Have sports journalists become too reliant on social networking sites to find stories?
Pick up a newspaper on any given day and you can guarantee you will find at least a few stories which have come about through a comment off a social networking site. It appears that in what has been dubbed the ‘social media generation’, journalists appear to be relying more and more on websites such as Twitter and Facebook to provide stories – but is this such a bad thing?
A lot has been discussed regarding the advantages and disadvantages of social network sites when it comes to journalism, but in this essay I will focus solely on how the growing trends of stories sourced from Facebook and Twitter have increased rapidly in newspapers. I will look specifically at how it has impacted the sports side of reporting – an area of journalism that I would like to one day go into myself. I will bring in some wider reading I have carried out on the topic, as well as sharing the views of a top sports journalist who gave me his thoughts on whether or not he believes fellow journalists are becoming too reliant on social media to find news stories.
Not so long ago, sports journalists were expected to go out and search for a story, speaking to people face to face. Whether players, managers or fans, the role of the journalist was to be ‘on the street’ so to speak, keeping the public up-to-date with all the latest sporting news.
It is now the year 2013, and it appears that more and more journalists are sat behind a computer screen waiting for top sports stars to post a controversial tweet, or give comment on a story to help spark it back into life. It’s not so much that journalists are no longer looking for stories, but many believe they are now becoming over reliant on sourcing stories from Twitter and Facebook.
I spoke to one sports journalist, a contributor to FourFourTwo – Britain’s leading football magazine – and a regular writer for 11Freunde and Tagesspiegel in Germany, who believes that a shift in the use of social networking sites is leading to less hard-hitting news stories.
He told me: “It seems as though whenever you look in a newspaper now in Britain, news stories tend to include quotes from people off Twitter. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, in fact as a journalist it means that I can now quickly get the views from the public when writing up a story against the clock.
“What it does do however is lead to news stories no longer becoming news so-to-speak, as it is already largely in the public domain. If a big name rugby player – or any sports player for that matter - was to tweet his thoughts on a story for example, then the press would pounce on it and this would be the basis for their back page story.
“As far as sport stories go, look at tweets from Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand last summer – they single-handedly kept some newspapers in business with various angles being taken on their 140 character tweets.
“So yes I would say that sports journalists are becoming too reliant on social networking sites because there seems to be a lack of hard hitting stories which you read and think ‘Wow, I didn’t know that. There also seems to be a serious lack of news stories which have come about through one-on-one interviews’”
This particular sports journalist does believe however, that despite many fellow journalists becoming too reliant on social networking sites to source stories, it can have its positive side, saying: “Social media obviously has its disadvantages, but the advantage of using sites like Twitter to source stories is something many journalists are adapting to.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to use stories from Twitter, as, to use sports stars as an example, more and more players are using micro-blogging sites to air their views. These views are often controversial and can help create a story – it’s incredible how often in the past 12 months huge sports headlines have come on the back of tweets from footballer’s personal accounts.
“At the end of the day journalists are adapting to the resources they have available to them. The same kind of thing has happened throughout the history of journalism with different methods – computers, internet and social media becoming widely available, this is another step forward.”
The established print journalist also believes that social networking sites offer an alternative route to contact certain people. “In my line of work with both FourFourTwo and various German newspapers and magazines, I often use Twitter as a way of getting views of footballers or even celebrities,” the established journalist told me.
“This can really help with my articles. As long as you have the link with players there, you’ll often find a way of getting a story from the comfort of your office – this can only be seen as a positive, though can rightly be looked at as journalists becoming too reliant on this modern day method of finding stories.”
However, in her study focusing on a similar topic to my own personal question, journalist Wilma Stessen (2010, p.122) argues against this case of journalists becoming too reliant on social networking sites, believing that Twitter can help journalists collect story ideas in a way which may not have been possible in the past.
“By logging on to the right channels, a news organisation can have an "inside informant" in every sphere of society helping them to find the latest information, while at the same time providing a platform on which it can converse with its audience on the topic.”
