalism coverage even as these new digital-born journalism organizations are winning recognition at industry awards and filling gaps in news coverage.</p>
<h2>Tackling critical issues</h2>
<p>Our research for the past two years has focused on identifying and understanding this wave of digital-born entrants. We’ve found that the majority of the new digital news organizations are still up and running, even though many startups fail in their first few years. Like <em>The Conversation Canada</em>, more than half have launched since 2015.</p>
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<img alt="Climate activists holding up a variety of signs demonstrate in downtown Calgary" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470671/original/file-20220623-52182-2w9vtx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some of the new digital news organizations in Canada have focused coverage on specific issues like the climate crisis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
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<p>A majority of the new journalism organizations are located in British Columbia and Ontario, although they are largely in non-urban centres. Some 40 per cent have a national and/or international outlook in their coverage, which is a surprise given the fears about the loss of local news.</p>
<p>Many of these new organizations are consciously mission-driven, with some acknowledging their roles as a response to urgent global concerns and living in a settler-colonial nation state. Some take explicit stances on harms and fault lines in legacy media reporting including justice for Indigenous peoples, racial injustice, the climate crisis, the economy and more.</p>
<p>Just under two-thirds of the new digital-born news media were started by a mix of veteran and emerging journalists, and the rest by media makers, business people or activists. </p>
<p>This new system is, however, not without its challenges such as sustainability, scale, living wages, attracting audiences and the influence of funders, to name just a few. </p>
<p>The increase in the past two decades in the number and range of journalism entrepreneurs and owners is important because there is evidence the concentration of ownership has contributed to a limited diversity of perspectives and types of organizations that could and have engaged in journalism in Canada. </p>
<h2>Trend towards not-for-profits</h2>
<p>Our research shows a shift to not-for-profit organizations doing journalism in the past two decades, including <em>The Conversation Canada</em>. </p>
<p>The evolution in types of ownership and business models is significant given the highly concentrated nature of Canadian journalism ownership, which has been a concern since the first government committee <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/Pilot/LoPBdP/BP/prb9935-e.htm#A.%20The%20Daveytxt">explored the issue in 1970</a>. </p>
<p>Contemporary Canadian journalism has also had a largely commercial orientation, despite the important presence of a public service broadcaster, with <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/comparing-media-systems/B7A12371782B7A1D62BA1A72C1395E43">professional ideals of objectivity and independence</a>.</p>
<p>These elements have contributed to a widely shared and relatively homogenous perception of journalistic roles among public and legacy media. Largely, described as “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/abs/is-there-a-distinct-quebec-media-subsystem-in-canada-evidence-of-ideological-and-political-orientations-among-canadian-news-media-organizations/835FC4D4BDAAF96976B53F28D0A05619">monitorial</a>,” journalism roles in Canada have focused on a five-point “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/canadian-journal-of-political-science-revue-canadienne-de-science-politique/article/abs/changes-in-canadian-journalists-views-about-the-social-and-political-roles-of-the-news-media-a-panel-study-19962003/535827D9F0BF053D9BA3D17A59E50FC3">creed</a>”: “accurately reporting the views of public figures, getting information to the public quickly, giving ordinary people a chance to express their views, investigating activities of government and public institutions, and providing analysis and interpretation of complex problems.”</p>
<h2>‘A single newspaper agenda’</h2>
<p>Such professional commercial logics span Canada’s anglophone and francophone media systems. A recent study by scholars in Québec found the perception of similar content focus in Canadian media. These scholars suggest this finding validates prior research that there is “<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210428185800id_/https:/www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/835FC4D4BDAAF96976B53F28D0A05619/S0008423920000189a.pdf/div-class-title-is-there-a-distinct-quebec-media-subsystem-in-canada-evidence-of-ideological-and-political-orientations-among-canadian-news-media-organizations-div.pdf">a single newspaper agenda in Canada</a>,” with the caveat that this agenda is “beyond Québec-specific issues.” </p>
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<img alt="People walk by two newspaper boxes in downtown Toronto" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/470457/original/file-20220623-51459-5mozlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">As legacy newsrooms in Canada have struggled and downsized, a new crop of digital-born organizations have launched across the country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Kevin Frayer</span></span>
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<p>These are important considerations because there is evidence the relationship between journalists’ professional ideology in Canada and perception of partisanship and politicization is paradoxical. While journalists ascribe to neutrality, audiences perceive them as partisan.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-trust-in-the-news-media-hits-a-new-low-184302">Canadians' trust in the news media hits a new low</a>
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<p>This paradox is timely as it coincides with a <a href="https://www.cem.ulaval.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/dnr22_can_eng.pdf">decline in public trust</a> in the news media. Anglophones’ trust in journalism has dropped to a low of 39 per cent compared to 55 per cent in 2016 and to 47 per cent from 55 per cent over the same period among francophones.</p>
<p>Perceptions of trust are related to “<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-trust-in-the-news-media-hits-a-new-low-184302">perceived lack of diversity in media ownership</a>”, as well as concerns about the media’s independence from political or business influence.</p>
<h2>What journalism can be</h2>
<p>The fifth anniversary of <em>The Conversation Canada</em> is an opportunity to express our deep gratitude to the many individuals, including its editors, who have contributed to its success — and to its <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003140399-6/university-giant-newsroom-alfred-hermida-lisa-varano-mary-lynn-young">meaningful contributions to journalism in Canada</a>, from the coverage of <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/covid-19-82431">COVID-19</a> to the podcast <em><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/">Don’t Call Me Resilient</a></em>. </p>
<p>Our goal in co-founding <em>The Conversation Canada</em> was to explore how non-commercial journalism values affect what journalism could and should do in this country. (We are both tenured professors at the University of British Columbia and we have not earned any revenue from <em>The Conversation Canada</em> or our roles in it.)</p>
<p>It was an initiative to see what journalism could be if written by experts in their fields and edited by journalists, deliberately welcoming those critical studies and perspectives from scholars who have been excluded and/or had to operate on the margins of the media. </p>
<p>Our approach sought to address established power relations in journalism, extending how the newsroom and its presence within a commercial landscape, <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190067076.001.0001/oso-9780190067076">largely created by white professional journalists</a> in Canada, has been habitually conceptualized, understood and practised. </p>
<p>Canada is not alone in trying to decide on policy responses to legacy journalism economic challenges while seeing the rise of newer players all trying to survive alongside the dominance of platforms such as Facebook and Google. Countries such as Australia, Belgium and others are grappling with how best to support quality journalism today to various degrees of success.</p>
<p>Our research is ongoing as part of <a href="https://journalisminnovation.ca/about">a number of related studies</a> in Canada and Australia about the impact and use of <em>The Conversation</em> content nationally and globally, funded by a Canadian federal government research grant. </p>
<p>The evidence is clear that national social, economic and political conditions have an impact on the nature of our media systems. The question for Canadians is what choices they have or should have about the kinds of journalism that are available to them, now and in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary Lynn Young receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. She is co-founder and a former member of the board of The Conversation Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alfred Hermida receives funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. He is co-founder and a member of the board of directors of The Conversation Canada.</span></em></p>Canada is home to a growing number of new digital-born journalism organizations, even though government policy aimed at helping the news industry has focused mostly on the decline of legacy media.Mary Lynn Young, Professor, School of Journalism, Writing and Media, University of British ColumbiaAlfred Hermida, Professor, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1576982021-04-14T14:25:49Z2021-04-14T14:25:49ZWhy converging newsroom cultures can make media houses more sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392924/original/file-20210331-19-o4wv2a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Traditional media houses must adapt, innovate and converge to survive in the digital age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Until the arrival of the world wide web, the media model that worked revolved around money made from selling advertisements and from revenue from subscriptions or copy sales. But online delivery has left traditional media struggling to find new revenue sources while using web metrics to <a href="https://medium.com/code-for-africa/six-skills-you-need-to-run-a-modern-sustainable-newsroom-4f750d38e4af">quantify audience numbers and engagement</a>. </p>
<p>To cope they have begun to use web metrics to inform how they sell online content and attract diverse, digital revenue sources. These have received substantial attention across media houses struggling to sustain themselves financially on digital platforms.</p>
<p>But as <a href="http://repository.daystar.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/123456789/3299/An%20Actor-Network%20Analysis%20of%20the%20Use%20of%20the%20World%20Wide%20Web%20in%20a%20Kenyan%20Newsroom%e2%80%99s%20Journalistic%20Practice%20A%20Case%20Of%20Capital%20Fm%20.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y">my 2017 PhD research</a> shows, there are other factors that contribute to the strength and sustainability of a media house. </p>
<p>One of them is how news outlets are organised – how they conduct their day-to-day business. In particular, how they marry traditional practices (before the arrival of the internet), with the demands of making news available for online distribution.</p>
<p>My research focused on a case study of a Kenyan commercial FM radio station that had incorporated the web and other digital technologies in its journalistic practice. The station was making money from its digital platforms. The interesting question was: why?</p>
<p>The study showed the emergence of two distinct organisational cultures in the newsroom. These cultures – hierarchical and non-hierarchical – enabled production speed and innovation respectively. </p>
<p>In hierarchical cultures there is a clear chain of command. Reporters, news readers and camera personnel develop content that is reviewed by a team of editors who are overseen by an editorial director. Content produced in hierarchical cultures tends to follow prescribed patterns. </p>
<p>At the radio station where I did my research, radio scripts were no longer than four or five lines with an accompanying audio clip of about 20 seconds. Web stories were at least 300 words long with an accompanying photograph. </p>
<p>This formulaic approach tended to promote speed. On multiple occasions, I observed radio and web stories being written within 10 to 15 minutes because of the standardised approach that reporters took to developing the stories.</p>
<p>But in a separate working area where contributing writers and in-house editors worked together to develop and edit web content, I witnessed a more ad hoc working culture. Here, journalists collaborated frequently and there was little emphasis on hierarchy. Meetings tended to be informal interactions. And all the experimentation took place in this area. For example, members of this team conceptualised, created and published web series on YouTube and then embedded them in the website’s TV section. </p>
<p>I was persuaded that the station’s meld of hierarchical and non-hierarchical cultures contributed to its success. In my view, organisational culture can also make a difference. But only if it is disrupted.</p>
<p>My main takeaway from my research is that newsrooms need a blend of both cultures: the old ways of doing things provide a bridge to the past, while the new enable news organisations to exploit and adapt to the nimbleness of emerging and changing technologies.</p>
<h2>A tale of two systems</h2>
<p>The adoption of digital technologies and the emergence of two working cultures at the radio station were done at the behest of the owner and management. Driven to establish the station as a pioneer and market leader, they moved early to incorporate digital technologies more deeply even with the early uncertainty that the venture wouldn’t pay off. </p>
<p>The station had a typical, traditional newsroom with an editorial director overseeing a team of editors, reporters and news readers. They produced news for radio, their website, and mobile breaking news platforms. The coverage included sports, general news, politics, and business.</p>
<p>But it also had a team that focused purely on generating digital content for its website and social media platforms. This content was sourced from a small team of editors and a network of external contributors. It included lifestyle features, celebrity gossip and web video series. This content was more playful and experimental than what was generated in the newsroom.</p>
<p>News had been the station’s traditional money-maker primarily through advertising and sponsorship of radio news bulletins. But the lighter content from the exclusively digital team had drawn audiences, attracting new advertising clients. By the time of conducting my research in 2016, the lifestyle section of the website had begun making more money than the news section of the website.</p>
<p>The digital set up was much less formal than than the traditional newsroom. Here, the team relied on a network of freelancers who worked on exclusively digital content with weekly deadlines. The team worked non-hierarchically. Editors allowed for greater collaboration and interaction among the contributors, themselves, and a webmaster who contributed story ideas.</p>
<p>There was a physical separation between the newsroom and the digital department. But the company bridged the gap by embedding new roles, like a social media manager, into the traditional newsroom. It also allowed certain personnel – such as a business writer – to work in both spaces. </p>
<p>Journalists working in traditional newsrooms are used to hierarchical, structured routines and practices. In my research, I found that these journalists have been disrupted by the entry of digital spaces where younger, tech-savvy content creators work on rolling deadlines within evolving structures and routines. </p>
<p>The result is separation and tension between the two. This has left media houses struggling to take advantage of their divergent but complementary strengths.</p>
<p>Research has established that even with digital technologies there are aspects of journalistic labour that have <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0957926504045032">remained rooted in routine</a>. Take the gatekeeper role of the editor, for example. This role contributes to the verification of content and strengthens the credibility and trustworthiness of a news brand. By contrast, the flexible digital structure enables experimentation and creativity, which is useful when dealing with the dynamism of the profession of journalism.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-economic-questions-are-key-to-africas-media-freedom-debate-96429">Why economic questions are key to Africa's media freedom debate</a>
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<p>There is therefore room to enable and encourage these two types of cultures in contemporary newsrooms.</p>
<h2>How to enable disruption</h2>
<p>Team members should possess different abilities ranging from management, to legacy editorial, digital, and business development skills. </p>
<p>Teams should also be a mix of new hires and experienced editors, tech-savvy content creators and technically challenged news gatherers. The goal would be to harness the technical know-how and creativity of the denizens of the digital space, while making use of the experience, institutional knowledge and networks held by those in the traditional newsroom.</p>
<p>Participatory, informal discussions could then be had alongside top-down, formal interactions to engender a hybrid innovative and imitative environment. </p>
<p>Towards this end, media houses with digital and traditional newsrooms in Africa can engender more collaborative environments to address the tensions that often emerge between the old and the new. This would go a long way towards sustainability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157698/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wambui Wamunyu is affiliated with Kenya Editors Guild.</span></em></p>Media houses with digital and traditional newsrooms need to create collaborative environments to address the tensions that often emerge between the old and the new.Wambui Wamunyu, Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, Daystar UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1516842020-12-08T05:50:15Z2020-12-08T05:50:15ZWorld is watching plan to make Facebook and Google pay for content: Frydenberg<p>The Morrison government will introduce on Wednesday its legislation forcing Google and Facebook to face arbitration if they fail to come to commercial deals with traditional media on payment for content.</p>
<p>The government resorted to the mandatory bargaining code after it was clear agreement wouldn’t be reached for voluntary arrangements on content payment. A voluntary model had been recommended by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.</p>
<p>Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told a news conference Tuesday the government wanted the parties to reach deals outside the code. Where agreement could not be reached, the arbitration would kick in.</p>
<p>The ABC and SBS are among the media that will benefit from revenue under the legislation, which won’t be dealt with by parliament until next year.</p>
<p>Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said the ABC had indicated it would devote the revenue it receives to regional journalism. He told Tuesday’s news conference the government would not seek to offset such revenue in its funding for the ABC.</p>
<p>The legislation will set minimum standards for digital platforms including requiring a fortnight’s advance notice of deliberate algorithm changes that have an impact on news media businesses.</p>
<p>The negotiations for payment will need to incorporate the value to providers of the additional eyeballs brought by having their content on the tech platforms.</p>
<p>This provision was put in following consultations on the code with the tech companies. But Frydenberg stressed the money flow was only one way – from the tech companies to the traditional media.</p>
