advantage: internet

It's still a source of both amazement and amusement to me that from time to time, whenever I open my email, I'm offered links to articles from publications such as the International Herald Tribune or the New York Times. There was a time when I would never have had access to these publications -- and now, here they are, as accessible as anything, thanks to AdSense!

Getting news on the Internet has perks such as this. And though it is a new experience, to me, the use of the Internet as a news medium is a matter of course. In the days when radio fulfilled the need for speed, families gathered around it to listen to the news; why wait for the morning paper when you could hear the news in real time? Then came television, which not only proved to be instant but also more engaging and appealing. Hearing and seeing the news as it unfolded became more than a novelty. It became plain necessity. Not content with regularly scheduled news programs, we demanded hourly news updates, and from there, 24/7 cable news was born.

Which brings me back to the Internet. It is fast, it is capable of multisensory news delivery, and it is available 24/7. But more importantly, it is affordable. It has leveled the playing field for news organizations: small players can have as much (and as credible) of an online presence as the bigger establishments. Mainstream media organizations benefit from the Internet, but more so the alternative media -- those who would not have a fighting chance in the arena of print or broadcast, both of which are costly to manage and maintain.

The Internet's "free-for-all" nature, however, presents a challenge, especially for small organizations. This challenge is to stand out. It's a competition to capture and hold the reader's attention. After all, the Internet is for anyone and everyone with an agenda. Whether you are selling or buying, preaching or searching, educating or learning -- you can make the Internet work for you. Interestingly enough, it is the small groups -- more than the big players, who can provide variety in their news reports -- who use the Internet well. Mainstream media organizations, despite their resources and opportunities for expansion and skills training, seem stuck in providing nothing more than shovelware. Visit the web site of any major Filipino news agency, compare it with the day's print version, and you'll see what I mean.

But for organizations with no print version, the Internet provides a liberating experience. No more nagging anxiety that your story may be cut -- or worse, axed altogether -- due to lack of space. No more waiting for the following day to get your story out, or to publish an erratum. You get the benefit of multimedia capability and interactivity as well.

Hands down, the advantage seems to belong to the Internet. Traditionalists will argue that the Internet is a cold medium; there are rituals of getting your news from print or broadcast that the Internet will never be able to provide. Most of these rituals have to do with a sense of socialization or of having a common experience -- such as reading the morning news at the breakfast table, for instance. Or gathering around the radio or TV set with your family. However, iIn parts of the country where the literacy rate is low or there is no electricity, radio remains the medium of choice.)

Will the Internet ever replace print, radio, or TV as the news medium of choice? To be sure, there are many factors that will determine this. But on the whole, the Internet has greatly aided the delivery of news and the journalistic imperative. It has certainly changed things, and in a lot of ways, made things easier and more convenient. Journalists must take advantage of this and harness all that the Internet can offer. Ultimately, it can change the way news is presented and delivered -- and journalists must upgrade their skills and learn to view the news in light of convergence.

Shovelware or convergence? The choice is really up to journalists. The Internet is a liberating new medium, but writing and planning for it is not without its challenges. One thing I can say a journalist might miss is having something to clip and frame or paste in a scrapbook.

if james bond were a journalist

According to Ifra, “A primary task for Mobile NewsGear 2007 is to keep journalists at a remote news scene connected to each other, to the Internet and to the newspaper office.”

The latest and most high-tech NewsGear selection is a “complete mobile online newsroom built into a Volvo XC90” -- like a TV remote broadcast van, but designed to produce news in multiple formats. This will enable journalists to drive to a live event, shoot digital video, record broadcast-quality sound, work on print stories with a laptop, scan and print to PDF -- and send everything live to a newsroom or straight to the Internet.

At our chat session a few nights ago, my classmates Nanette and Marieton, and I discussed how much this souped-up Volvo looked like something straight out of a James Bond film or that 1980s TV series Knight Rider -- or Mission Impossible, for that matter. If this vehicle were to become the newsroom of the future, it would mean infinitely more mobility and speed for the journalist, who could report in any or all platforms at any time and from anywhere -- a far cry from the days when we would have to report back to the office to file a story after a coverage on the opposite end of the city.

This mobile newsroom would streamline tasks -- but not, as I mistakenly noted during the chat, necessarily cut costs. Dr. Quinn says in Convergent Journalism, content does not cut costs in the content-producing areas:

“…(s)ome editorial managers and publishers… think that multi-skilled journalists should potentially be able to produce more news for the same or little more money. They reason that their organizations should be able to cut costs because of increased productivity -- more multi-skilled reporting means the organization needs fewer reporters. This remains one of the most popular myths about convergence.”

Could the mobile newsroom eventually render the tickler, pen, and even voice recorder obsolete? Not before journalists are trained to function in a cross-platform environment. Or at least rid themselves of their technophobia.

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.