This is an interesting point that Stessen raises, whilst offering journalists a platform to “converse with its audience” it also allows a news organisation to have an “inside informant” – someone who can relay the latest information back.
Following on from this, John Pavlik (2000, p.234) concluded in his own study into the impact of technology on journalism that social network site Twitter “is a source of story ideas and information, and is an important part of future journalism.” This links back in with the point raised by previously regarding journalists embracing this new tool to find stories.
These views are also backed up by Michael Schudson (2003, p.15) – an academic sociologist who regularly researches topics relating to journalism - who believes that: “The professional and cultural attitudes surrounding Twitter have their roots in the working routines and entrenched traditional values of a journalistic culture, which defines the role of the journalist as providing a critical account of daily events, gathered, selected, edited and disseminated by a professional organisation.“
By this, Schudson is raising the point that the role of the journalist has always been to provide a critical account of daily events, which in turn have been gathered, selected and edited – by using Twitter and Facebook this is no different. The journalist has still got to find a news story after all, and has a choice as to what to include or exclude. This is something that Paul Farhi (2009, pp.8-9) elaborates on in his book The Twitter Explosion, saying: “By filtering and selecting what tweets to publish, the gatekeeper role is maintained and enforced. In this context, journalists tend to apply existing news values to determine if a specific tweet is newsworthy, dismissing content that might be considered as “snark and trivia””
Many will argue that the growing trend of sports journalists looking to websites such as Twitter to collect quotes to build stories is a bad thing, but as pointed out to me, “it means that I can now quickly get the views from the public when writing up a story against the clock.”
A growing number of media professionals are now using Twitter as an essential addition to their toolkit. Twitter – along with Facebook and other networking sites - has been quickly adopted in newsrooms across the country as a tool to solicit story ideas, sources and facts. In fact, just to show how far social networking has come along from a journalism viewpoint, Sky News became one of the first news corporations to appoint a ‘Twitter correspondent’ in March 2009 who would be “scouring Twitter for stories and feeding back.” This new job role is a growing trend, with almost every journalist now using the site to help collate stories, whether that is print, TV or radio reports.
After carrying out some research into the subject, it is clear to see that social networking sites should be embraced by journalists, despite the critics. The established sports journalist who sat down and talked to me, though critical of journalists becoming too reliant on the site, is one of the thousands of journalists who turns to Twitter each and every day to see if there’s a possible story waiting to be written.
Sports journalists have in many ways become too reliant on social networking sites, but whether or not that is a bad thing is another matter. In the ever changing world of journalism, the growing trend of social networking sites to help find stories is something that should be embraced.
A lot has been discussed regarding the advantages and disadvantages of social network sites when it comes to journalism, but in this essay I will focus solely on how the growing trends of stories sourced from Facebook and Twitter have increased rapidly in newspapers. I will look specifically at how it has impacted the sports side of reporting – an area of journalism that I would like to one day go into myself. I will bring in some wider reading I have carried out on the topic, as well as sharing the views of a top sports journalist who gave me his thoughts on whether or not he believes fellow journalists are becoming too reliant on social media to find news stories.
Not so long ago, sports journalists were expected to go out and search for a story, speaking to people face to face. Whether players, managers or fans, the role of the journalist was to be ‘on the street’ so to speak, keeping the public up-to-date with all the latest sporting news.
It is now the year 2013, and it appears that more and more journalists are sat behind a computer screen waiting for top sports stars to post a controversial tweet, or give comment on a story to help spark it back into life. It’s not so much that journalists are no longer looking for stories, but many believe they are now becoming over reliant on sourcing stories from Twitter and Facebook.
I spoke to one sports journalist, a contributor to FourFourTwo – Britain’s leading football magazine – and a regular writer for 11Freunde and Tagesspiegel in Germany, who believes that a shift in the use of social networking sites is leading to less hard-hitting news stories.