<p>Frydenberg said it was the government’s intention “to ensure that the rules of the digital world mirror the rules of the physical world and ultimately to sustain our media landscape here in Australia”. He described the outcome as fair and balanced.</p>
<p>He said “we live in the age of digital disruption – and nowhere is this more apparent than in our media landscape.” Dollars spent on print advertising had fallen by 75% since 2005; in that time, dollars spent on online advertising increased eightfold.</p>
<p>The application of the code can be extended beyond Facebook NewsFeed and Google Search to other digital platform services if they “give rise to a bargaining power imbalance”. The treasurer has the power to add new services.</p>
<p>Frydenberg said “the word coming back to us is that there are deals that may be struck very soon between the parties”.</p>
<p>He described the scheme as a “world first– and the world is watching what happens here in Australia”.</p>
<p>The Australia Institute’s Centre for Responsible Technology said the legislation was a “globally significant response to the growing power of Big Tech”.</p>
<p>The centre’s director, Peter Lewis, said the move “would give media organisations a fighting chance at building a viable business model, in the face of the market domination of Google and Facebook”.</p>
<p>Lewis called for cross party support for the legislation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Morrison government will introduce legislation forcing Google and Facebook to face arbitration if they fail to come to commercial deals with traditional media on payment for contentMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054592018-11-13T12:56:19Z2018-11-13T12:56:19ZHow new media recycles the mainstream press<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241845/original/file-20181023-169831-1otz2tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Horoscope via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What are we to make of the hashtag #BoycottTheGuardian which was recently trending on Twitter? Whether we agree with the sentiment or not, the intention behind it is pretty clear. The hashtag is – like its predecessor, #StopFundingHate, which was aimed at getting people to stop buying or advertising in the Daily Mail – an attempt by social media activists to curtail the power of newspapers through a campaign of an organised shaming. It is the new media taking on the old. </p>
<p>The latest offensive began in early September with supporters of Jeremy Corbyn becoming increasingly miffed with the Guardian’s failure to fully embrace the Labour leader. For a few days the organised “twitterstorm” failed to break until, suddenly, the campaign burst into life with the <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/10/guardian-vs-canary-tribune-rises-dead-and-sitting-out-people-s-march">endorsement of Kerry-Anne Mendoza</a>, the editor-in-chief of the Canary, the hard-left, pro-Corbyn blog. Rather inconveniently, Mendoza had also been <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/the-londoner-canary-boss-breaks-guardian-blockade-a3948296.html">invited to speak at the Guardian’s building</a> that very same week.</p>
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<p>Since its launch in 2015, the Canary has positioned itself as an independent outlet, free of proprietorial influence and in opposition to many of the values of the mainstream media (or “MSM” as it likes to call it). The Canary is, moreover, guided by an aspiration to “<a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-news-outlet-the-canary-aims-to-diversify-media-/s2/a576960/">disrupt the status quo of journalism</a>” and – while the ongoing boycott of a 197-year-old liberal institution might be evidence of this intention – a deeper analysis of the Canary reveals something more awkward. </p>
<p>In June 2018 we conducted an in-depth quantitative analysis of the Canary and its journalistic sources. The study – tracking every article published over a ten-day period – revealed that in ostracising the Guardian, the Canary is, in effect, amputating a vital organ. Our study found that more than half of the Canary’s stories (55.2%) contained material that had actually originated in the Guardian. This can range from a link back to an earlier Guardian article, to provide background or context: to more substantial references that reuses statistics, facts and full quotes from previous Guardian articles. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2018/06/14/a-year-on-from-the-grenfell-tower-fire-the-inaction-from-the-council-and-the-government-is-a-disgrace/">This article</a> about Grenfell Tower is a classic example. It makes 12 references to Guardian material, reusing background information about the disaster, facts about the inquiry and the political context of the situation from the Guardian, as well as material from the BBC, Evening Standard and the Independent. The article also uses two quotes, filleted from different articles by Guardian journalist Harriet Sherwood. And although the site links back to the Guardian in each instance – crucially – the actual words “the Guardian” do not appear anywhere in or near the quotes – or indeed in the entirety of the piece. The casual reader, scanning the Canary on their phone, would be none the wiser to the origin of the material.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More than half the stories in the Canary contain material sourced from the Guardian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Regular readers of the Canary might be surprised that the blog supported the boycott. It is meant to be – broadly speaking– on the same side as the Guardian. The titles share a great many values – especially around issues of identity and social justice – and more than half of the Guardian’s “core readership” (51%) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/analysing-the-balance-of-our-jeremy-corbyn-coverage">nominated Corbyn</a> as their preferred Labour leader, according to research conducted in 2015 by the Guardian’s consumer insight team.</p>
<p>But the issue goes deeper. Despite the Canary’s well-publicised mistrust of the “MSM”, our study reveals that the blog routinely recycles its content from across the media. The study revealed that of the 1,471 sources of information that we identified, just 18 (1.2%) were primary sources (that is, material gathered exclusively by journalists working for the Canary). When statements from unnamed sources (typically spokespeople in written statements and press releases) were further stripped out – just 0.6% of the Canary’s material came from actual interviews. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Canary’s information is overwhelmingly sourced from the mainstream media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>It isn’t just the Canary that is addicted to recycled news. A follow up study – to be published later this year – of its “alt-right” opposite, Breitbart London, demonstrates that the two sites are remarkably parallel, as are countless other blogs that similarly echo the mainstream media. Like the Canary, Breitbart uses few primary sources, relying instead on recycling “MSM” material and secondhand embedded tweets, while all the time moaning about the power of “big media”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Media sources recycled by the Canary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Frankenstein news</h2>
<p>Although the decline of independent reporting is most established in the “alt-media”, the MSM has long had problems of its own. In a longitudinal study spanning 20 years <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/18439/1/Quality%20%26%20Independence%20of%20British%20Journalism.pdf">Cardiff University reported in 2008</a> that pressure for mainstream journalists to produce ever more copy has also increased their reliance on recycled material. Indeed, news “aggregation” – the practice of taking information from other published sources and displayed in a “<a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/32174?show=full">single abbreviated space</a>” such as a live blog or a listicle – has become a habit that all media outlets practice widely.</p>
<p>The Mail Online, the third most popular news source on the internet in the UK, according to the <a href="https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB">Alexa Traffic Rank</a>, is a routine recycler. The paper’s “sidebar of shame” (the column on the right-hand side of the website that reports celebrity news and photos) borrows liberally from celebrity magazines, primetime chat and other newspapers. The Guardian’s Politics Live blog also sources a great deal of content from elsewhere – especially Twitter. But there is a difference – Politics Live also includes source material from many of the Guardian’s reports: firsthand attributable quotes gathered and tested by trained reporters. </p>
<p>Some have begun to call this the phenomena of habitual recycling “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1313884">Frankenstein news</a>”.
The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew_Duffy2">ethnographist Andrew Duffy</a>, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has observed at firsthand how journalists are more reliant on secondhand news. Techniques of <a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/32174">“curation” and “aggregation”</a> are in the ascendancy at the expense of independent reporting. But while journalists have always borrowed and copied – it’s not called the “press pack” for nothing – our research indicates that the newer “alt-media” titles are abandoning independent reporting in favour of critiquing material that has been gathered by others. All perfectly legal, of course, under the long established concept of “fair dealing.”</p>
<h2>Political-media complex</h2>
<p>Kerry-Ann Mendoza declined the opportunity to comment for this article – but, to be fair, the Canary’s content is at times very good. The blog has given voice to many unrepresented elements of society. It has championed the <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/05/31/judges-just-forced-the-dwp-to-review-the-benefit-claims-of-countless-disabled-people/">cause of the disabled with some skill</a>, harried the Department of Work and Pensions over <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/06/20/the-dwp-would-probably-prefer-you-didnt-see-these-eye-watering-figures/">its problematic policy of universal credit</a> and has been successful in investigating the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/01/channel-4-leads-the-way-on-tory-election-claims">claims of electoral fraud by the Conservative Party</a></p>
<p>But our research indicates that, like much of internet journalism, the Canary and Breitbart are not quite so independent from the political-media complex as they like to boast. Their failure to gather much of their own source material, in the form of on-the-record interviews, makes them dependent on others to do so. By avoiding the interview, as our analysis indicates, they are denying themselves a chief tool of journalism and are dependent on the very MSM they profess to <a href="https://twitter.com/themendozawoman/status/825072918002544641">hate</a> . </p>
<p>The Canary might have been cutting its beak off to spite its face in continuing to boycott the Guardian. But without The old newspaper’s stories to source from, perhaps it will finally resort to gathering a few more scoops of its own.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Dodson is the co-author of a new book: Anti-Social Media? The Impact on Journalism and Society which is published by Abramis on October 26.</span></em></p>Despite their derision, media outlets such as the Canary and Breitbart, still source much of their information from the mainstream press.Sean Dodson, Postgraduate leader, Journalism, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1061582018-11-01T06:57:02Z2018-11-01T06:57:02ZMedia Files: What does the future newsroom look like?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/243422/original/file-20181101-173890-1v1veqs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=451%2C22%2C6148%2C4880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Alan Soon of Splice Media is promising a million dollars to give to start-ups to transform media in Asia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Today on Media Files, a podcast about the major themes and issues in the media, we’re looking at the future newsroom. </p>
<p>We often hear about the doom and gloom of established media companies as they shed staff and revenues, but is there hope for journalism and a new style of digital newsroom? We ask of the man with an ambitious mission to launch 100 media start-ups in three years: what does the future newsroom look like? </p>
<p>Our guest is co-founder and CEO of <a href="https://www.thesplicenewsroom.com/">Splice</a> Media, Alan Soon. Based in Singapore, Alan is a former journalist and producer at Yahoo, CNBC, Bloomberg and Kyodo News, and is promising a million dollars to give to start-ups to transform media in Asia.</p>
<p>We talked about:</p>
<p>• Challenges and opportunities for start-ups</p>
<p>• His pledge to launch 100 digital media start-ups in Asia over three years with a $1 million fund – and where the money comes from</p>
<p>• Why he thinks Asia lacks a robust ecosystem around media start-ups.</p>
<p>• How to build communities around membership and make a media start-up financially sustainable.</p>
<p>• Media trends and innovations that he expects we will see more of in the future.</p>
<p>• How limiting the different regulatory environments and political norms such as regard for freedom of expression may be in parts of Asia.</p>
<p>And much, much more.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-guardian-australias-katharine-murphy-and-former-mp-david-feeney-on-the-digital-disruption-of-media-and-politics-103243">Media Files: Guardian Australia's Katharine Murphy and former MP David Feeney on the digital disruption of media and politics</a>
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<p>Media Files is produced by a team of journalists and academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. They’re passionate about sharing their understanding of the media landscape, especially how journalists operate, how media policy is changing, and how commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a> will be out every month, with occasional off-schedule episodes released when we’ve got fresh analysis we can’t wait to share with you. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, find us and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621">subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you find your podcasts. And while you’re there, please rate and review us - it really helps others to find us.</p>
<p>You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/podcast-3738">here</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-abc-boss-michelle-guthrie-sacked-but-the-board-wont-say-why-103752">Media Files: ABC boss Michelle Guthrie sacked, but the board won’t say why</a>
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<p><em>Recorded at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Producer: Andy Hazel. Production assistance Gavin Nebauer.</em></p>
<h2>Additional audio</h2>
<p>Theme music by Susie Wilkins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/106158/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We often hear about media companies shedding staff and revenues, but is there hope? We ask the man with a mission to launch 100 media start-ups in three years: what does the future newsroom look like?Andrea Carson, Incoming Associate Professor at LaTrobe University. Former Lecturer, Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneAndrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1036762018-09-26T02:47:41Z2018-09-26T02:47:41ZAccurate. Objective. Transparent. Australians identify what they want in trustworthy media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/237846/original/file-20180925-85761-3hpz92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trust in media is low in Australia, which is why traditional news values like accuracy and objectivity matter.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an age of social media and smartphones, people are accessing more news than ever. The problem is, they don’t believe much of it.</p>
<p>Three-quarters of Australian news consumers say they <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/digital-news-report-australia-2018">have experienced “fake news”</a> and are very concerned by it. In the US, two-thirds of adults get their news from social media, but more than half of people <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/">expect this news to be “largely inaccurate”</a>. </p>
<p>This is in stark contrast to public trust in journalism before the rise of the internet. In the 1970s, <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx">more than two-thirds of Americans trusted news media</a>. By 2016, that figure had fallen to less than one third.</p>
<p>This question motivated <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/2018-09/pdf_4_flipbook.pdf">new research</a> at the Centre for Media Transition at UTS, which was funded by Facebook as part of the company’s <a href="https://fbnewsroomus.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/fb-apac-news-literacy-update-2017.pdf">APAC News Literacy initiative</a>, but conducted independently by my colleagues and me. </p>
<p>Our findings suggest that what Australians want most from their news media is accuracy and objectivity, not necessarily accessibility and friendliness – the hallmarks of social media.</p>
<h2>What can be done to restore trust in news media?</h2>
<p>In the first stage of our research, we compiled an <a href="https://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/article/downloads/Trust%20in%20Journalism%20Biblio.pdf">extensive, annotated bibliography</a> of the academic and non-academic literature focusing on trust and the news media. That bibliography includes more than 200 titles and many more authors.</p>
<p>Among these authors is <a href="https://rachelbotsman.com/">Rachel Botsman</a>, who argues that institutional trust in the media has largely been replaced by what she calls “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/who-can-you-trust-review-rachel-botsman-on-the-new-age-of-distributed-trust-20171005-gyv6qa.html">distributed trust</a>”. Where people used to trust banks, the church, the government and the news media implicitly, she argues, they now tend to trust their friends, family and even strangers. </p>
<p>This is evident in the success of social media, but more obviously in the rise of companies such as Uber and Airbnb, which exemplify the “gig economy” and “<a href="https://medium.com/apm-agentuur/how-will-collaborative-consumption-change-the-world-airbnb-uber-whos-next-a62840551526">collaborative consumption.</a>”.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-qanda-has-confidence-in-the-media-in-australia-dropped-lower-than-in-the-united-states-74930">FactCheck Q&A: Has confidence in the media in Australia dropped lower than in the United States?</a>
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<p>Drawing on Botsman and other authors, we postulated that today’s news consumers want a different type of news media: one that is more peer-to-peer and less top-down. And so in the second stage of our research, we held four qualitative workshops in Tamworth and Sydney to ask participants about their relationship with the news media.</p>
<p>In one exercise, we asked participants to design their ideal news source by choosing from a list of 13 characteristics, including “interactive”, “accurate”, “transparent”, “easy to access”, “objective” and “vulnerable” (by admitting and correcting mistakes). We also included “like a friend” and “less ‘voice of god’”. These last two, we suspected, might well be popular, especially among the young. (Of our participants, half were under the age of 35.)</p>
<p>But the results surprised us. Overwhelmingly, participants both young and old did not want their ideal news source to be like a friend or less like the “voice of god”. These two attributes were the least popular. Conversely, top of the list were three highly traditional journalism values: accuracy, objectivity and being in the public interest.</p>
<p>A closer look, however, revealed that participants did value some elements of a peer-to-peer news media – they also wanted their ideal news source to be transparent, easy to access and interactive. </p>
