Social journalism

Last updated

Social journalism is a media model consisting of a hybrid of professional journalism, contributor and reader content. [1] The format relies on community involvement, audience engagement, social newsgathering and verification, data and analytics, and relationship-building. [2] Social journalism takes place on some open publishing platforms, like Twitter and WordPress.com, but can also involve professional journalists, who created and/or screen the content. CNN's now-defunct iReport was an example of a social journalism collaboration between professionals and citizens; other examples include Forbes.com, infoStraight.com, Medium, BuzzFeed, Soapbox and Gawker. The model, which in some instances has generated monthly audiences in the tens of millions, has been discussed as one way for professional journalism to thrive despite a marked decline in the audience for traditional journalism. [1]

Contents

In a time where news distribution is dominated by conventional media, social media has developed as an effective force in democratizing the stream of information. Citizen news coverage, empowered by social media stages, permits conventional individuals to report, analyse, and share news in real time, challenging the imposing business model of conventional news outlets.

Publishers as platforms

Writing in Re/code, Jonathan Glick, CEO of Sulia, said the model of publishers as platforms (which he calls a "platisher") is "on the rise". Glick cites as examples Medium (from Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone), Vox Media, Sulia, Skift, First Look Media (backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar) and BuzzFeed. [3] On March 12, 2014, Mark Little, the CEO of Storyful, now a division of News Corp., proposed "10 Principles that Power Social Journalism," including "UGC (user-generated content) is governed by the same legal and ethical code as any other content" and "The currency of social journalism is authenticity not authority. We are not experts in every subject." [4] [5]

The new rules

On April 1, 2014, in a column in GigaOM entitled "Social journalism and open platforms are the new normal — now we have to make them work" Mathew Ingram asked "How can media entities take advantage of this phenomenon without losing their way in the process?" and proceeded to review suggested rules for social journalism proposed by former FastCompany.com president Ed Sussman, an early adopter of the model. [6] Ingram summarized these suggestions, including clear labeling types of contributors (e.g. staff, guest contributor, reader contribution); establishing guidelines, such as conflict of interest rules, that posters must consent to before posting; providing wiki-like tools for social improvements to content; elevating the best content with curators and algorithms; deleting weak or problematic content via curators or algorithms. [6]

Social journalism was attacked by media critic Michael Wolff in USA Today as the "Forbes vanity model letting ‘contributors’ write whatever they want under your brand (‘as I wrote in Forbes …’) and not having to pay them anything — ultimately, of course, devaluing your authority." [7]

In a March 20, 2014 op-ed for The New York Observer , Sussman argued that social journalism does not devalue the authority of brands and that the success of Forbes.com in attracting a wide audience with its 1,000+ bloggers proved that the model could be successful for traditional media companies. [1] Following revelations that some Forbes.com contributors used their columns to allegedly participate in a "pump and dump" scheme to promote, then sell stocks, he followed up with "The New Rules of Social Journalism: A Proposal" in Pando Daily, on March 29, 2014. [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Forbes</i> American business magazine

Forbes is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917 and owned by Hong Kong-based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairperson and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes, and its CEO is Mike Federle. It is based in Jersey City, New Jersey. Competitors in the national business magazine category include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Citizen journalism</span> Journalism genre

Citizen journalism, also known as collaborative media, participatory journalism, democratic journalism, guerrilla journalism or street journalism, is based upon members of the community playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing, and disseminating news and information. Courtney C. Radsch defines citizen journalism "as an alternative and activist form of news gathering and reporting that functions outside mainstream media institutions, often as a response to shortcomings in the professional journalistic field, that uses similar journalistic practices but is driven by different objectives and ideals and relies on alternative sources of legitimacy than traditional or mainstream journalism". Jay Rosen offers a simpler definition: "When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another." The underlying principle of citizen journalism is that ordinary people, not professional journalists, can be the main creators and distributors of news. Citizen journalism should not be confused with community journalism or civic journalism, both of which are practiced by professional journalists; collaborative journalism, which is the practice of professional and non-professional journalists working together; and social journalism, which denotes a digital publication with a hybrid of professional and non-professional journalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital journalism</span> Editorial content published via the Internet

Digital journalism, also known as netizen journalism or online journalism, is a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet, as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast. What constitutes digital journalism is debated by scholars; however, the primary product of journalism, which is news and features on current affairs, is presented solely or in combination as text, audio, video, or some interactive forms like storytelling stories or newsgames, and disseminated through digital media technology.

Content creation is the act of producing and sharing information or media content for specific audiences, particularly in digital contexts. According to Dictionary.com, content refers to "something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing or any of various arts" for self-expression, distribution, marketing and/or publication. Content creation encompasses various activities including maintaining and updating web sites, blogging, article writing, photography, videography, online commentary, social media accounts, and editing and distribution of digital media. In a survey conducted by Pew, content creation was defined as "the material people contribute to the online world."

