multimedia = multiskilled + multitasking

It sounds like a simple formula, but in reality, it’s probably anything but.

Much has been said and written about the waning interest -– especially of the younger generation –- in news or in reading newspapers. Multimedia journalism is a way of adapting to the changing habits of our audience. It is about providing a multisensory experience to an audience that wants or requires information quickly and more easily.

dumbing down vs. stepping up
Multimedia journalism caters to short attention spans. But this doesn’t mean dumbing down –- far from it. In my view, multimedia journalism is a way for us to meet the demands and expectations of our our audience. And they do demand more from us. After all, they are techno-savvy, more sophisticated, pickier about what they read or watch or listen to.

Therefore, venturing into this field of journalism requires us to step up to its challenges. It is expanding our skill sets to enable us to better engage the audience. Multimedia journalism helps us become better practitioners as well. And since we cannot expect a linear thinker to produce nonlinear reports, the more we can think like our audience and anticipate their needs, the better we can give them what they want or need to know.

multimedia journalism in the philippines
I was a bit surprised (to put it mildly) to learn from the UC Berkeley grad school of journalism that the sites of some of the major news organizations are not considered multimedia journ. For this reason, I don't think there's any Philippine media organization that has gone multimedia in the true sense of that word.

True, training is ongoing and equipment being upgraded. And that is a sign that we are heading in that direction. Maybe in a matter of months, we will see the practice of journalism evolving –- from shovelware and blogs, from merely making video and audio available in news portals, to real multimedia journalism.

It is not just about the medium and the technology. It is about changing our own views about news and about our audience, adapting to change, and being better equipped.

it is not the medium

One of the issues raised last night during our first chat session was that of the quality of journalism in light of convergence. Technology, convergence, and speed should be tools for delivering the news -- not excuses for bad journalism. The principles of journalism defined by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel are not limited to one medium -- they should be practiced across media. Any journalist worth his salt should remain mindful of this.

Reflecting on this, I am reminded of Stephen Glass, formerly of The New Republic. Writing in Forbes.com, Adam Penenberg -- who kept digging until he uncovered Glass’s deception -- said, “It is ironic that online journalists have received bad press from the print media for shoddy reporting. But the truth is, bad journalism can be found anywhere. It is not the medium; it is the writer.”

print: strengths and weaknesses

In Chapter 2 of Convergent Journalism, print is described as a “portable and permanent” medium –- you can take a newspaper or magazine anywhere and read it at anytime, referring to it again and again.

Because of portability, newspapers and magazines are still the most accessible news media. We can find them on street corners and in convenience stores, in waiting rooms and hotel lobbies, and even –- at least in this country –- peddled on the streets during morning rush hours. They are also the cheapest way of getting the news, at Php20 for a broadsheet or Php75 for a magazine.

However, while readily available, the print medium is limited by production schedule. Local broadsheets come out only once a day, but events don’t stop after the newspapers are printed. So after reading the news in the morning, you would have to rely on the broadcast or online media for updates. Or wait for the following day’s paper.

in today's converging world
The print medium is threatened by the immediacy with which TV, radio, and the Internet deliver the news. But because of the amount of space available, a newspaper or magazine lends itself to long and detailed news reports –- such as investigative reports. This can also be said of the Internet, but with a difference: stories are archived and fees charged for retrieval, or worse, links to stories can become inactive.

In the Philippines, newspapers are not about to be replaced by the Internet as a medium. Not everyone has access to a computer or laptop, and to the Internet. Also, local news sites feature mostly reproductions of reports found in print. Perhaps that is more a question of economics than anything else. But online news must be written for the Web to adapt to the “scanning” behavior, as Jakob Nielsen describes it, of Web readers. See the CyberJournalist site and Nielsen’s columns (click here for guidelines on writing for the web, and here for web reading patterns).

Meanwhile, the print medium continues to survive because it adapts to the habits of its readers. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, for instance, is now seen in other forms that offer the news to specific readers –- to commuters, in the form of free tabloid-size papers; and to younger readers, in compact format that delivers more concise news in visually interesting layouts.

media redux

In my last post, I made reference to an ever-shrinking world. Convergence has made it so. The speed with which technology has developed and continues to develop is astounding. We have gone from wired to wireless in just a few short years.

Thanks to these technological advances, we have 24-hour cable and satellite broadcasts, podcasts, and streaming video to inform us of global events. While the Vietnam War was brought into American living rooms via radio, the Iraq War was pretty much played out on cable TV and the Internet.

Convergence has redefined not only the media, but more importantly, the field of journalism and its practitioners.

globalization
Behind the phenomenon of convergence is another buzzword: globalization. As trade becomes increasingly liberalized, goods, services -- even manpower -- move more freely and more quickly among countries and regions. Most recently, the global economy has made business process outsourcing, whether it’s telemarketing or medical transcription, a lucrative venture.

The impact of globalization on the media goes beyond technology. Media regulations are less stringent now, allowing for more competition both locally and internationally. True to economic integration, media companies buy out or merge with each other. This gives rise to the question of control. With ownership limited to a few big players -- those who can afford to go high-tech and incorporate telephone, broadcast, and Internet services -- the media are in danger of becoming homogenized in content and commercialized in approach (i.e. if it doesn’t sell, it’s not news).

a convergent philippines
Convergence is already happening in the Philippines. Local print and broadcast media organizations have gone online. In some cases, blogs even serve as significant news sources, as with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) blog, which gets more hits than its institutional site, as reported in its anniversary blog post.

Another indication of convergence is media ownership. Our Constitution does not allow foreigners to directly own and control media, but about a month ago, reports said that opening media ownership to foreign investors was being considered to put local media “at par” with international media agencies.

As with other Southeast Asian countries, the Philippines must continue to keep up and take advantage of the technology available. Otherwise, it will be counted as nothing more than a consumer of technology.

introductions and confessions

When the Internet was introduced in the Philippines in the early 1990s, our family eagerly got a modem and a dial-up subscription. I was the first among my friends with an email address. I joined a small community of chatters using mIRC, though I never attended EBs (“eyeballs”). I tried my hand at designing websites, starting with one for our design group during the early stages of HTML. (The site disappeared when we terminated our ISP subscription.) I had Geocities sites, frequented sites such as Salon.com (which had just started), and participated in newsgroups. I was hooked on the Internet.

My little love affair with cyberspace took a back seat to work and other concerns. During this time, I had short-lived careers as -- in no particular order -- a theater actress, an indie film art assistant, a researcher, and a freelance photographer. I finally took a job as a feature writer in a now-defunct business newspaper. I then went on to freelancing while designing, proofreading, and editing books. Now, I work as a writer/editor and editorial consultant for a communication and consultancy group. I hope to do more news writing and editing, too.

I didn’t start blogging until recently. My wait-and-see attitude to blogging stemmed from many things -- the demands of work, for one. Then there was caution: there’s a lot of hype out there, and one can easily get sucked in. Part of my caution was a reaction to consumerism and the “misuse” of the Internet. A big part of it was wanting to remain anonymous online.

Things have changed since my early traipses into cyberspace, but despite the bells and whistles, here's the bottom line: the Internet is still a tool for information and communication -- one that engages and empowers people. Hopefully, Convergent Journalism will help me adapt to the demands of an ever-shrinking world.