<h2>Trust goes deeper than the source</h2>
<p>If our participants are typical, these results suggest that Australians want the news media to be aligned foremost with traditional journalistic values, but also enable consumers to be part of the news-sharing, and sometimes even news-making, process. </p>
<p>In other words, Australians seem to want news that blends elements of institutional and distributed trust.</p>
<p>The workshop participants repeatedly expressed grave concerns about trusting news on social media. However, our results also suggest that Australians believe the trust problem is not wholly the fault of social media. According to our participants, part of the problem is that journalists themselves need to be better at accuracy, objectivity and working in the public interest. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/outlawing-fake-news-will-chill-the-real-news-94407">Outlawing fake news will chill the real news</a>
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<p>This corresponds with the results of the <a href="http://apo.org.au/node/174861">Digital News Report: Australia 2018</a>, published earlier this year, which found the most common form of “fake news” encountered by Australians is “poor journalism”.</p>
<p>In another exercise, we asked our participants to rate six trust-enhancing strategies currently being trialled by media outlets in various forms. </p>
<p>Tellingly, the most preferred option was “go behind the story”, which involves informing readers why a story was written and what the journalist was unable to find in his or her reporting, among other details. The second preferred option was a clear labelling of news, comment and advertising. </p>
<p>Clearly, consumers want a higher degree of transparency from their news sources.</p>
<h2>People will pay for media they trust</h2>
<p>The good news emerging from research globally is that there has been a rebound in trust in journalism. Currently, <a href="http://apo.org.au/node/174861">50% of Australian news consumers</a> trust the news, up from 42% last year. By contrast, only 24% of people trust the news they find on social media. </p>
<p>In his 1995 book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Social-Virtues-Creation-Prosperity/dp/0684825252">Trust</a>, US political scientist Francis Fukuyama argued that high-trust societies tend to be thriving societies. And this is where the media play a crucial role. As philosopher <a href="https://www.immagic.com/eLibrary/ARCHIVES/GENERAL/BBC_UK/B020000O.pdf">Onora O’Neill </a> says: </p>
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<p>If we can’t trust what the press report, how can we tell whether to trust those on whom they report? </p>
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<p>Our workshops suggest that Australians want to trust the media, but are suspicious. This must be addressed, not least because, as the Digital News Report: Australia 2018 found, there is a strong link between trust in news, concern about fake news and people being prepared to pay for their news. </p>
<p>This raises an interesting prospect: if we can successfully address the issue of trust and news media, we might even begin to solve journalism’s revenue crisis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103676/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sacha Molitorisz is a postdoctoral research fellow at The Centre for Media Transition at UTS. The Centre has received funding from public and private sources, including News Corp Australia for a study into digital defamation, and Facebook Australia for a study on journalism and trust.</span></em></p>New research suggests that when it comes to the media, Australians prize traditional news values more than the accessibility and friendliness that characterise social media.Sacha Molitorisz, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Media Transition, Faculty of Law, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1020482018-08-24T06:38:50Z2018-08-24T06:38:50ZMedia Files: a new podcast from The Conversation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233386/original/file-20180824-149496-gtnka7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">idea</span> </figcaption></figure><p>No matter what we read, watch or listen to, we’re all affected by the media and how it works. It shapes our culture, drives policy and politics, and is an essential part of a functioning democracy. But how is the media in Australia changing? And is the media getting it right?</p>
<p>Media Files is a new monthly podcast, featuring discussion between media researchers, experts and working journalists on the big issues in the media landscape today. </p>
<p>Media Files is hosted by Andrew Dodd at the University of Melbourne, Andrea Carson at LaTrobe University and Matthew Ricketson at Deakin University, who between them have decades of experience reporting on and researching the media. Media Files will also involve journalists, editors and other practitioners reflecting on topics such as ethics, digital disruption and the trends affecting what we hear, watch and read. </p>
<p>As old media empires collapse, and new ones rise, the need to protect diversity, public interest journalism and public broadcasting has arguably never been greater.</p>
<p>Catch Media Files each month for discussion about the key issues and ideas facing this vital industry.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Dodd receives funding from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Media Files is a new monthly podcast, featuring discussion between media researchers, experts and working journalists on the big issues in the media landscape today.Andrew Dodd, Director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/933392018-08-23T22:18:06Z2018-08-23T22:18:06ZTraditional storytelling meets new media activism in Iran<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231947/original/file-20180814-2894-1llvw7x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bahareh Jahandoost brings literature, performing arts and new media together to express Iranian society. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mehdi Khosravi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the summer of 2015, I conducted <a href="https://www.inderscienceonline.com/doi/abs/10.1504/IJMBS.2016.074637">fieldwork in Tehran and Qom, Iran,</a> with a small team of colleagues from Iran and Australia. </p>
<p>During that summer I got to know <a href="http://www.pictame.com/user/bahareh.jahandoost/1308440062">Bahareh Jahandoost, a performing artist and educator</a> trained in traditional Persian storytelling. Jahandoost works with <a href="https://medium.com/@mehdi.khosravi/how-did-the-2018-world-cup-defeat-a-40-year-old-taboo-6a44a8e00068">Mehdi Khosravi, a journalist</a> and <a href="http://mehdikhosravi.com">social activist</a> employed at the <a href="http://irimc.org/?LANG=EN">Iranian Medical Council</a>, our team’s co-host organization, along with <a href="http://mehr.tums.ac.ir/Default.aspx?lang=en">Tehran University’s Medical Ethics Center</a>. </p>
<p>During my stay, we discovered the three of us share an interest in political borders and countering the harshness and violence that state borders impose. As artists and writers, we also share <a href="http://ose.utsc.utoronto.ca/ose/story.php?id=6090">similar approaches when confronting these issues.</a></p>
<p>In my <a href="http://utsc.utoronto.ca/news-events/university-news/unique-course-brings-students-closer-their-family-migration-stories">scholarly work and installation art practice,</a> I look at how migrants and people with illness and disability experience social and material disadvantage and harms systemically over time. </p>
<p>Khosravi and Jahandoost bring literature, performing arts and new media together to express Iranian society, with all its complexities. One of the key things about all of our practices is that we produce narratives — alternative to the mainstream — about the people and places we know.</p>
<p>For the past three years, we have been collaborating on a project, “We Beyond Borders,” that debuted in Tehran in May 2018. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=718&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232127/original/file-20180815-2909-figopi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Bahareh Jahandoost, the performing artist and educator in action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mehdi Khosravi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“We Beyond Borders” explores answers to questions of universal concern: What is it like and what does it mean to be human in the 21st century? What does life feel like every day for people who walk in different shoes? </p>
<p>The idea seems simple, but it is subversive, too, since the project puts people’s everyday experiences at the centre. These experiences include people’s (our) effort and hard work navigating and resisting the physical and emotional discomfort that borders make us endure. </p>
<p>We intend to spark a soft-edged revolution through storytelling and performance, while connecting the ancient and contemporary. </p>
<h2>We Beyond Borders</h2>
<p>At the project’s launch, Jahandoost assumed centre stage as a <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/USL/naqqali-iranian-dramatic-story-telling-00535"><em>Naqqal</em></a>, Persian for storyteller. </p>
<p>Jahandoost has been involved in theatre since she was seven years old, and she trained with the renowned Iranian <em>Naqqal</em>, Morshed Vali-Allah Torabi. Using the traditional form of narrating stories through <em>Naqqali</em> theatre, she has performed in China, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Russia and Turkey. She says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pudGL0QmeU">perform publicly by narrating epic stories</a> sourced in classical literature and folk texts. These are popular and widely known and appreciated throughout Iran…The most fabulous and famous piece of Persian literature is <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/cult/inside/corner/shah/synopsis.html"><em>Shahnameh</em></a>…It is an immensely rich source of seemingly <a href="https://www.khabaronline.ir/detail/643244/culture/theater">countless tales</a> — <a href="http://www.honaronline.ir/%D8%A8%D8%AE%D8%B4-%D9%86%D9%85%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%B4-3/109455-%D9%85%D8%AF%DB%8C%D8%B1-%D8%B9%D8%A7%D9%85%D9%84-%D9%85%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%B3%D8%B9%D9%87-%D9%87%D9%86%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7%DB%8C-%D9%85%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%B5%D8%B1-%D8%AA%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B4%D8%A7%DA%AF%D8%B1-%D8%B1%D9%88%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%AA%DB%8C-%D8%A7%D8%B2-%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%86%D8%A7%DA%AF%D9%81%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%AA%D9%87%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%D9%87-%D8%B4%D8%AF">both of love (<em>Manijeh</em>) and tragedy (<em>Tahmineh</em>)</a>. I interpret stories using my body: gesticulating and moving, theatrically. What I do educates, entertains and enlivens peoples’ imaginations and spirits…<a href="http://www.baharnews.ir/news/126682/%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B3">I experience profound joy seeing people moved by stories I perform</a>.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As a <em>Naqqal</em>, Jahandoost regularly appears on the radio, and she is also the <a href="https://www.aparat.com/v/HTSPJ">star of a television program for young people that airs across Iran</a>. “Something delightful is that more and more young people are interested in traditional storytelling.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BkA-zNAhvGS/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Telling stories has the potential to cultivate and craft a future where we can imagine people relating to each other with empathy. “The world over, people can be and are inspired by stories,” says Jahandoost. </p>
<h2>The ancient meets new technology</h2>
<p>With “We Beyond Borders”, we aim both to spark new and support existing interest among people who want to know how to connect the ancient with the present, and to learn from these continuities. As Jahandoost says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nature and ancient and old wisdom are within us, or can be reclaimed. The want to be transported beyond what we know, into other realms, is a shared human impulse. The religious person may seek to be heaved toward Heaven. The spiritual person may seek to be inspired by the sensual.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the past decade, state media in Iran have given <em>Naqqali</em> a high profile by investing in opportunities for it to be broadcast on television and heard on the radio. Part of the reason is that <a href="https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/pahlevani-and-zoorkhanei-rituals-00378"><em>Naqqali</em> is listed in UNESCO’s repertory of endangered cultural resources in Iran</a>.</p>
<p>Although Khosravi believes this is a positive trend, he says “the best and necessary place for this genre is live, in theatre form, done in front of, for, and among living and breathing people. Its promise and transformative capability are realized when experienced in person.” </p>
<p>Yet, Khosravi still believes <em>Naqqali</em> can co-exist in two forms: Performing for an audience and performing for a lens or microphone. The forms do not have to compete, he says. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=355&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232130/original/file-20180815-2924-1wsq1xi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=446&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">We Beyond Borders Tehran TV Performance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mehdi Khosravi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jahandoost, as a television and radio personality, understands this issue as well because it presents an interesting dilemma for her work. She agrees that we must question and reflect on the “gains and losses through our interactions with technology and our relations to each other.” </p>
<p>Thanks to new media, people everywhere have access to her work, she says. This new access means that people globally can learn about others “in defiance to national borders that hem them, as their and our way of talking back to borders.” </p>
<p>“We Beyond Borders” plans to perform to Canadian audiences soon, and is looking for venues to do so. In juxtaposition to ancient and historic audiences who were the first to experience performances of <em>The Shahnameh</em> (the story of kings), big swaths of Iran’s resident population today are highly literate and highly educated. This includes the country’s sizeable <a href="http://diasporafilmfest.com">diaspora arts communities throughout the world</a>. </p>
<p>Since our global borders and bordering practices are troubled and troubling, and no more so than for mobile, migrant and immobile people whose struggles lie at the heart of “We Beyond Borders,” we endeavour to inspire and transform. </p>
<p>We begin where we stand: Among our students and interested members of the general public in Iran, Canada and places in between and beyond. </p>
<p>In particular, audiences of young women, for until recently, <em>Naqqali</em> was performed and seen by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_nTcdFlzRA">men in streets and coffee houses in Iran</a>. Today, however, the possibility of being a <em>Naqqal</em> is open to everyone in Iranian society, and so there are women narrators such as Jahandoost, who says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I am very aware of how gender shapes my work, and I am also aware that I am a role model to younger women who might, after seeing me perform, feel inspired by the simple fact of seeing me in a lead role…When young women encounter <a href="https://www.isna.ir/news/95122113323/%D9%BE%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%86%D8%AF%D9%87-%DB%8C-%D9%85%D9%86%DB%8C%DA%98%D9%87-%D9%81%D8%B9%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%A8%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%B4%D8%AF">a woman telling ancient Persian stories</a>, they might imagine themselves standing in the very same position. This is thrilling!”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93339/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Bisaillon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A Canada-Iran collaboration uses performance art, storytelling and new media to confront the troubles of global migration and borders.Laura Bisaillon, Assistant Professor, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/888372018-01-18T11:25:58Z2018-01-18T11:25:58ZHow social media helped fuel indie wrestling’s resurgence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198236/original/file-20171207-11291-1f2hd01.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bullet Club wrestlers, from left to right, Nick Jackson, Adam 'Hangman' Page and Matt Jackson are at the forefront of an indie wrestling boom. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bruno Silveria/Ring of Honor</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Advertised as the “Showcase of the Immortals,” WrestleMania isn’t just the Super Bowl for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), it’s an economic boon to the city lucky enough to host.</p>
<p>Last year’s WrestleMania 33 made a <a href="http://corporate.wwe.com/news/company-news/2017/11-15-2017">US$181.5 million economic impact</a> on the Orlando region. But even with its <a href="http://corporate.wwe.com/news/company-news/2017/10-26-2017">1.5 million-subscriber</a> streaming network and immense <a href="http://www.adweek.com/digital/wwe-750-million-followers/">social media following</a>, WWE wasn’t the only game in town. </p>
<p>Smaller groups such as <a href="http://www.rohwrestling.com/">Ring of Honor</a>, <a href="https://wwnlive.com/evolve/">EVOLVE</a> and <a href="https://progresswrestling.myshopify.com/">Progress</a> also put on shows in Orlando for its fans. Under the corporate shadow of the WWE, a vibrant independent wrestling scene flexed it muscles. </p>
<p>I spoke with those plying their trade outside of WWE, and they told me that they’re finding it easier to make a full-time living from wrestling. </p>
<p>They’ve done it by embracing the opportunities of the digital age and its promise for the bold, creative and self-motivated. By foregoing traditional media channels to connect with fans, sell their wares and promote their skills on a global scale, they’ve helped fuel an indie wrestling boom. </p>
<h2>Chipping away at the WWE’s dominance</h2>
<p>When WWE Chairman and CEO Vincent K. McMahon began raiding the talents of regional promotions in the 1980s to expand his wrestling empire, he applied a headlock on the American wrestling scene that’s still firmly applied. </p>
<p>In 2001, <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2001/03/23/deals/wwf/">McMahon purchased</a> the Time Warner-owned World Championship Wrestling (WCW), eliminating its last viable competitor and significantly reducing opportunities for gainful employment in wrestling. Although Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (now Impact) spent many years on the Viacom-owned Spike TV, WWE has spent the 2000s without much in the way of serious competition. </p>
<p>That’s started to change in today’s climate of tech disruption and globalization. Wrestling’s acrobatic moves and daredevil stunts are tailor-made for the age of YouTube and GIFs, while streaming services such as <a href="https://njpwworld.com/">New Japan World</a>, <a href="https://www.fite.tv/">Fite</a> and <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/luchalibreaaa">Twitch</a> have made it easier than ever to binge on wrestling. </p>
<p>Investors have noticed: The Mark Cuban-led AXS TV <a href="https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/12/13/wrestling-news-mark-cuban-vince-mcmahon-new-japan-pro-wrestling">has made a deal</a> to air <a href="https://www.njpw1972.com/">New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW)</a> on cable for U.S. audiences. </p>
<p>Other outfits now have substantial corporate backers. The Sinclair Broadcast Group owns Ring of Honor, the Japanese entertainment company Bushiroad runs New Japan Pro Wrestling, while the Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment is behind Impact Wrestling. </p>