He told me: “It seems as though whenever you look in a newspaper now in Britain, news stories tend to include quotes from people off Twitter. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, in fact as a journalist it means that I can now quickly get the views from the public when writing up a story against the clock.
“What it does do however is lead to news stories no longer becoming news so-to-speak, as it is already largely in the public domain. If a big name rugby player – or any sports player for that matter - was to tweet his thoughts on a story for example, then the press would pounce on it and this would be the basis for their back page story.
“As far as sport stories go, look at tweets from Ashley Cole and Rio Ferdinand last summer – they single-handedly kept some newspapers in business with various angles being taken on their 140 character tweets.
“So yes I would say that sports journalists are becoming too reliant on social networking sites because there seems to be a lack of hard hitting stories which you read and think ‘Wow, I didn’t know that. There also seems to be a serious lack of news stories which have come about through one-on-one interviews’”
This particular sports journalist does believe however, that despite many fellow journalists becoming too reliant on social networking sites to source stories, it can have its positive side, saying: “Social media obviously has its disadvantages, but the advantage of using sites like Twitter to source stories is something many journalists are adapting to.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing to use stories from Twitter, as, to use sports stars as an example, more and more players are using micro-blogging sites to air their views. These views are often controversial and can help create a story – it’s incredible how often in the past 12 months huge sports headlines have come on the back of tweets from footballer’s personal accounts.
“At the end of the day journalists are adapting to the resources they have available to them. The same kind of thing has happened throughout the history of journalism with different methods – computers, internet and social media becoming widely available, this is another step forward.”
The established print journalist also believes that social networking sites offer an alternative route to contact certain people. “In my line of work with both FourFourTwo and various German newspapers and magazines, I often use Twitter as a way of getting views of footballers or even celebrities,” the established journalist told me.
“This can really help with my articles. As long as you have the link with players there, you’ll often find a way of getting a story from the comfort of your office – this can only be seen as a positive, though can rightly be looked at as journalists becoming too reliant on this modern day method of finding stories.”
However, in her study focusing on a similar topic to my own personal question, journalist Wilma Stessen (2010, p.122) argues against this case of journalists becoming too reliant on social networking sites, believing that Twitter can help journalists collect story ideas in a way which may not have been possible in the past.
“By logging on to the right channels, a news organisation can have an "inside informant" in every sphere of society helping them to find the latest information, while at the same time providing a platform on which it can converse with its audience on the topic.”
This is an interesting point that Stessen raises, whilst offering journalists a platform to “converse with its audience” it also allows a news organisation to have an “inside informant” – someone who can relay the latest information back.
Following on from this, John Pavlik (2000, p.234) concluded in his own study into the impact of technology on journalism that social network site Twitter “is a source of story ideas and information, and is an important part of future journalism.” This links back in with the point raised by previously regarding journalists embracing this new tool to find stories.
These views are also backed up by Michael Schudson (2003, p.15) – an academic sociologist who regularly researches topics relating to journalism - who believes that: “The professional and cultural attitudes surrounding Twitter have their roots in the working routines and entrenched traditional values of a journalistic culture, which defines the role of the journalist as providing a critical account of daily events, gathered, selected, edited and disseminated by a professional organisation.“
By this, Schudson is raising the point that the role of the journalist has always been to provide a critical account of daily events, which in turn have been gathered, selected and edited – by using Twitter and Facebook this is no different. The journalist has still got to find a news story after all, and has a choice as to what to include or exclude. This is something that Paul Farhi (2009, pp.8-9) elaborates on in his book The Twitter Explosion, saying: “By filtering and selecting what tweets to publish, the gatekeeper role is maintained and enforced. In this context, journalists tend to apply existing news values to determine if a specific tweet is newsworthy, dismissing content that might be considered as “snark and trivia””
Many will argue that the growing trend of sports journalists looking to websites such as Twitter to collect quotes to build stories is a bad thing, but as pointed out to me, “it means that I can now quickly get the views from the public when writing up a story against the clock.”