The American online video sharing and social media platform YouTube has had social impact in many fields, with some individual videos of the site having directly shaped world events. It is the world's largest video hosting website and second most visited website according to both Alexa Internet and Similarweb, and used by 81% of U.S. adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Lacy</span> American technology journalist and author

Sarah Ruth Lacy is an American technology journalist and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paywall</span> System that prevents Internet users from accessing webpage content without a paid subscription

A paywall is a method of restricting access to content, with a purchase or a paid subscription, especially news. Beginning in the mid-2010s, newspapers started implementing paywalls on their websites as a way to increase revenue after years of decline in paid print readership and advertising revenue, partly due to the use of ad blockers. In academics, research papers are often subject to a paywall and are available via academic libraries that subscribe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian online media</span>

Canadian online media is content aimed at a Canadian audience through the medium of the Internet. Presently, online media can be accessed by computers, smart-phones, gaming consoles, Smart TVs, MP3 players, and tablets. The characteristics of Canadian online media are strongly shaped by the Canadian communications industry, even though their statistics and findings are more often than not associated with American research. Large media companies are increasingly on the move to start up online platforms for news and television content. The exponential growth of Canadians' dependency on online content for entertainment and information has been evident in the recent decades. However, it has proven slow for Canadian online media to catch up with the constant increase of American online media. Regardless of medium, entertainment and information hubs are not solely focusing on satisfying the audience they have, but are also heavily expanding their reach to new global audiences.

PandoDaily, or simply Pando, was a web publication offering technology news, analysis, and commentary, with a focus on Silicon Valley and startup companies.

Outbrain is a web recommendation platform founded in 2006 by Co-Founder and Co-CEO Yaron Galai and Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Ori Lahav. The company is headquartered in New York City. Yaron Galai resigned in February 2024. The company generates revenue for online publishers by displaying feeds of content and ads, or boxes of links, known as chumboxes, to pages within a website or mobile platform. Advertisers pay Outbrain on a pay-per-click basis and a portion of that revenue is shared with publishers.

Medium is an American online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. It is owned by A Medium Corporation. The platform is an example of social journalism, having a hybrid collection of amateur and professional people and publications, or exclusive blogs or publishers on Medium, and is regularly regarded as a blog host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oyster (company)</span> Commercial streaming service for digital e-books

Oyster was a commercial streaming service for digital e-books, available for Android, iOS, Kindle Fire, and NOOK HD/HD+ devices. It was also available on any web browser on a desktop or laptop computer. Oyster held over 1 million books in its library, and as of September 2015, the service was only available in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clickbait</span> Web content intended to entice users to click on a link

Clickbait is a text or a thumbnail link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and read, view, or listen to the linked piece of online content, being typically deceptive, sensationalized, or otherwise misleading. A "teaser" aims to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make readers of news websites curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content. Clickbait headlines often add an element of dishonesty, using enticements that do not accurately reflect the content being delivered. The "-bait" suffix makes an analogy with fishing, where a hook is disguised by an enticement (bait), presenting the impression to the fish that it is a desirable thing to swallow.

Vocativ is an American media and technology company founded in 2013 by Mati Kochavi. Vocativ uses proprietary data-mining technology to explore the deep web in order to discover stories and generate original content. In 2017, the company announced it would focus exclusively on video content and stop publishing written stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mic (media company)</span> American internet and media company

Mic is an American internet and media company based in New York City that caters to millennials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circa News</span> American online newspaper and entertainment service

Circa News, also known as Circa, was an American online newspaper and entertainment service. The site was founded in 2012 by Matt Galligan, Ben Huh and Arsenio Santos. The service had news stories and features consisting of individual bits of information.

The Players' Tribune is a new media platform that produces daily sports conversation and publishes first-person stories from professional athletes. The platform was founded by former professional Major League Baseball player Derek Jeter in 2014. Content ranges from videos to podcasts to written pieces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multimedia journalism</span> Practice of contemporary journalism

Multimedia journalism is the practice of contemporary journalism that distributes news content either using two or more media formats via the Internet, or disseminating news report via multiple media platforms. First time published as a combination of the mediums by Canadian media mogul, journalist and artist, Good Fridae Mattas in 2003. It is inseparably related to the media convergence of communication technologies, business integration of news industries, and editorial strategies of newsroom management.

Storyful is a social media intelligence agency headquartered in Dublin, Ireland that is a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp offering services such as social news monitoring, video licensing, and reputation risk management tools for corporate clients. The startup was launched as the first social media newswire, a content aggregator, verifying news sources and online content in Dublin in 2010 by Mark Little, a former journalist with RTÉ News. Storyful was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2013 for USD$25 million.

A contributor network is an arrangement in which an online publication releases articles authored by freelance writers, known as contributors, who are not part of its staff. Depending on the program, contributors may be paid or unpaid; paid contributors are typically compensated based on the volume of articles they produce or the amount of web traffic their articles generate.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Sussman, Ed. "Why Michael Wolff is Wrong". New York Observer. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "M.A. in Social Journalism". www.journalism.cuny.edu. 2018. Retrieved 4 December 2018.
  3. ↑ Glick, Jonathan (7 February 2014). "Rise of the Platishers". Re/Code. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
  4. ↑ Little, Mark. "10 Principles that Power Social Journalism". Storyful. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  5. ↑ Chozik, Amy (7 March 2014). "The Guardian's Alan Rusbridger: 'It's Essential to Be Paranoid'". New York Times Sunday Magazine. Retrieved 7 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 Ingram, Mathew (April 2014). "Social Journalism and Open Platforms Are the New Normal - Now We Have to Make Them Work". Giga Om. Retrieved 1 April 2014.
  7. ↑ Wolff, Michael. "New cash, new questions for Business Insider". USA Today. Retrieved 17 March 2014.
  8. ↑ Sussman, Ed (29 March 2014). "The New Rules of Social Journalism". Pando Daily. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.