<p>With these new ways to watch, “The fans [get to] see incredible performers all the time,” said Dave Meltzer, publisher of the <a href="https://www.f4wonline.com/">Wrestling Observer Newsletter</a>. “There are more great matches than ever before.”<br>
Since 1982, Meltzer’s newsletter has been a resource for fans intrigued by the inner workings of wrestling. Since 2008, he’s offered <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/sports/wrestling-reporter-dave-meltzer-tries-to-keep-it-real.html">both digital and print versions of the newsletter</a>. Increased coverage of wrestling from the likes of <a href="https://www.si.com/author/justin-barrasso">Sports Illustrated</a>, <a href="http://www.espn.com/wwe/">ESPN</a> and <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/topic/wrestling">Rolling Stone</a> has also raised the profile of non-WWE offerings. </p>
<p>With the extra attention comes added pressure for wrestlers to create a distinct character who can deliver innovative moves, trademark catchphrases and eye-catching merchandise. As Meltzer put it: “You got to figure out a way to stand out.” </p>
<h2>‘You don’t need the machine’</h2>
<p>When it comes to getting attention – <a href="https://www.cagesideseats.com/2017/12/18/16791904/ufc-cormier-sherman-video-young-bucks-roh-final-battle-killing-business-debate-cody-cornette">and sometimes riling purists</a> – few can compete with the Bullet Club, a faction of young, gifted and charismatic wrestlers. They’re hugely popular or, in industry lingo, they’re “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_professional_wrestling_terms#O">over</a>.” </p>
<p>Fixtures in the Ring of Honor and NJPW promotions, Bullet Club members such as brother tag team The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega have set a new standard for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/features/young-bucks-on-bullet-club-shirts-wwe-rivalry-diy-wrestling-w511667">creatively moving merchandise</a> and delivering incredibly entertaining performances, often with heavy doses of humor. </p>
<p>Lauded as one of wrestling’s most exciting attractions, <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/wwe/news/njpw-wrestle-kingdom-12-results-recap-grades-jericho-impresses-okada-reigns/">Omega dazzled 35,000 fans in Tokyo in early January</a> in a match against a longtime WWE star, Chris Jericho. The group’s ranks also include Cody Rhodes, a second-generation wrestler who experienced <a href="https://www.upi.com/World-Champion-Cody-Rhodes-brings-Ring-of-Honor-into-the-limelight/2861510640541/">a career resurgence after leaving WWE in 2016</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-cnentre zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198372/original/file-20171208-27705-7bb83d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Kenny Omega has elevated his career this year with a series of critically acclaimed matches.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bill Zimmerman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Last year, Bullet Club T-shirts became <a href="http://www.hottopic.com/pop-culture/shop-by-license/bullet-club/">available at Hot Topic’s more than 600 stores</a>. Members have <a href="https://twitter.com/mattjackson13/status/918144205695827974?lang=en">signed contracts</a> with Funko, a maker of popular vinyl figures. Their YouTube series “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2V6TA0OqHr9BojcHz9az-w">Being The Elite</a>” has over 165,000 subscribers. </p>
<p>“The Hot Topic deal has been huge for us and Hot Topic,” said Stephen Woltz, who wrestles as Bullet Club’s Adam “Hangman” Page. “I think it sends a great message to those in wrestling who want to carve their own way. You don’t need the machine.” </p>
<p>The Wrestling Observer reported that Bullet Club had Hot Topic’s <a href="https://www.f4wonline.com/daily-updates/daily-update-won-hof-ben-askren-young-bucks-246851">best-selling shirts</a> during the week of Thanksgiving, while the printer Pro Wrestling Tees claimed sales of <a href="http://popculture.com/wwe/2017/12/01/bullet-club-400k-sells-t-shirts-cody-rhodes/">417,430</a> over four months at the retailer. </p>
<p>The Chicago-based Pro Wrestling Tees has upended the model for selling merchandise on the indie scene, creating revenue streams for 800 wrestlers. <a href="https://www.si.com/wrestling/2017/10/26/pro-wrestling-tees-wrestling-t-shirts">According to Sports Illustrated</a>, the company has paid more than $3.5 million in royalties from sales since 2013. </p>
<h2>The pioneer</h2>
<p>If there’s one independent wrestler who embodies this entrepreneurial spirit, it’s Scott Colton. Better known as Colt Cabana, he’s tackled various side hustles after a brief, disappointing run in WWE. </p>
<p>In 2010, he launched “<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=385017460">The Art of Wrestling</a>” podcast, which he calls “an entryway into the minds, the souls, the hearts and lives” of wrestlers. He’s now nearing 400 episodes. (Currently, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewTop?cc=us&genreId=1316&popId=3#3">16 of the top 200</a> Sports & Recreation podcasts on iTunes are wrestling-focused or have a wrestler as a host.) </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/198238/original/file-20171207-11335-jh0zqq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=861&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Since 2010, Colt Cabana has been shining a light on the wrestling life through his podcast.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ichiban Drunk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“I loved the idea that I could give you this for free,” Colton said, “and you can give me your money if you’re invested in me, and you like me and you know the idea that it’s forwarding me.” </p>
<p>Additionally, he’s the co-founder of the aforementioned Pro Wrestling Tees, a stand-up comedian, a sometimes actor (“Maron,” “Chicago P.D.”) and even <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/wrestling/os-wrestling-colt-cabana-20171107-story.html">a children’s book author</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the new opportunities, indie wrestlers, like other entrepreneurs, <a href="https://www.makechange.aspiration.com/articles/the-secret-not-so-glamorous-life-of-a-pro-wrestler">are grappling with making a living</a> without employer-provided health care and retirement benefits. Plus, there’s that business of learning a craft that’s dangerous and competitive. </p>
<p>For many, wrestling is a lifelong passion and figuring out how to make it work financially has helped turn childhood fantasies of ring glory into a reality. “The first part of it all isn’t to be an independent businessman,” Colton said. “It’s to be a really good wrestler … Once you get over and understand who you are as a wrestler and understand who you are as a performer, that’s when people start supporting you.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88837/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bill Zimmerman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Could the WWE’s grip on professional wrestling be weakening?Bill Zimmerman, Lecturer, Department of Advertising and Public Relations, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795382017-07-05T22:42:33Z2017-07-05T22:42:33Z‘Screen time’ is about more than setting limits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176447/original/file-20170630-8225-1jd0hdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How much is too much screen time for kids?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/asian-brother-sister-watching-cartoons-on-472962424?src=-8M1vrXec2Haov1oCsGriQ-1-8">Dragon Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In today’s media-rich world (or media-saturated, depending on your view), one rarely has to look far to find parents concerned about the ways that kids engage with technology. Recently, managing “screen time” seems to be on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/19/why-a-colorado-dad-is-fighting-to-make-smartphones-for-preteens-illegal/">everyone’s</a> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/can-they-unplug-a-school-principal-will-pay-students-to-forgo-screentime-this-summer/2017/06/09/b22decd4-4c88-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html">mind</a> – particularly during these summer months when kids find themselves with more time on their hands.</p>
<p>As someone who has spent the majority of my career studying <a href="http://www.mitpress.mit.edu/books/framing-internet-safety">kids and safety online</a>, I get a lot of questions from parents about screen time. My response? There’s a lot more to digital media consumption than expert advice about hourly limits. </p>
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<h2>Where ‘screen time’ comes from</h2>
<p>The idea of “screen time” initially gained traction in 1999, when the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that parents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2011-1753">avoid smartphone, tablet, computer and TV use for children under two</a> and limit such use to no more than two hours for children over two, adding hours as kids mature. While the American Academy of Pediatrics <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-much-screen-time-is-good-for-kids-53780">relaxed these guidelines</a> somewhat in 2016 (expanding their policies to include <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2592">positive digital media use</a> and suggest family media plans), the <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66927/1/Policy%20Brief%2017-%20Families%20%20Screen%20Time.pdf">core idea of screen time remains largely unchanged</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176937/original/file-20170705-29992-vwtymp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As early as 1984, even the Berenstains had something to say about screen time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/12152/the-berenstain-bears-and-too-much-tv-by-stan-and-jan-berenstain-illustrated-by-the-authors/9780394865706/">Penguin Random House</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite the allure of easy-to-follow rules that address parental concerns, screen time recommendations have drawn <a href="http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/66927/1/Policy%20Brief%2017-%20Families%20%20Screen%20Time.pdf">increasing criticism</a> from a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2017/jan/06/screen-time-guidelines-need-to-be-built-on-evidence-not-hype">wide range of experts</a>.</p>
<p>In the academic world, the science supporting screen time recommendations has major limitations. Lab-based studies don’t always translate to the complexities of real life. More often than not, screen time studies demonstrate <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691615596788">connections between problems with well-being and media use</a>; they don’t demonstrate that one causes the other. For example, while research suggests that there’s a connection between screen time and childhood obesity, that could just mean that kids who are less active are more likely to be obese and spend more time in front of screens. The research does not suggest that screen time causes obesity.</p>
<h2>Screen time today</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176465/original/file-20170630-16446-2jgstb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1341&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One way to limit kids’ screen time: apps that lock their internet usage after a certain amount of time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.unglue.com/press/">unGlue</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As our media practices have changed, and adults themselves have begun to spend more of their time online, the idea of screen time has not quite kept up with the times. The world is increasingly saturated with all kinds of <a href="https://theconversation.com/textbooks-in-the-digital-world-78299">positive, interactive media experiences</a> – for children and adults alike. Ideas about limiting screen time assume all screen experiences are equally negative for kids and that they’re replacing positive offline activities.</p>
<p>Yet, we know that kids do all kinds of positive things with digital media, often in ways that <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/hanging-out-messing-around-and-geeking-out">support and are supported by “real life” activities</a> – in ways similar to adults. They go online to hang out with friends, catch up on events and seek out entertainment and information, just like anyone else.</p>
<p>In my own work, I’ve argued that some of the problems that parents have with kids and technology are, in fact, not about technology at all. With each generation, kids have been <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2011.638173">increasingly restricted</a> from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/living/feat-maryland-free-range-parenting-family-under-investigation-again/index.html">going outside on their own</a>. With fewer private spaces to be a kid, we shouldn’t be surprised when kids turn to social media apps to hang out and socialize – and get upset when we stop them.</p>
<p>What looks like a “waste of time” or an “addiction” is often just <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242101479_Questioning_the_Generational_Divide_Technological_Exoticism_and_Adult_Constructions_of_Online_Youth_Identity">everyday hanging out</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=426&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176448/original/file-20170630-21184-jikdnd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should kids be allowed outside – away from their devices – alone? The Meitiv family of Silver Spring, Maryland, faced an investigation after allowing their children to play in a local park unsupervised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>So what should parents do?</h2>
<p>How, then, can parents get a handle on their children’s media use? As always, <a href="https://www.danah.org/books/ItsComplicated.pdf">it’s complicated</a> – and no expert advice should trump the real, everyday experiences that parents have with their own children. That said, there are some general guidelines that can help.</p>
<p>First, parents should get away from ideas about time and focus more on the <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2016/08/05/the-content-and-context-of-screen-use-is-more-important-than-the-amount-of-screen-time/">content, context and connections</a> provided by different kinds of engagement with media. There’s a world of difference between spending a few hours playing games with close friends online and spending a few hours interacting with hate groups in an online forum. </p>
<p>Second, parents should ask <a href="http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2016/10/21/new-screen-time-rules-from-the-american-academy-of-pediatrics/">real questions concerning the well-being of their children</a>, independent of their media use. Are your children healthy, socially engaged, doing well in school and generally happy? If so, there’s probably no need to enforce hard restrictions on technology. If not, it’s best not to rush to conclusions about the inherent evils of technology. Have a conversation with kids about what they’re doing and what they think the rules should be. Unilaterally cutting kids off without understanding their problems can often <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/warning-screen-time-rules-can-backfire_us_5925d374e4b090bac9d46b07">make things worse</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, parents should remember that there’s no substitute for a meaningful, supportive relationship between parents and children. With a stable, trusting relationship, even negative experiences online can become positive learning experiences. In my many years of working with families, I’ve learned that if you already care enough to be worried about digital media, you’re probably already “doing enough” to protect your kids.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/176451/original/file-20170630-22617-18kaozg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Monitoring children’s media consumption is important, but there’s no substitute for quality family time.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nathaninsandiego/3995036506/">Nathan Rupert</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathan Fisk, Ph.D. receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>For decades, parents have fretted over ‘screen time,’ limiting the hours their children spend looking at a screen. But as times change, so does media… and how parents should (or shouldn’t) regulate it.Nathan Fisk, Assistant Professor of Cybersecurity Education, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/766602017-04-25T19:03:57Z2017-04-25T19:03:57ZJimmy Wales is betting crowd-sourced news can restore our trust in the media — he might be right<p>For more than 15 years, Jimmy Wales has been the poster boy for the promise and the power of crowd-sourcing. When he launched Wikipedia in 2001, virtually everyone scoffed at the idea of a free and open-sourced online encyclopaedia with articles written by amateurs. Today it is the world’s <a href="http://www.alexa.com/topsites">fifth most visited website</a>, a go-to destination when almost anyone wants to learn about almost anything.</p>
<p>Having redefined and restructured one historical repository of trusted information, the encyclopedia, Wales is now taking on another, the newspaper. <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39695767">His new initiative</a>, called <a href="https://www.wikitribune.com">Wikitribune</a>, will combine the work of paid professional journalists with volunteer contributors. It’s an effort to counter the rise of “<a href="https://theconversation.com/fake-news-why-people-believe-it-and-what-can-be-done-to-counter-it-70013">fake news</a>” and other forms of misinformation by exposing it to the scrutiny of the entire world. </p>
<p>The model is similar, though not identical, to that of Wikipedia, with which Wikitribune is not formally affiliated. The news site will be free of advertising and free to read, with funding provided by donors and by “supporters”.</p>
<p>These monthly subscribers will have the ability to shape the site’s agenda, for instance by steering journalists towards coverage of particular issues, although the editorial process will block attempts to artificially boost pet projects or perspectives. The public will be able to modify and update articles, but updates will not be published until they have been approved by a Wikitribune journalist or another trusted source.</p>
<p>In other words: crowd-funded, crowd-sourced and crowd-fact checked. </p>
<p>Will it work? The success of Wikipedia suggests it might. Wikipedia now includes nearly 5.4m English-language entries, totalling 42m-plus pages. It also publishes in 294 other languages, including a great many that most of us have never heard of, and claims 68m users worldwide. </p>
<p>Yes, all that information is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About">from its own website</a>. But I believe it.</p>
<p>And that’s the point. Wikipedia has earned the trust of millions of global users by listening to its critics and <a href="https://transparency.wikimedia.org">transparently making a good faith effort to address their concerns</a>. Information that is found to be flawed is removed, and various other changes through the years have strengthened the reliability of its content without gutting the central concept: real people have interesting and valuable contributions to make to the storehouse of what the rest of us know. </p>
<p>As Wales admits: “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/25/wikipedia-founder-jimmy-wales-to-fight-fake-news-with-new-wikitribune-site">It’s noisy and not a perfect place</a>.” But Wikipedia’s openness has proved to be its strength. It’s not so much about the general wisdom of the crowd as about the particular wisdom of the millions of individuals who make up that crowd.</p>
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<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/214586867" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Will Wikitribune prove financially sustainable? Again, it might. The election of Donald Trump was, at least for some segments of society, a wake-up call that high quality news is valuable enough to actually pay for. Leading print publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian among others, as well as investigative sites such as ProPublica, have seen a <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/11/after-trumps-election-news-organizations-see-a-bump-in-subscriptions-and-donations/">sharp increase in subscriptions</a>.</p>