A growing number of media professionals are now using Twitter as an essential addition to their toolkit. Twitter – along with Facebook and other networking sites - has been quickly adopted in newsrooms across the country as a tool to solicit story ideas, sources and facts. In fact, just to show how far social networking has come along from a journalism viewpoint, Sky News became one of the first news corporations to appoint a ‘Twitter correspondent’ in March 2009 who would be “scouring Twitter for stories and feeding back.” This new job role is a growing trend, with almost every journalist now using the site to help collate stories, whether that is print, TV or radio reports.
After carrying out some research into the subject, it is clear to see that social networking sites should be embraced by journalists, despite the critics. The established sports journalist who sat down and talked to me, though critical of journalists becoming too reliant on the site, is one of the thousands of journalists who turns to Twitter each and every day to see if there’s a possible story waiting to be written.
Sports journalists have in many ways become too reliant on social networking sites, but whether or not that is a bad thing is another matter. In the ever changing world of journalism, the growing trend of social networking sites to help find stories is something that should be embraced.
How does long form journalism deliver some of the accepted aspirations of journalism in an age of Tweets, bite-sized news and short attention spans?
Much like the journalism industry as a whole, long form journalism appears to be adapting to the current times. Through advanced technology and various digital platforms, the nature of content that we are now offered is improving vastly. Long form journalism offers the public the chance to read on a range of diverse topics, whether it is to inform them on a particular subject or to simply entertain as they make that early commute into work. In this essay I will look at one specific piece of long form journalism and analyse it to see what these changes are that journalists are adapting to, and how long form journalism is changing in a day of bite-sized news and short attention spans.
The piece of long form journalism I have looked at is entitled ‘Watching the murder of an innocent man’, (2011) written by Barry Berak for the New York Times. The article gives an insight into the violence which takes place in South Africa on a daily basis, following one case in particular where a Zimbabwean man was killed as part of a gang attack. Berak, along with African reporter Golden Mtika, witnessed the murder first hand. In this piece of literary journalism, the American journalist describes to us exactly what he witnessed, as well as going into the case in more detail, speaking to those who were involved.
The piece is split into six sections, with each being clearly defined by the use of the bold font at the start. By breaking this long article into various parts, it means that readers have the chance to take a break in between reading and also gives a chance to reflect on what they have read up to this point. This works well in an age of short attention spans, where readers will often be pressed to read stories, laying it out like this it doesn’t seem so long and daunting.
Another technique used to help break the text up is the inclusion of external links which take readers to another page. With technology constantly improving, it means that long form journalism such as this can be read on-the-go. It also means that, unlike when reading from a book, by using the internet we can be directed to various other outlets which allows the author to elaborate or perhaps give evidence on a point raised. This can be seen in the piece I looked at where a “study conclusion” is included, as well as an “earlier article on mob justice.” Again, this helps with making sure the reader is not put off by large amounts of writing, these links will help to break the text up and give more depth on a particular issue should it be needed.
An additional method used in order to draw in readers and keep them hooked is the use of pictures at the beginning of the article which helps set the tone. The main picture at the top - which Berak refers to later in the piece - shows the field where Farai Kujirichita was beaten to death – the photograph itself is nothing special, but with the inclusion of the caption “Killing Field: The open space between two squatter camps where Farai Kujirichita was beaten to death by vigilantes,” the readers are encouraged to read on to find out a bit more. These captions can also help when it comes to adapting to the audiences. The public want to be able to find out about a story quickly, much like a tweet, captions can almost encapsulate an entire story in a couple of lines with the inclusion of pictures.
Following on from this, long form articles can now be read on phones, kindles and more recently, tablets, Journalists can now integrate additional features into the work, such as the map of South Africa, which allows the readers to interact.