<p>Although no one has yet had clear success with crowd-funded news, initiatives such as pay-per-view news aggregator <a href="https://launch.blendle.com">Blendle</a> and member-funded <a href="https://thecorrespondent.com">de Correspondent</a> (both Dutch in origin but testing the US market) continue to innovate. Someone is going to get there. And it might well be Wales. He has the experience, the connections, the vision and the passion.</p>
<h2>Will it help?</h2>
<p>Finally, the most important question is whether Wikitribune will change anything. Again, it just might. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-populism-popular-a-psychologist-explains-61319">surge in populist</a> politics in Europe and the US has had shocking effects but isn’t inherently startling. The anger and frustration of people who feel they are being ignored, misled or outright trammelled by powerful institutions in society – including the media – was palpable well before the Brexit referendum, the 2016 US election or the rise of Marine Le Pen in France. And around the world, trust in the media is <a href="http://www.edelman.com/global-results/">at a historic low</a>.</p>
<p>Wikitribune proposes to counter that sense of alienation not just by making people feel the news is relevant to them but also by inviting them to directly and personally engage with its production. If you feel a news account is inaccurate, propose a correction. If you feel it is biased, provide the countervailing evidence.</p>
<p>If you are wrong, no harm done. Your contribution will be vetted and rejected, and at least one bit of fake news will not blight our collective understanding of the world. But if you are right, then you have helped not just yourself but the rest of us, as well. Because in the end, we all share responsibility for the health of our networked society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane B Singer has in the past contributed to Wikipedia fund-raising drives. </span></em></p>Wikipedia has earned our trust. Now its founder proposes an innovative assault on fake news with Wikitribune.Jane B. Singer, Professor of Journalism Innovation, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/733322017-02-27T15:25:40Z2017-02-27T15:25:40ZAfrica has a long history of fake news after years of living with non-truth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157572/original/image-20170220-15882-jhr9ro.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>US President Donald Trump’s election and his disdain for the mainstream media has been seen by some as the triumph of <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21706525-politicians-have-always-lied-does-it-matter-if-they-leave-truth-behind-entirely-art">post-truth</a> politics.</p>
<p>Post-truth politics is a culture in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/11/16/post-truth-named-2016-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries/?utm_term=.7f696bb73b4c">emotion and personal belief</a>. </p>
<p>Not only is Trump deliberately <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-us-media-enemy-of-the-people-fake-news-rant_uk_58a806c7e4b07602ad5500c2">picking wars</a> with America’s mainstream media, he is forcing it to be <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/donald-trump-president-media-attack-false-facts-fake-news-hillary-clinton-same-happen-to-him-a7586041.html">more introspective</a> by placing it in the same category as fringe outlets that supported his candidature through <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/11/17/alt-right-media-donald-trump/">fake news</a>. </p>
<p>The American experience and the debates it has triggered on <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/eliane-glaser/postpolitics-and-future-of-left">post-politics</a>, post-truth, fake news and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/the-pointless-needless-lies-of-the-trump-administration/514061/">alternative facts</a> are relevant in Africa where <a href="http://www.fes.de/fulltext/iez/00710a01.htm">truth regimes</a> remain both loose and contested. </p>
<p>It is important to recognise that in Africa, the idea of a post-truth era – which by implication presupposes the existence of an era in which “truth” was self-evident – is folly. </p>
<p>On much of the continent mainstream news media has traditionally struggled on the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/01/african-journalism-stifled-lack-resources">credibility index</a>. </p>
<p>The post-truth era is therefore anything but new within the African context. This explains the emergence of <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8389020.stm">alternative regimes</a> of communication and sites of “truth”. </p>
<p>These range from rumour to popular cultural forms such as plays and popular music. </p>
<h2>Post-independence years</h2>
<p>After gaining independence in the early 1960s, most African governments systematically set about <a href="https://cpj.org/blog/2010/07/50-years-on-francophone-africa-still-striving-for.php">decimating</a> the private news media. </p>
<p>Governments invested heavily in state-owned media, which were seen as important channels through which to husband power. </p>
<p>By owning mainstream news media governments were able to “invent” the truth or delegitimise it when it was perceived as threatening the status quo. </p>
<p>For example, in Kenya during the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi administrations the state directly controlled mainstream news media <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/430690">through ownership</a>. It was thus able to determine what passed as legitimate news.</p>
<p>In the latter years of the Moi presidency and during Mwai Kibaki’s rule ownership was primarily through <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/430690">proxies</a>. </p>
<p>And Kenya’s current president Uhuru Kenyatta directly owns a <a href="https://internews.org/research-publications/factually-true-legally-untrue-political-media-ownership-kenya">media group</a> that includes a newspaper, radio and TV stations. </p>
<p>But the last two decades have seen a shift. The <a href="http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/12931/8/African%20Journalism.pdf">liberalisation</a> of the media sector has spurred the growth of a strong and powerful private media. </p>
<h2>Private media enters the fray</h2>
<p>New legislation has seen the establishment of thousands of private media companies. The role they have played in creating and sustaining a discourse of democratic reform on the continent cannot be ignored. </p>
<p>In countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria, the private news media have been – to varying degrees – effective in calling their governments to account. </p>
<p>But it’s important to remain alive to the private media’s limitations. For example, the state remains the single largest <a href="http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/12931/8/African%20Journalism.pdf">media advertiser</a> in sub-Saharan Africa. </p>
<p>The Kenyan and South African governments have been known <a href="http://mg.co.za/article/2014-12-11-state-poised-to-wield-advertising-axe">to withdraw advertising</a> from critical newspapers. </p>
<p>Indeed, the Kenyan government has this week <a href="https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2001230743/jubilee-declares-advertising-blackout-on-local-media">withdrawn all state advertising</a> from privately owned newspapers.</p>
<p>This manipulation of the private media by governments contributes to the varying <a href="http://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/august-2010/african-media-breaks-%E2%80%98culture-silence%E2%80%99-0">levels of distrust</a> that many on the continent feel towards mainstream media. </p>
<p>The other major development in recent years has been the proliferation of new media. A new core of media communicators, including bloggers and citizen journalists, have sprung up and are changing traditional practice. Their effect has been amplified by the emergence of social media.</p>
<h2>Social media opens up new site of struggle</h2>
<p>New media has become a site of news production and distribution that is impossible to ignore. This is particularly true of social media.</p>
<p>Made more attractive by visual forms such as memes, the growth in the use of social media has been phenomenal. </p>
<p>Twitter and Facebook have made it possible for audiences <a href="https://issafrica.org/research/situation-reports/encouraging-political-participation-in-africa-the-potential-of-social-media-platforms">to circumvent</a> state-controlled information infrastructures. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.howafricatweets.com/Press-Release/International-Press-Release.pdf">recent survey</a> found that one in 10 of the most popular African hashtags in 2015 related to political issues. In America and the UK the figure was only 2%. </p>
<p>People are now able to tell their own stories and share experiences with unparalleled audacity, unencumbered by the limitations faced by private media. </p>
<p>Cases of political wrongdoing, like corruption, are <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-tracking-corruption-via-social-media/a-19550026">routinely uncovered</a> by individuals on Twitter, Facebook and in blogs. </p>
<p>The profile that social media has gained in Africa over the last few years is making governments anxious. Many are investing in either technical infrastructure or legislation <a href="http://mgafrica.com/article/2016-09-22-how-african-governments-are-increasingly-clamping-down-on-the-internet-to-control-their-citizenry">to muzzle it</a>. </p>
<p>But users are exploiting loopholes to engage in various forms of propaganda and to monetise their outlets through click bait. </p>
<p>The challenge is that the ethical and legal considerations demanded of stories published in the mainstream media are not necessarily extended to stories published online. </p>
<p>The legislative loopholes are also being exploited by governments, institutions and organisations. </p>
<p>In South Africa, there were <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2017/01/25/How-the-ANCs-R50m-war-room-flopped">reports</a> that the governing African National Congress had plans to plant “fake news” in the new media to discredit its opponents in the last local elections. </p>
<h2>The answer</h2>
<p>At a time when new technologies provide unlimited opportunities for the dissemination of information, opportunities for disinformation are just as limitless. </p>
<p>Interventions such as <a href="https://africacheck.org/">Africacheck</a> and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/">Eyewitness News</a>, which attempt to identify fake news, are positive developments that must be encouraged. </p>
<p>But making fact checking yet another industry may simply institutionalise fake news. </p>
<p>My view is that the solution lies in the strengthening of the continent’s news media in its various forms, thus making it less beholden to vested political and economic interests.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73332/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Ogola does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In Africa, the idea of a post-truth era - which by implication fundamentally presupposes the existence of an era in which ‘truth’ was self-evident - is folly.George Ogola, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/703572016-12-14T00:03:23Z2016-12-14T00:03:23ZHuffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice are blazing a new trail on climate change coverage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149897/original/image-20161213-1620-1jgf061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jan Martin Will</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/19/where-is-climate-change-in-the-trump-v-clinton-presidential-debates">deafening silence around climate change</a> in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/2016-us-presidential-election-23653">US presidential campaign</a> has left leading climate scientists baffled by the absence of debate about the “greatest issue of our time”. Some commentators have laid the blame <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/13/climate-change-trump-presidency-environment">firmly on the US media</a> for sticking too closely to the political agendas set by the candidates. </p>
<p>But it is not just in the US where climate change and environmental issues have been virtually ignored. In the UK, a <a href="http://blog.lboro.ac.uk/crcc/eu-referendum/media-coverage-of-the-eu-referendum-report-3/">study by Loughborough University</a> found that during the Brexit referendum, television news bulletins in the six-week period in May and June dedicated no time at all to environmental issues – despite the fact that much of UK environment policy is determined by the EU. Print media did little better. </p>
<p>So what’s going on? Part of the challenge is that TV editors often see climate change as too niche or too preachy. Another is that many audiences find the issue too remote, too frightening, or too consistently depressing. In many countries too, experienced specialist reporters, including science and environment correspondents, <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/specials/sciencejournalism/index.html">are on the decline</a> because of cuts driven by dwindling revenue for legacy media.</p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/journalists-uk">a 2016 report</a> showed that of the 700 journalists surveyed, just over half self-identified as specialists. But while the most populous beats were business, culture, sport, and entertainment, there were “few politics, science, or religious specialists”.</p>
<h2>New kids on the climate beat</h2>
<p>The gap is partly being filled by “digital-born” players such as Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice, who are the subject of our new book <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/new-players-environmental-reporting">Something Old, Something New</a>. In its <a href="http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/">2016 Digital News Report</a>, the Reuters Institute for the first time asked online users what media sources were most consulted for environment news.</p>
<p>Of those in the UK who self-identified as “highly interested” in the environment, more than half accessed news from the BBC on a weekly basis, making it by far the most popular news brand online. But after the BBC, Huffington Post was used by just under a fifth. Among those with a high interest in news about the environment, it is as popular as both the Guardian and Mail Online. (See Figure 1)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>BuzzFeed News is less accessed, but among those with high interest in news about the environment it is as popular as Sky News and the Telegraph online. Vice News has a small reach, but online it is comparable to The Times, due to the impact of the Murdoch’s flagship’s pay-wall.</p>
<p>In the US, Huffington Post was the most popular online news destination for those highly interested in environment news. BuzzFeed reaches as many as the New York Times and the Washington Post (see Figure 2). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The relative success of Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice was one of the reasons we chose to analyse their climate change coverage and compare them to legacy media. All three give editorial priority to environmental issues, all three have invested heavily in different language sites or country-specific sites, and all three are “digital natives” with a strong interest in which format works on which platforms.</p>
<p>We took the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/paris-2015-climate-summit-14031">Paris climate change summit</a> of December 2015 as our case study, in part because <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161215612204">recent studies</a> have shown that such summits generate “networks of co-production” and a “camp feeling” where journalists often report in a very similar style and emphasis to each other. </p>
<p>An examination of more than 500 online articles by five different traditional and new media organisations in France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the US showed that the new players adopted a range of new approaches including informal tonality, “immersive” personal narration journalism, and often an emphasis on different themes.</p>
<p>Of course, HuffPo, Vice and BuzzFeed are very different to each other in terms of their business models, distribution strategies and overall editorial priorities. </p>
<h2>Countering climate silence</h2>
<p>All three did a lot of straight reporting and analysis of the summit. But we found some key differences between them and legacy media. Vice stood out for its style of “immersive” video reporting, where the reporters take their audience on a journey with them. </p>
<p>BuzzFeed used a more informal, irreverent and entertaining language, found for example in its article: “10 Adorable Animals that Climate Change is Killing Off”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"671832880083951616"}"></div></p>
<p>Both Vice and BuzzFeed were significantly more visual in their material, relying more on photos and videos. </p>
<p>Huffington Post often had the same focus and volume of coverage as The Guardian and The New York Times. But it placed much more emphasis on a positive, solution-based approach to climate change. Also, more than half of HuffPo’s articles were blogposts, usually adopting an activist viewpoint. Vice also gave plenty of space to activist and NGO voices.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"671410633343180800"}"></div></p>
<p>We concluded that the three digital players were beneficial for public debate about climate change, as they had found new ways of covering the “old”, sometimes boring, often remote, theme of climate change. By thinking hard about what gets shared and liked on social media, they are helping to counter the “climate silence” and ensure that the issue remains interesting and relevant, particularly to younger audiences – something the legacy media would do well to take note of.
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Painter receives funding from Google and the Digital News Initiative, the European Climate Foundation, and the Energy Foundation</span></em></p>A generation of ‘new media’ sites is challenging traditional news organisations when it comes to reporting the environment.James Painter, Head of the Journalism Fellowship Programme, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/667172016-11-01T01:01:53Z2016-11-01T01:01:53ZThe myth of the disappearing book<p>After years of sales growth, major publishers reported a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/03/ebook-sales-falling-for-the-first-time-finds-new-report">fall</a> in their e-book sales for the first time this year, introducing new doubts about the potential of e-books in the publishing industry. A Penguin executive even admitted recently that the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/14/penguin-boss-admits-the-company-read-too-much-into-the-ebook-hyp/">e-books hype</a> may have driven unwise investment, with the company losing too much confidence in “the power of the word on the page.” </p>
<p>Yet despite the increasing realization that digital and print can easily coexist in the market, the question of whether the e-book will “kill” the print book continues to surface. It doesn’t matter if the intention is to <a href="http://www.thecraftywriter.com/2012/09/21/the-energy-crisis-the-e-book-revolution-and-the-publishing-industry-will-print-books-survive/">predict</a> or <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2015/02/12/e-books-arent-killing-print/#4602b47a52b8">dismiss</a> this possibility; the potential disappearance of the book does not cease to stimulate our imagination.</p>
<p>Why is this idea so powerful? Why do we continue to question the encounter between e-books and print books in terms of a struggle, even if all evidence points to their peaceful coexistence? </p>
<p>The answers to these questions go beyond e-books and tell us much more about the mixture of excitement and fear we feel about innovation and change.
<a href="http://nms.sagepub.com/content/18/10/2379">In our research</a>, we discuss how the idea of one medium “killing” another has often followed the unveiling of new technologies.</p>
<h2>It’s all happened before</h2>
<p>Even before the advent of digital technologies, critics have predicted the demise of existing media. After television was invented, many claimed radio would die. But radio ended up surviving by finding new uses; people started listening in cars, during train rides and on factory floors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/142692/original/image-20161021-1760-1g75dqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A family huddles around the television in the late 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Family_watching_television_1958.jpg#/media/File:Family_watching_television_1958.jpg">National Archives and Records Administration</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The myth of the disappearing book isn’t new, either. As early as 1894, <a href="https://archive.org/details/TheEndOfBooks">there was speculation</a> that the introduction of the phonograph would spell the demise of the books: They’d be replaced by what we today call audiobooks.</p>
<p>This happened again and again. <a href="http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/papers/murphy.html">Movies, radio, television</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/27/specials/coover-end.html">hyperlinks</a> and <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3192634/Mobile-geddon-cash-cameras-smartphones-killing-day-essentials.html">smartphones</a> – all conspired to destroy print books as a source of culture and entertainment. Some claimed the end of books would result in cultural <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/title/gutenberg-elegies-the-fate-of-reading-in-an-electronic-age/oclc/31014790">regression and decline</a>. Others envisioned utopian <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2010/08/06/physical-book-dead/">digital futures</a>, overstating the advantages of e-books.</p>
<p>It is not by chance that the idea of the death of the book surfaces in moments of technological change. This narrative, in fact, perfectly conveys the mixture of hopes and fears that characterize our deepest reactions to technological change. </p>
<h2>Narratives of technological change</h2>
<p>To understand why these reactions are so common, one has to consider that we create emotional bonds with media as they become an integral part of our life. <a href="http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/M/bo3618528.html">Numerous studies have shown</a> how people develop a close relationship with objects such as books, televisions and computers. Sometimes, we even humanize them, giving a name to our car or shouting at our laptop for not working properly. As a result, the emergence of a new technology – like e-readers – doesn’t just indicate economic and social change. It also causes us to adjust our relationship with something that has become an integral part of our day-to-day life.</p>
<p>As a result, we find ourselves longing for what we used to know, but no longer have. And it’s why <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-digital-technology-spawned-retros-revival-54302">entire industries develop around retro products and older technologies</a>. The spread of the printing press in 15th-century Europe, for example, made people seek out original manuscripts. The shift from silent to sound movie in the 1920s stimulated nostalgia for the older form. The same happened in the shift from analog to digital photography, from vinyls to CDs, or from black-and-white to color television. Not surprisingly, e-readers stimulated a new appreciation for the material quality of “old” books – and even for their <a href="http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2011/03/07/smelling-the-books">often unpleasant smell</a>.</p>
<p>The ones who still worry for the disappearance of print books may rest assured: Books have endured many technical revolutions, and are in the best position to survive this one. </p>
<p>Yet the myth of the disappearing medium will continue to provide an appealing narrative about both the transformative power of technology and our aversion to change. In fact, one of the strategies we employ in order to make sense of change is the use of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/comt.12099/abstract">narrative patterns</a> that are available and familiar, such as narratives of death and ending. Easy to remember and to spread, the story of the death of media reflects our excitement for the future, as well as our fear of losing parts of our intimate world – and finally, of ourselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66717/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>E-book sales are falling, even though many said they would “kill” print books. Computers and television were also supposed to spell the book’s demise. At one point, people even feared the phonograph.Simone Natale, Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies, Loughborough UniversityAndrea Ballatore, Lecturer, Birkbeck, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/590102016-05-11T14:11:44Z2016-05-11T14:11:44ZAcademics need to embrace new ways of writing and sharing research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121929/original/image-20160510-20749-1i5kgf8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The old ways aren't necessarily the best when it comes to academic writing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Universities are a “thousand-year-old industry on the cusp of profound change”. That’s according to <a href="http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/University_of_the_future/$FILE/University_of_the_future_2012.pdf">a study</a> that explored Australia’s higher education landscape four years ago. One warning from the report rings true far beyond Australia and all the way around the world:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Over the next ten-15 years, the current public university model … will prove unviable in all but a few cases.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://stan.md/1N83AhO">Warning shots</a> are ringing out across the world. But how many academics are actually paying attention? In my experience as a lecturer at a South African university, we continue to placate the two denizens of academia – teaching and research – in the same way we always have. Teaching remains focused on <a href="https://theconversation.com/schools-must-get-the-basics-right-before-splashing-out-on-technology-52994">instruction</a> and content reproduction, while most research never makes it beyond journals.</p>
<p>If we continue to teach in outdated ways, we will increasingly lose touch with our students. Equally, if we continue to closet our findings in traditional journals, we may find our hard work increasingly eclipsed by research organisations that use new media to effectively share their findings.</p>
<p>Lots of attention is being given to <a href="https://theconversation.com/outdated-teaching-methods-will-blunt-technologys-power-40503">new ways</a> of teaching. The great news is that there are also exciting new publishing opportunities springing up. </p>
<h2>The right to write</h2>
<p>On May 12 2015 I published my <a href="https://theconversation.com/outdated-teaching-methods-will-blunt-technologys-power-40503">first article</a> with The Conversation Africa. One year and ten articles later, I’ve started to view my “right to write” in a totally different way. For more than 20 years as an academic, writing has been more of a duty than a need – let alone a right. Productivity units must be met. Papers must be written and published in approved journals. Even the joy of writing for conferences, which can generate spirited discussion, has been removed. Conference presentations don’t contribute much to one’s chance of promotion.</p>
<p>Of course there is great merit in writing for journals. These have been one of the primary stores of human knowledge, and their peer review process foregrounds credible research – <a href="https://scholarlyoa.com/2016/03/08/the-increasing-use-of-predatory-journals-for-advocacy-research/">most of the time</a>. They teach academics how to write carefully argued pieces, and the best ones hold us to high standards of quality. </p>
<p>Pragmatically, they also pay. Individual academics and their institutions earn money for each article that’s published in certain accredited journals.</p>
<p>However, the money associated with such journals has created an entire industry that flies counter to a world where sharing knowledge is seen as the right thing to do. Journals are being <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/04/02/academic-publishing-piracy/">accused</a> of using the free services of academics to write and the free services of reviewers to edit. They then charge exorbitant prices so that the very same academics can’t even access their own content. </p>
<p>But traditional journals are no longer the be-all and end-all. At least, they shouldn’t be. Open-access journals, blogs, wikis, professional Facebook pages and YouTube channels offer academics a range of exciting, different ways to share their research. These spaces come with a range of benefits.</p>
<h2>New media means new benefits</h2>
<p>The first of these is the far quicker turnaround time. One of academics’ abiding frustrations with the current publishing process is how long it takes for articles to see the light of day. <a href="http://openaccesspublishing.org/oa11/article.pdf">Research</a> shows that it takes, on average, between nine and 18 months (and sometimes longer) from submission to publication. Writing for new media spaces means that research can be shared within hours or days, opening up the opportunity for discussion, debate and dissent far more quickly.</p>
<p>Your reach is far greater in new media spaces. Some studies estimate that the average journal article is read entirely by <a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/prof-no-one-is-reading-you">only ten people</a>. Tools like <a href="https://www.google.com/analytics/#?modal_active=none">Google Analytics</a> can help academics to track their readership in new media spaces. Some sites, like The Conversation, have their own metrics systems – from this, I know that each of my articles is read on average 4,000 times.</p>
<p>Greater reach leads to far greater exposure. This can take the form of comments from academics around the world, invitations to collaborate, and TV and radio interviews. This takes academic research far beyond conferences and journals. I’ve discussed my work on different platforms, including international newspapers, and have been drawn into several local and international research collaborations. Isn’t that sort of work the point of publishing? </p>
<p>New media spaces can also be less intimidating for young, inexperienced academics than established journals are. Getting used to writing, finding your own voice and presenting your work on a public platform is all good practice for journal writing. Universities often offer <a href="http://utlo.ukzn.ac.za/Files/Come%20Write%20With%20Me%20Sept2014.pdf">programmes</a> designed to help young academics develop and strengthen their writing, and these are useful tools as well.</p>
<p>Finally, new media spaces offer a valuable opportunity for feedback, conversation and even correction. They’re not about getting it <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-time-the-world-embraced-wikipedia-41461">perfect upfront </a> – they’re about learning, arguing and altering. This encourages the kind of dialogue and idea sharing that any academic should value.</p>
<h2>Stepping out of our academic closet</h2>
<p>Change isn’t coming to academia – it’s here. And the one thing you don’t do in the path of <a href="http://stan.md/1N83AhO">an avalanche</a> is stand still. The privilege of just talking about new teaching approaches and new publishing opportunities has passed. If academics don’t make bold moves to change how we use new platforms and technologies, we ourselves are at risk of becoming irrelevant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/59010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Craig Blewett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There are many exciting new publishing opportunities opening up for academics who want to take their work beyond traditional spaces like journals.Craig Blewett, Senior Lecturer in Education & Technology, University of KwaZulu-NatalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/581192016-05-02T10:07:46Z2016-05-02T10:07:46ZPoised to make its next big move, Netflix isn’t in the business you think it’s in<p>Netflix has been in the headlines a lot recently, and not in a good way. </p>
<p>There’s news about competitor <a href="http://variety.com/2016/digital/opinion/netflix-need-not-fear-new-amazon-prime-spinoff-service-1201755646/">Amazon launching a monthly video service</a>, <a href="http://ktla.com/2016/04/19/netflix-prices-are-going-up-heres-when-youll-have-to-pay-more/">subscription fees</a> going up, its <a href="http://time.com/4272360/the-number-of-movies-on-netflix-is-dropping-fast/">library of content</a> shrinking and <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/18/netflix-lowers-its-forecast-for-global-subscriber-growth/wbEyEykPfqhCPapouvmWlO/story.html">lower global subscriber gains</a> than the company had anticipated.</p>
<p>But since its launch in 1997, Netflix has always been in the headlines.<br>
Its forays into new territory are often met with suspicion and negative forecasts because of the way it diverges from traditional business models, doing things others have deemed impossible. </p>
<p>As a professor of media studies who researches and <a href="http://nyupress.org/books/9781479865253/">writes</a> about TV’s changing business and technological landscape, I’ve been watching Netflix’s growth and evolution with great curiosity. The company, which arguably invented the U.S. subscription streaming business, continues to change how we view television. </p>
<p>Now, as Netflix braces itself to disrupt the model of global television distribution, the company appears poised to remain influential – though, again, in unexpected ways.</p>
<h2>It started with a red envelope</h2>
<p>For a brief refresher: Netflix began as a video rental by mail service. It then pioneered broadband video distribution, forcing the television and film industries to evolve or be left behind. Next it proved a broadband-distributed service could produce its own films and series.</p>
<p>The latest round of headlines comes as the company pivots toward its next endeavor: becoming a global television and film network.</p>
<p>Like many companies seeking to enter established industries, Netflix built itself on a barely sustainable business model. Companies that require changes in consumer behavior – like Amazon, with its vast online marketplace – will endure low profit margins for a period of time to encourage people to try their service, whether it’s renting DVDs by mail or buying toothpaste from what you thought was a bookseller.</p>
<p>In Netflix’s case, in order to prove itself as a source of top-rate programming, the company has spent lavishly on licensing content from studios and on developing its own series and movies. All the while, it maintained a low monthly fee of US$8 – about half that of HBO Now.</p>
<p>But now that many millions of U.S. subscribers have come to appreciate the experience of ad-free television and films on demand, long-term sustainability requires increasing profitability. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://redef.com/original/the-state-and-future-of-netflix-v-hbo-in-2015">2015 report</a> by industry analyst Matthew Ball noted that Netflix earned only a monthly profit of $.28 per subscriber (compared with $3.65 for HBO) as a result of its high programming costs, low subscription price and global expansion. Though profitable – which is more than many new media economy businesses can claim – such margins aren’t feasible in the long term.</p>
<p>Now, the company is simply adjusting prices to increase profits. </p>
<p>Notably, even with the planned rate increase, few entertainment sources offer comparable value. A January 2016 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/average-daily-netflix-usage-according-to-btig-research-2015-4">analysis by BTIG Research</a> found the average Netflix subscriber streams two hours a day. That average subscriber will pay just 17 cents per hour of content after the increase to $10 per month.</p>
<h2>Going global by cutting out the middleman</h2>
<p>For U.S. subscribers, it is important to note the company’s next aspirations are more about the global market and becoming a global television network than growing its U.S. audience. Netflix’s ability to create original programs and simultaneously self-distribute them internationally marks a new stage of competition in media distribution. </p>
<p>This has enormous implications for the business of television. Admittedly, they’re the parts of the business that most viewers know nothing about, but they’re parts that are nonetheless critical to sustaining media companies.</p>
<p>Netflix’s next strategy bets on <a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/vertical-integration.html">vertical integration</a> – that is, on owning its content and using its distribution system to deliver that content to its subscribers. Owning rights and distributing direct to viewers allows Netflix to keep all revenues, rather than sharing with distributors. For example, a distributor such as iTunes keeps roughly 30 percent of the revenue from the albums, tracks or films it sells.</p>
<p>Reliance on vertical integration is becoming more common throughout television. Ten years ago, AMC contracted with Lionsgate Television to produce “Mad Men.” As was the norm, <a href="https://theouttake.net/mad-men-and-cable-s-prestige-loss-leader-economics-964046dc9876#.m4sg4vqmy">Lionsgate later sold</a> the series to various channels around the world to earn back the costs of production and even secured a lucrative licensing deal with Netflix. Now AMC has its own AMC Studios to produce “The Walking Dead” and has purchased channels around the globe so that it can self-distribute its hits to a wider audience.</p>
<p>While this new stage of Netflix may be best thought of as a global “network,” the fact that it offers a library of content for a fee, rather than a schedule that limits viewers to watching programs at certain times, makes it part of a wholly new phenomenon. </p>
<p>And new things are often tricky to evaluate.</p>
<p>Music streaming services Pandora and Spotify have tried a similar model, but continue to struggle with converting users from advertiser-supported versions into more lucrative subscription versions. Oddly, the closest precursor for Netflix’s business model may be the circulating libraries of the 1700s. </p>
<p>These libraries existed before public libraries, when books were too expensive for most to afford. Like Netflix, subscribers paid a periodic fee for unlimited access to a library of content. For Netflix, the big difference from these libraries – and from music streaming services – is that they are owning more and more of the content that they’re distributing.</p>
<h2>It’s not TV, it’s Netflix</h2>
<p>The measures long used to evaluate television – ratings, demographics, time slot – don’t matter to Netflix. </p>
<p>Instead, the value of an original series like “Narcos” comes when the company owns the series in perpetuity and can distribute it on a global scale. When a distributor owns a show, its value cannot be measured by how many watch it in the first week, month or even year. Netflix is building a library, not a schedule.</p>
<p>Interestingly, HBO is its closest competitor. Like Netflix, HBO produces a portion of its content, has a business model based on subscriber fees and is working toward a global broadband-distributed service. </p>
<p>Both will try to find the right balance of subscriber fees and spending on exclusive, original content to maintain subscribers. As broadband-distributed services, they also are able to gather data about <a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/03/netflixs-grand-maybe-crazy-plan-conquer-world/">what subscribers watch</a> to learn much more about viewing patterns and the value of each piece of content. And they’ve kept that knowledge to themselves, creating an unprecedented advantage. </p>
<p>In some ways, broadband-distributed portals such as Netflix and HBO Now are merely the <a href="http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/bc-beat/guest-blog-how-ott-hides-television-s-revolution/154442">next stage of television</a>. </p>
<p>Just as Netflix revolutionized the experience of watching television for U.S. audiences, it’s now on the verge of rewriting the model of global television distribution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58119/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Lotz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Because Netflix continually upends established business models, evaluating the company can difficult.Amanda Lotz, Fellow, Peabody Media Center; Professor of Media Studies, University of MichiganLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/528512016-01-07T14:37:40Z2016-01-07T14:37:40ZExpanding tweets from 140 characters to 10,000? Not nearly radical enough<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107521/original/image-20160107-13999-1hy1qw2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Gorka/shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are as yet unconfirmed reports that <a href="http://recode.net/2016/01/05/twitter-considering-10000-character-limit-for-tweets/">Twitter plans to extend its 140 character limit to 10,000</a>. But why would Twitter consider radically changing its most unique characteristic? </p>