Looking at this example of long form at a more text level, it is clear to see the apparent use short concise sentences, such as “The men grabbed the phone. Stored in the list of contacts were many Zimbabwean names and numbers.” These short sentences appear throughout, and it could be argued that this is down to the ‘Twitter generation’ that we now live in, where everything is shortened into small chunks. Taking the above example, by using a short sentence it gets to the point much quicker – we know men grabbed the phone, and we know that there were Zimbabwean names and numbers in it. The inclusion of concise sentences means that readers can often quickly grasp and easily remember what they have read. This is in contrast to long sentences by which may have multiple ideas and can be difficult to understand and even remember.
Berak does a good job of providing the reader with a strong description of different people and various places, such as “She is as petite as the men are brawny” and “Good music playing over bad radios, women pinning laundry to droopy clotheslines, storekeepers brushing aside plump flies in the butchery.” It is through this description that we can begin to visualise the people and places that we are reading about, building an image in the head – it is putting us there in the heart of the South African suburb, and helping to keep the reader hooked. This is a skill that is, in my opinion, vital to produce a quality piece of long form journalism. As Machin & Niblock (2006, p.137) state: “Visual journalism is having the ability to project a news story to readers through image as well as through text... All journalists must be thinking about creating a strong visual impact to help grab and maintain attention.” The visual impact created is something that is apparent in all forms of journalism, but particularly long form. Journalists will often describe what they can see at a scene, especially when they don’t have the benefit of moving footage such as with television journalism, this not only gives those reading some background on the story, but also enlightens them on what it is that has happened.
Following on from this, Berak successfully guides us through the story with the use of quotes. The quotes used are often sensational, such as: “When they were beating him, I ran over and said, ‘This man is not a criminal,’ and they asked me, ‘Do you want to die with him?’” This quote from Precious Mbedzi stands out. It is through selecting sensational quotes like this, as well as using techniques such as tripling with the words ““horror, disgust, sadness, pity”, that readers will often be drawn into a text through the use of pull-quotes. In fact, sensationalism is used right throughout this long form journalism piece, and is also apparent through print journalism in general. This is down to, as Conboy (2006, p.207) puts it, “Shifts in the boundaries of journalism, shifts in the priorities of journalism and shifts of tastes within media forms.” These shifts in the boundaries, tastes and priorities of journalism that Conboy refers to, regards the changing face of the journalism industry where readers will often now be reading on the move, rather than at home. The tastes of the public have changed, and it is important to adapt to these changes, and this long form article does that by keeping sentences short, by sensationalising to keep readers hooked and by breaking the piece down into sections with various links. These are all techniques that I will look to be using when writing my own piece of long form journalism.
Berak tries to take up a natural viewpoint throughout the article, but as it progresses, we begin to see his personal emotions come through. The long form article ends with Berak admitting “It angered me, but I said nothing.” As well as this, it is fair to say that the American journalist certainly got into the thick of the story, witnessing the horrifying incident and visiting those who had committed the crime. This is similar to regular print journalism that we see every day in newspapers, the difference being, Berak begins to add his own personal bias to the story.
Another example showing the similarity between long for journalism and shorter pieces is the way statistics are put across to the reader in a concise manner. We are told that the town of the murder has a “settlement of 150,000 people.” Much like with any form of journalism, statistics are important to make an impact, they will often stay with the reader long after reading an article.
To conclude, this piece of journalism provides the perfect example of how long form is adapting to changes, much like the industry of journalism as a whole. Long form journalism can inform, educate and entertain us more than a shorter piece or even a collection of shorter pieces could, helping to shine light on a topic that may not have been reported in the media, or an issue that is often overlooked. This long form piece typifies this perfectly.
Berak manages to not only draw the readers in through his use of various techniques, but also maintain them through to the end, making them feel as though they are at the scene. By taking a somewhat neutral view largely throughout, we have a balanced outlook, but by the end we are willing him on to ask the questions that we ourselves want answered, typifying how he manages to grip us, something which is vital in a day of short attention spans.