<p>Today’s media culture is one of extreme speed and ephemerality – facts and factoids, comment, claims and counter-claims flash past in an instant – a process accelerated by the emergence of 24-hour news. Inevitably it tends to offer only a superficial analysis of events: televised election debates often require candidates to give only very short answers, for example. </p>
<p>So although comment and debate is now arriving in greater quantities this move towards greater speed and brevity has undermined quality: hollowing out news, threatening the existence of investigative journalism, and leaving no time for debates that explore society’s contradictions. </p>
<p><a href="http://fuchs.uti.at/books/social-media-a-critical-introduction/">Social media</a> such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are not so much communication technologies as vast advertising agencies selling data-enriched targeted advertising. Given their capitalist nature, it’s no surprise that they’re shaped by the logic of acceleration and accumulation. Users collect Facebook followers and likes, and emphasise the positive while excising the negative; Twitter’s 140-character limit forces users to be brief in their pursuit of likes, followers and retweets; the Vine video service is limited to six seconds, Snapchat’s messages exist only for ten. This culture of speed favours entertainment, not the sustained discussion of complex arguments.</p>
<p>But unlike it’s peers, while Twitter’s business also relies on advertising, it isn’t profitable. It made losses of £645m in 2013, £578m in 2014, and £431m in the first three quarters of 2015. Its share value has dropped from more than US$60 at its highest in December 2013 to <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/05/twitter-shares-plummet-rumor-10000-character-tweets-jack-dorsey">a low of US$22 in January 2016</a>. By comparison, Facebook made a <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/29/facebook-earnings-q2-2015/">profit of £2 billion</a> in 2014. For Twitter, its speed and ephemerality are so high that advertising logic seems contravened. The bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000 showed the dangers of precariously-funded internet companies’ floating on stock markets. </p>
<p>So perhaps CEO Jack Dorsey feels that changing Twitter’s technological design <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2016-01/05/twitter-10000-character-limit-jack-dorsey">will fix its economic problems</a>, increasing the length of users’ attention span – and therefore the amount of time in front of adverts – with an increase in the length of tweets. But over the ten years since it launched, Twitter users have become accustomed to how Twitter works and may continue using it as they always have. </p>
<p>Twitter finds itself in a bind: immensely popular but unprofitable, with no guarantee that what introducing 10,000 character tweets will change this as neither current nor alternative design promise large profits.</p>
<h2>From fast news to slow news</h2>
<p>Twitter’s economic crisis reflects the crisis in our public sphere. New technologies are often accompanied by a certain fetishism, that either celebrates it as a technological fix to all society’s ills, or demonises it as bringing about the end of civilisation. The arrival of <a href="http://fuchs.uti.at/books/culture-and-economy-in-the-age-of-social-media/">social media</a> is no different: some see it as the harbinger of digital democracy and a revitalised public sphere, while others argue that it makes us stupid and lowers the tone. In truth neither is right, because communications both shape society and are shaped by it.</p>
<p>We need to slow down. Just like the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Food">slow food movement</a>, we also need <a href="http://itsdevelopmental.com/2015/what-is-slow-media-and-should-we-embrace-it/">slow media</a> that give us time to develop discussion. This inevitably means rolling back the capitalist logic of advertising sales so the focus can be on quality content, not monetising adverts. De-commercialisation and de-acceleration are strategies for saving the media. </p>
<p>I grew up in Austria, where the national public service broadcaster ORF hosted the evening television discussion programme <a href="http://tvthek.orf.at/topic/Club-2-Best-of/5106915">Club 2</a> several times a week. This format’s unique feature was potentially unlimited airtime, which often resulted in hours-long, in-depth discussions of contemporary issues lasting into the morning hours. Club 2 was prototypical slow media. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/107522/original/image-20160107-14007-18iswua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">So little being said, when there’s so much to say.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Quka/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Truly social media</h2>
<p>If social media’s commercial logic is flawed, without tackling the capitalist political economy Twitter’s proposed changes are not enough. A more radical approach would be to turn Twitter into a non-commercial, non-profit platform without advertising that substitutes accumulation and speed for striving to foster sustained communication and debate. </p>
<p>Think that’s impossible? Non-commercial logic works for Wikipedia – one of the <a href="http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/most-popular-websites">most popular sites on the web</a> – which is a non-profit funded by grants, donations and some paid services it offers.</p>
<p>Why shouldn’t it also work for Twitter? Radical improvements require the de-commodification of online communication – something that would require fundamental design and political-economic changes, and also the development of alternative funding models, such as a <a href="http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/661/670">participatory media fee</a> – a tax that advertising-based companies pay to access the audiences that generate their profits.</p>
<p>The internet’s potential is vast; it’s important not to be sidetracked by profits but to use it to foster political debate and understanding in a world of global violence, economic crisis, and environmental catastrophe. The social media age has not yet developed its Club 2: we must make the move from social media capitalism towards <a href="http://www.triple-c.at/index.php/tripleC/article/view/552/668">a public sphere-focused social media</a> and a media that is <a href="http://fuchs.uti.at/1089/">held in the commons</a> – only then can social media become truly social.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I received funding for conducting research on social media in the years 2010-2014 from the Austrian Science Fund FWF (see <a href="http://www.sns3.uti.at">http://www.sns3.uti.at</a>). I have furthermore been conducting Internet research funded by the European Union in the projects PACT and RESPECT (2012-2015) and netCommons (2016-2018)</span></em></p>The move that will save Twitter – and improve public debate worldwide – is much more than adding 9,860 characters.Christian Fuchs, Professor of Social Media, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/492042015-10-22T19:10:24Z2015-10-22T19:10:24ZWhy HuffPo and other ‘new’ media journalists are choosing unions<p>Newsroom unions are back. In newly found solidarity, journalists in American digital newsrooms are getting organised. As “new” digital news outlets are turning “old” - or rather maturing and delivering profits, it’s not surprising journalists are demanding better pay and working conditions, and greater transparency from their management.</p>
<p>Journalists at the Huffington Post in the US are the latest in talks to unionise, and the company’s founder says she is fine with it. <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/02/media/arianna-huffington-huffington-post-union/">Arianna Huffington,</a> who sold her media outlet to AOL in 2011, supports unionisation of the HuffPo workforce. In a statement to CNNMoney she said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“we fully support our newsroom employees’ right to discuss unionising and will embrace whatever decision they make on this issue.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Not all the media bosses are as supportive. For example, BuzzFeed’s management is less keen to see its workers get organised. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/14/buzzfeed-union-jonah-peretti">Chief executive Jonah Peretti</a> has warned the company’s workers to stay out of labour unions, arguing workers are not working “on an assembly line” and therefore don’t need the protection provided by unions. Peretti believes unions are not right for such “a flexible, dynamic company” as BuzzFeed. </p>
<p>Al Jazeera America’s management has also been less keen to see its workers get organised, and it is contesting the rights of nine of its editors and team leaders to have union representation. However, the rest of the company’s news workers have opted to join NewsGuild of New York. <a href="http://www.nyguild.org/newsreader/items/release-al-jazeera-america-digital-journalists-vote-overwhelmingly-to-join-the-newsguild-of-ny.html#sthash.mclCpn6v.dpuf">Al Jazeera America’s</a> journalists say they “deserve an environment that exemplifies the best practices of a modern, humane workplace and values diversity, equality and fairness”.</p>
<p>HuffPo is expected to follow the example set by AJAM, Gawker, The Guardian America, Salon and Vice. According to The Washington Post, The Newspaper Guild has <a href="http://www.poynter.org/news/mediawire/377175/al-jazeera-america-digital-workers-vote-to-go-union/">26,000 members in the US</a>, and The Communications Workers of America 600,000 members.</p>
<p>The committee organising <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/huffington-post-union-talks_5614726ce4b021e856d2cfd6">The HuffPo workers</a> has pencilled a list of reasons to join The Newspaper Guild, and these include pay, job responsibilities, and editorial decisions. The committee says the “dramatic changes to employees’ workload and responsibilities, made without employee input, hinder our ability to produce our best work”.</p>
<p>New digital news outlets have produced “almost 5,000 full-time jobs,”
according to the <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2014/03/26/the-growth-in-digital-reporting/">State of the News Media 2014 </a>report. It says as these media outlets are innovating, they’re “hiring people with skills and voices ‘being nurtured online’”. This means younger, digitally native news workers.</p>
<h2>Business model based on exploitation</h2>
<p>When the Huffington Post launched in Australia in partnership with Fairfax in August, it was immediately <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/aug/18/huffington-post-australia-launches-with-julie-bishop-blogs-and-biscuits">thrown into controversy</a> for assembling “a team of bloggers, who somewhat controversially agree to write unpaid in return for exposure to the site’s vast global audience”.</p>
<p>Australian media commentator Dee Madigan, <a href="http://mumbrella.com.au/dee-madigan-slams-unsolicited-request-to-blog-for-free-for-huffington-post-as-insulting-306109">asked to write for the site for free</a>, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“if you don’t value your work and you don’t say no, you will get exploited. They just seem to think you can scribble out words and it doesn’t take time.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>HuffPo has “more than 100,000 bloggers around the world who contribute to the site for free”. Joining unions may aid workers in digital newsrooms, but what about these free contributors? </p>
<p>HuffPo’s business model is based on free labour, or rather exploitation, as author Christian Fuchs puts it. Fuchs argues media companies such as HuffPo and Facebook exploit their users which produce free content and data for their sites. However, they do so on a voluntary basis. Fuchs call these content providers <a href="http://fuchs.uti.at/tag/internet-prosumer-commodity/">“prosumers”</a> who are exploited for profit, with their content commodified by being sold to third parties such as advertisers. </p>
<h2>Editorial freedom</h2>
<p>Journalists are also joining unions as they feel their editorial independence is compromised. As the HuffPo organising committee put it, journalists want a formal commitment from their management for editorial freedom, so that “institutions can’t use their influence to dictate our coverage or squash stories that are unflattering”. </p>
<p>Gawker is another media outlet where issues of editorial freedom have caused staff problems, with <a href="http://gawker.com/tommy-craggs-and-max-read-are-resigning-from-gawker-1719002144">two editors resigning</a> after the company’s management decided to pull a controversial story from its website. </p>
<p>In their resignation letter, the editors said “non-editorial business executives were given a vote in the decision to remove it,” and therefore editorial independence was compromised. The episode turned “Gawker’s claim to be the world’s largest independent media company into, essentially, a joke,” they said.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49204/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Merja Myllylahti does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>They employ thousands and are highly commercial, and increasingly their staff are turning to unions.Merja Myllylahti, Lecturer, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/344332014-11-20T02:13:46Z2014-11-20T02:13:46ZABC budget cuts will hit media innovation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65046/original/image-20141120-29235-kx5ucw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ABC, known for innovating in digital media, is facing increasing budget pressure.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sarah_Ackerman/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Of the many media organisations making the transition towards digital, the ABC is one of the most advanced.</p>
<p>So in the face of a $254 million budget, or <a href="http://www.minister.communications.gov.au/malcolm_turnbull/news/national_broadcasters_to_implement_efficiency_measures#.VGwOtimSyCU">“back offices” cut</a>, as Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull calls it, its worth exploring if the ABC can continue to perform its role in shaping the digital media market.</p>
<p>We have already begun to see the ABC landscape shift with the announcement that <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/roast/">The Roast</a> and reports that state editions of 7.30 will be dropped in 2015, with more programming announcements expected shortly. But ABC managing director Mark Scott has repeatedly acknowledged <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/present-challenges-future-audiences/">the media landscape is shifting towards the digital environment</a>, presenting opportunities for future audiences. </p>
<p>It is estimated that 71% of Australians access the ABC’s television, radio and online services, with approximately 6 million unique visits to ABC online properties each week. Interestingly, the ABC also attracts <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/who-we-are/abc-fast-facts/">498,900 active users of the ABC flagship app</a> each month. The online audience is significantly growing, based on the <a href="http://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ABC002_AnnualReport2014_FINAL.pdf">ABC’s Webtrends data</a>, that recorded a shift from 5 million unique visits at July 2013.</p>
<p>Can a leaner ABC concentrate its efforts on the digital environment and continue to innovate for Australian audiences?</p>
<p>The answer lies in whether the ABC can deliver <a href="http://ripeat.org/wp-content/uploads/tdomf/2926/Cunningham%20paper%202012.pdf">distinctive innovation</a>. Being a distinctive innovator involves identifying areas that are not viable for commercial operators, developing innovative programming and services to address that market, and sharing those innovations with the media industry as a whole.</p>
<p>A great example of distinctive innovation is the ABC’s <a href="http://iview.abc.net.au/">iView</a> catch-up and on demand television service, that no doubt inspired other services such as the <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/">SBS’s On Demand</a> service and Channel Ten’s <a href="http://tenplay.com.au/">tenplay</a>. </p>
<p>The ABC is also a national cultural facilitator, demonstrated through <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pool/">ABC Pool</a>, a collaborative project that engaged Radio National audiences to co-create radio documentaries, and <a href="https://open.abc.net.au/">ABC Open</a> which is responsible for developing regional Australian’s digital literacy and storytelling capacity.</p>
<p>Recently, ABC2 developed and broadcast one of the most innovative projects to emerge from the public and commercial television broadcasting environments. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/7dayslater/">#7DaysLater</a> was a seven episode series that experimented with using the audience to not only write the brief for the comedy series but to help with its production. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LV-EM-nQ02E?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">ABC’s #7DaysLater Series Trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Incubating innovators</h2>
<p>By engaging audiences via social media platforms such as Twitter, Google Hangouts and Instagram, Daley Pearson and his crew encouraged users to contribute script ideas, costume designs, plot themes, punch lines and invited them to be talent on the episodes.</p>
<p>The project enlisted the talents of some of the most <a href="http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/news_and_events/2013/mr_130628_multiplatform.aspx#sthash.blJfoPcu.dpuf">influential and emerging YouTube producers</a> including Nick Boshier (Bondi Hipsters, Beached Az), Alex Williamson, John Luc (Mychonny), Theodore Saidden and Nathan Saidden (SuperWog1).</p>
<p>These YouTube up-and-comers not only brought a new take on Australian comedy that was raw and refreshing, they also brought their expansive audience with them. Additionally, these producers found themselves in professional production roles, generating and contributing to Australia’s creative industries. This innovative production approach has launched some of their professional careers and shored up the roles of Nick Boshier and Christiaan van Vuuren as pioneering talents of new comedy in the country, as demonstrated through their latest program, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/soul-mates/">Soul Mates</a>.</p>
<p>Recently #7DaysLater was awarded an <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/abc-wins-international-emmy-award-for-7dayslater-20140408-369tu.html">International Digital Emmy</a>. </p>
<p>With substantial cuts to its budget, it is questionable if innovative programming and services such as #7DaysLater will be a viable option for the ABC to pursue.</p>
<p>The Abbott government’s financial squeeze on the ABC also places immense pressure on its innovation department, responsible for some of the most groundbreaking media projects in the past. The <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/innovation/bluebird/">Bluebird AR game</a> dealing with the controversial issue of geoengineering was the first of its kind as a trans-media experience, while the <a href="http://theoperahouseproject.com/ie/about.htm">Opera House Project</a> collaboration with the Sydney Opera House is something we are likely to never see again. Without support for these activities within the ABC, the broader Australian innovation sphere will be decreased.</p>
<p>So while many commentators respond with their concerns for the future of ABC programming within the current economic environment, the more significant question to ask is how will Australian innovation fare if one of its leading innovation institutions is forced to limit its experimental capacity? The Australian population should be concerned with the knock-on effect of the public service they stand to lose due to budget cuts to the national broadcaster.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34433/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathon Hutchinson has received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past for research related to the ABC.</span></em></p>Of the many media organisations making the transition towards digital, the ABC is one of the most advanced. So in the face of a $254 million budget, or “back offices” cut, as Communications Minister Malcolm…Jonathon Hutchinson, Lecturer in Online Media, Researcher on ARC Discovery project, Moving Media: Mobile Internet and New Policy Modes, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/309062014-08-27T00:52:40Z2014-08-27T00:52:40ZSpeaking with: Robert Picard on democratising the media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/57349/original/g7bfkxfy-1409021635.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social and digital media perform a function that is humanising by connecting people and allowing freedom of expression.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-790342p1.html?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Bloom Design</a> / <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/editorial?cr=00&pl=edit-00">Icons from Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is social media really delivering on its promise of democratising communication? Or have we just replaced one model that privileges those with power for another?</p>
<p>Dr Andrea Carson speaks with Professor <a href="http://www.robertpicard.net/">Robert Picard</a>, one of the world’s leading academics on government communication policies and media economics.</p>
<p>Listen to other podcast episodes <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/speaking-with">here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/30906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Is social media really delivering on its promise of democratising communication? Or have we just replaced one model that privileges those with power for another? Dr Andrea Carson speaks with Professor…Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism , The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/299982014-08-15T09:07:20Z2014-08-15T09:07:20ZAs traditional media falters, hyperlocal news is on the up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56419/original/x76xppvk-1407942930.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Anyone can be a reporter for hyperlocal news.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sskennel/2330323726/in/photolist-33ttJ9-3rrVd-akG7b9-nH45pW-56hmoG-3rQTk-nhM5Kn-48vB5-e8JWcX-cxQP9w-8XBXXz-whpT-8fN7Sk-eBRvvA-8VPuAM-64Ubj6-ePdxxP-6pGKuP-6UWYVW-4xVw4h-55qxrY-7bLFaT-4hrZxg-adtZ4-eMQBB8-3rQTj-6gPTjo-71PHuY-eheeXh-ePpWHq-4MADcb-6nYdfd-8mudEc-eh8uPe-7frWQP-jznAvn-fxmwwy-6JCjc6-3pS9LV-9mXPcf-cR5kn9-9JxCFh-fSzFU-bDvZ89-3rQTi-24pZGp-3bwX5B-4i7znx-5CqZXw-5CmKrt">Roger H. Goun</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As an example of mass participatory journalism, where the voices of ordinary citizens are heard as much as public officials or PR professionals, the UK’s <a href="http://creativecitizens.co.uk/hyperlocal-publishing/">hyperlocal news network</a> is second to none.</p>
<p>Regional newspapers continue to struggle and local TV often falters, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/08/birmingham-city-tv-local-jeremy-hunt-bust">sometimes before it’s even begun</a> but this emerging breed of news production seems to be thriving.</p>
<p>Some are set up as news sites while others are blogs originally started to address a particular local issue, like a threat to close a local leisure centre or to cover a specific planning concern. They then grow to cover different topics and become the go-to site for people to find out about what is happening in their area. Few have much funding and many are precariously organised, but sites like these are starting to become powerful tools for people who want to hold power to account.</p>
<h2>A truly local voice</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56404/original/nz9tz9yh-1407937685.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hyperlocal websites are spread across the UK.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are around 600 active hyperlocal websites in the UK. They vary in size and scope, with some covering news in a single village and others stretching across heavily populated suburbs or towns. Some are run for profit, offering advertising to local businesses, while others seem to simply be aimed at contributing to civic wellbeing.</p>
<p>Once such operation is the <a href="http://b31.org.uk">B31 Voices</a> website in South Birmingham. The site is run by husband and wife team Sas and Marty Taylor, who gather up and redistribute news and information for the largely working-class suburbs in their area. Their patch is dominated by the former Longbridge motor works, a vast factory that once employed 22,000 workers but closed in 2005. </p>
<p>The Taylors moved to the area in 2003 and started blogging in 2010. They were motivated by a concern about the way their estate was being represented in mainstream media. They felt the estate had a bad reputation and wanted to know more and share that with other people.</p>
<p>Although Sas and Marty rely on a small network of occasional writers to help them publish stories on the website, they do most of the work themselves. Social media takes up the most time and it isn’t unusual for the Taylors to be up in the middle of the night manning Facebook or Twitter. “We might have a missing person or a missing pet and I will check in the middle of the night to see if there’s any news,” Sas said.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/56405/original/vvfjjxtg-1407938112.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The B31 Voices Facebook page has nearly 15,000 likes.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Visitor traffic is high on the website and the B31 <a href="https://twitter.com/b31voices">Twitter</a> feed has nearly 6,000 followers. The <a href="https://www.facebook.com/b31voices">Facebook</a> page has nearly 15,000 likes and up to 2,500 comments are posted each month.</p>
<p>Everything from the apparently trivial (pet stories are always the most shared) to the more serious concerns of local governance and crime gets covered. It often seems that Sas and Marty’s role is becoming redundant since “<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/the-people-formerly-known_1_b_24113.html">the people formerly known as the audience</a>” take control of the online space and offer every possible angle to a story. They contribute more than just opinions too – they often provide eyewitness accounts of the news before anyone else.</p>
<p>At points, Sas and Marty intervene to try to bring some order to the online conversations that can sprawl out from B31 content. They introduced #B31Snowwatch when heavy snowfall hit the area and the posts associated with the hashtag built to paint a vivid picture of of a suburb slowly grinding to a halt as buses stopped running, schoolchildren were sent home and supermarket shelves emptied as a result of panic-buying.</p>
<p>Birmingham has a well established local newspaper in the form of the Birmingham Mail but its daily sales have declined from 160,000 in the 1990s to nearer <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/only-two-trinity-mirror-regionals-increasing-circulation-group-posts-first-monthly-figures">40,000 in 2014</a>. Marty rejects comparisons between B31 and mainstream journalism though, arguing that the latter is “just about money” while B31 is aimed at bringing the community together. Some of the people involved in these projects feel local media tends to focus on the negative and to sensationalise local events. They want to be more positive and truthful.</p>
<p>As cuts to local services become more widespread and the legislative climate shifts the ownership and delivery of public amenities into the private or community domain, then the citizens of this community, and others, are revealed by hyperlocal news media to be ready and able to articulate their concerns online and challenge those in power in the way that the local press had long thought was their sole privilege.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/29998/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dave Harte receives funding from the UK Research Councils.</span></em></p>As an example of mass participatory journalism, where the voices of ordinary citizens are heard as much as public officials or PR professionals, the UK’s hyperlocal news network is second to none. Regional…Dave Harte, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, Birmingham City UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/253812014-04-24T01:29:12Z2014-04-24T01:29:12ZInform, not notify: the birth of participatory, ‘slow journalism’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/46898/original/7mk362b5-1398230560.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C111%2C1024%2C656&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In a digital world dominated by a few media conglomerates, start-up initiatives like The Charta and First Look in the US should be welcomed.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Andy Piper</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The digital era has led to increasing challenges for western and traditional news media business models. Media outlets are facing steady declines in revenue, while the migration of advertising online has brought limited success in “monetising” digital’s audiences. To make things worse, internet ads have progressively <a href="http://www.thewire.com/technology/2012/07/decline-google-and-internets-ad-business/54835/">decreased in value</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>The issue of how to fund quality journalism that would hold the government to account is a pressing one. As newsrooms continue to cut back, there is a real reduction in reporting capacity with profound effects on quality, investigative and exploratory journalism.</p>
<p>And yet, the last year has seen a quite hectic, energising movement of “digital journopreneurs”. Personal-brand journalists, digital entrepreneurs and investigative journalists have decided to embrace the capabilities of web technologies to launch a new wave of journalism platforms.</p>
<h2>The rise of ‘journoprenuers’</h2>
<p>In March, statistician and journalist Nate Silver launched his ESPN-backed <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/">FiveThirtyEight.com</a>, a data blog that, by banking on Silver’s impressive record, will bet everything on a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/18/nate-silver-fivethirtyeight-odds-ever-in-its-favor">data-focused approach</a>. </p>
<p>Silver is part of a wider movement of celebrity journalists who are migrating from mainstream press to digital start-ups. Ezra Klein left the Washington Post earlier this year for an <a href="http://www.vox.com/">initiative</a> launched in April and backed by Vox Media, which <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/07/business/media/voxcom-takes-melding-of-journalism-and-technology-to-next-level.html?hpw&rref=business">promised</a> to “explain the news” in a new revolutionary way by employing “next-generation technologies”. </p>
<p>The list could go on: there is also Jessica Lessin’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/media-network-blog/2014/mar/19/future-news-digital-media-audience">The Information</a> and Pierre Omidyar‘s First Look featuring <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/glenn-greenwald">Glenn Greenwald</a>. In February, First Look launched digital magazine/investigative site <a href="https://firstlook.org/theintercept/">The Intercept</a>.</p>
<p>These exciting ventures led New York Times media commentator David Carr to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/27/business/media/ezra-klein-joining-vox-media-as-web-journalism-asserts-itself.html?_r=1&referrer=&utm_content=bufferdb692&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer">declare</a> the birth of a new start-up digital journalism bubble. </p>
<p>These projects have three elements in common. They have been launched or backed by “new media” celebrities, are mostly US-based and are funded either by philanthropists or by established technology companies. </p>
<p>Their success will obviously be dependent not just on their economic sustainability, but also on their ability to offer what the so-called “legacy media” outlets – which are <a href="http://theconversation.com/australia-swims-against-the-tide-of-democratic-media-reform-24337">maintaining their dominance</a> in the online world – are not able to provide.</p>
<h2>Not just an American trend</h2>
<p>On the other side of the Atlantic, a London-based journalism start-up known as <a href="http://www.thecharta.com/protosite.html">The Charta</a> has just <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1294382592/the-charta-inform-not-notify">launched a campaign</a> for funding via crowdfunding website Kickstarter.</p>
<p>The Charta invites its future audience to believe in two things. Firstly, that real journalism, as opposed to fast–churned storytelling, needs time for reflection, investigation and understanding. Secondly, that if we want quality journalism we simply have fund it and participate in shaping it.</p>
<p>The Charta has a clear goal: “to inform, not notify”. The platform was certainly inspired by the success of <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/en">De Correspondent</a>, a Dutch-language online journalism venture offering background, analysis and investigative reporting, which <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/04/a-dutch-crowdfunded-news-site-has-raised-1-3-million-and-hopes-for-a-digital-native-journalism/">raised over one million euros</a> through crowdfunding.</p>
<p>For its focus on long-term investigations and slow-paced news reporting, The Charta has already been acclaimed by the founder of the “slow” movement in journalism, <a href="http://www.carlhonore.com/books/in-praise-of-slowness/">Carl Honoré</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best way to make sense of our fast world is to slow down the news. The Charta will do just that by taking the time to think, understand and explain. In a world ravaged by fast news that’s just what the doctor ordered.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The idea of committing not only to economically support a new journalism venture, but to participate in its development is reminiscent of the great Danish philosopher and educator <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._F._S._Grundtvig">Grundtvig</a>, who believed that becoming a citizen was a matter of choice. One could choose to join or to remain outside a state but choosing to join the state meant accepting certain obligations.</p>
<p>Supporting The Charta reflects a belief that quality journalism needs resources, time and reflection, things that are often missing in contemporary fast-paced reporting. It also means that people are prepared to contribute to the direction of a platform that we see as a service to the public.</p>
<p>This could be called participatory, slow journalism. The Charta concept is ambitious and because it’s not launched by star journalists and not backed by famous philanthropists, it needs the support of “active citizens”.</p>
<p>To borrow the words that journalist Paul Bradshaw used to describe his crowdsourcing reporting project, <a href="http://helpmeinvestigate.com/">Help Me Investigate</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Journalism is about more than just ‘telling a story’; it is about enlightening, empowering and making a positive difference. And the web offers enormous potential here – but users must be involved in the process and have ownership of the agenda.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a digital world dominated by a few media conglomerates, initiatives like The Charta and those in the US should be welcomed and encouraged. And this time it is the people – not just a few, illuminated philanthropists – who can make a difference.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The author’s disclosure statement has been updated since publication.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/25381/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benedetta Brevini is a supporter of The Charta and has previously written for the publication.</span></em></p>The digital era has led to increasing challenges for western and traditional news media business models. Media outlets are facing steady declines in revenue, while the migration of advertising online has…Benedetta Brevini, Lecturer in Communication and Media, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/228962014-02-06T23:36:46Z2014-02-06T23:36:46ZNew media art, in Sydney, in The Very Near Future<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40891/original/qds5d4np-1391666181.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"The Very Near Future presents a unique temporal, sensory, and conceptual experience."</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When visitors walk into Sydney’s Artspace Gallery, they find themselves on what seems to be a live film set. A noir feature film called The Hop Head Hatchet Man is in production. It’s a studio operation run by Harvey Lebnitz Productions.</p>
<p>Actually, it’s an installation work, <a href="http://artspace.org.au/gallery_project.php?i=189">The Very Near Future</a>, by Sydney artist <a href="http://neurospike.net/">Alex Davies</a> that’s part of the 2014 Sydney Festival. Once you’re inside the film studio “complex” – inside Artspace Gallery itself – things become rather more interesting.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40881/original/x44frrfs-1391663679.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1040&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Film poster for The Hop Head Hatchet Man (1953 / 2014).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ali Crosby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What ensues is a mysterious mind-bending event, resulting in a series of time loops, and déjà vu-inducing reruns of the space-time continuum every five minutes. Anyone – and everyone – inside the studio skips across the same five-minute time interval in eight parallel universes. The events - not just in the film, but also behind the scenes in the film studio itself – are revealed by means of eight different narratives.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://on-writering.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/the-very-near-future-large-scale-mixed.html">first iteration of the work</a> was installed at Sydney’s Carriageworks in 2013 as part of the International Symposium of Electronic Arts. Over the two-year life of The Very Near Future, some 30 cast and crew have been involved (and just to be clear, I was one of them.)</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40896/original/yb94xfrp-1391666585.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a hybrid film/art installation, The Very Near Future presents a unique temporal, sensory, and conceptual experience. It combines many of the immersive technical techniques that Davies has been honing over a <a href="http://neurospike.net/">decade-long international career</a>.</p>
<h2>On set at Harvey Lebnitz Productions</h2>
<p>Live security-camera footage provides visitors with glimpses of “30 seconds into the (very-near) future” in the various rooms of the film studio complex itself; it takes around half an hour of watching the “live film shoot” play out inside the film studio set to experience the eight different parallel universes.</p>
<p>The story is told by means of many different media forms and, as such, the installation is a good example of transmedia storytelling, as articulated by media theorists such as Marsha Kinder, <a href="http://henryjenkins.org/2009/12/the_revenge_of_the_origami_uni.html">Henry Jenkins</a>, <a href="http://pganmc.blogspot.com.au/2007/10/pga-member-jeff-gomez-left-assembled.html">Jeff Gomez</a> and <a href="http://www.christydena.com/phd/">Christy Dena</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40889/original/5kznn7m9-1391666119.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As you wander around the studio/installation work, and examine the props, notated scripts, and other media lying around, such as carefully labelled 16mm film cans, and you’ll recognise references to classic cinema history including films such as The Maltese Falcon, Sunset Boulevard, Zentropa, Barton Fink, Looper, Primer and the Spanish time-travel film Timecrimes.</p>
<p>Such self-referentiality is typical of film noir, and critic Alison Castle’s summation of Stanley Kubrick’s classic noir in her collection <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Kubrick-Archives-Alison-Castle/dp/3836508893">The Kubrick Archives</a> serves as a perfect gloss on The Very Near Future: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>True to noir tradition, the story begins at the end, and is told in flashback, with the beleaguered hero serving as the narrator of his own downfall.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>You are the villain in the window</h2>
<p><a href="http://thethousands.com.au/sydney/look/alex-davies-the-very-near-future">Described</a> as: “a Charlie Kaufman take on Groundhog Day as a noir film”, the work involves interactive cinema. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40893/original/5v68vsf2-1391666438.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If you stand at the window in the “film set” for five seconds and peer through the window, into the darkness, you find yourself in the frame.</p>
<p>If you then walk over to the edit suite you are likely to find yourself inserted as “the villain at the window” into the feature film itself. You’ll watch the film being edited in real time – and see a scene play out in which Scarlet the nightclub dancer (played by Annabel Lines) notices “someone” spying on herself and Detective Eddie Getz through the window. It’s a puzzle for film aficionados and lovers of time-travel, M-theory, and parallel universes.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/40894/original/c62nt66t-1391666502.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Very Near Future at Artspace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alex Davies</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The storyline of the feature film at the centre of the installation – The Hop Head Hatchet Man – includes a murder-mystery, a love triangle and a “suitcase-bomb” that the femme fatale Evangeline Montgomery has planted for her unsuspecting husband, Senator Montgomery, in their mansion’s sunroom. </p>
<p>The question is, will Detective Eddie Getz be able to get to the scene of the would-be crime, in time? </p>
<p>And – when he does – which of the eight parallel narrative universes will he find himself in?</p>
<p><br>
<em>The Very Near Future by Alex Davies is showing at Sydney’s Artspace until February 16. Details <a href="http://artspace.org.au/gallery_project.php?i=189">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/22896/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>JT Velikovsky worked on the installation `The Very Near Future' as a writer, researcher and consultant. He worked for and consulted to the artist, Dr Alex Davies, who received grant funding for this project from the Australia Council for the Arts.</span></em></p>When visitors walk into Sydney’s Artspace Gallery, they find themselves on what seems to be a live film set. A noir feature film called The Hop Head Hatchet Man is in production. It’s a studio operation…JT Velikovsky, Doctoral Candidate: Film/Transmedia, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.