I will certainly take a lot of inspiration from this particular piece of long form journalism into my own work, such as the way the writer asks a range of rhetorical questions, including “Where were those despicable people?” to act as a narrative enigma – By doing this it encourages the readers to read on to find out answers. It is through techniques such as this that Berak manages to deliver some of the accepted aspirations of journalism in an age of bite-sized news, tweets and short attention spans. Journalists must now adapt their style of writing, but Berak has proved that when done correctly it works brilliantly.
The piece of long form journalism I have looked at is entitled ‘Watching the murder of an innocent man’, (2011) written by Barry Berak for the New York Times. The article gives an insight into the violence which takes place in South Africa on a daily basis, following one case in particular where a Zimbabwean man was killed as part of a gang attack. Berak, along with African reporter Golden Mtika, witnessed the murder first hand. In this piece of literary journalism, the American journalist describes to us exactly what he witnessed, as well as going into the case in more detail, speaking to those who were involved.
The piece is split into six sections, with each being clearly defined by the use of the bold font at the start. By breaking this long article into various parts, it means that readers have the chance to take a break in between reading and also gives a chance to reflect on what they have read up to this point. This works well in an age of short attention spans, where readers will often be pressed to read stories, laying it out like this it doesn’t seem so long and daunting.
Another technique used to help break the text up is the inclusion of external links which take readers to another page. With technology constantly improving, it means that long form journalism such as this can be read on-the-go. It also means that, unlike when reading from a book, by using the internet we can be directed to various other outlets which allows the author to elaborate or perhaps give evidence on a point raised. This can be seen in the piece I looked at where a “study conclusion” is included, as well as an “earlier article on mob justice.” Again, this helps with making sure the reader is not put off by large amounts of writing, these links will help to break the text up and give more depth on a particular issue should it be needed.
An additional method used in order to draw in readers and keep them hooked is the use of pictures at the beginning of the article which helps set the tone. The main picture at the top - which Berak refers to later in the piece - shows the field where Farai Kujirichita was beaten to death – the photograph itself is nothing special, but with the inclusion of the caption “Killing Field: The open space between two squatter camps where Farai Kujirichita was beaten to death by vigilantes,” the readers are encouraged to read on to find out a bit more. These captions can also help when it comes to adapting to the audiences. The public want to be able to find out about a story quickly, much like a tweet, captions can almost encapsulate an entire story in a couple of lines with the inclusion of pictures.
Following on from this, long form articles can now be read on phones, kindles and more recently, tablets, Journalists can now integrate additional features into the work, such as the map of South Africa, which allows the readers to interact.
Looking at this example of long form at a more text level, it is clear to see the apparent use short concise sentences, such as “The men grabbed the phone. Stored in the list of contacts were many Zimbabwean names and numbers.” These short sentences appear throughout, and it could be argued that this is down to the ‘Twitter generation’ that we now live in, where everything is shortened into small chunks. Taking the above example, by using a short sentence it gets to the point much quicker – we know men grabbed the phone, and we know that there were Zimbabwean names and numbers in it. The inclusion of concise sentences means that readers can often quickly grasp and easily remember what they have read. This is in contrast to long sentences by which may have multiple ideas and can be difficult to understand and even remember.
Berak does a good job of providing the reader with a strong description of different people and various places, such as “She is as petite as the men are brawny” and “Good music playing over bad radios, women pinning laundry to droopy clotheslines, storekeepers brushing aside plump flies in the butchery.” It is through this description that we can begin to visualise the people and places that we are reading about, building an image in the head – it is putting us there in the heart of the South African suburb, and helping to keep the reader hooked. This is a skill that is, in my opinion, vital to produce a quality piece of long form journalism. As Machin & Niblock (2006, p.137) state: “Visual journalism is having the ability to project a news story to readers through image as well as through text... All journalists must be thinking about creating a strong visual impact to help grab and maintain attention.” The visual impact created is something that is apparent in all forms of journalism, but particularly long form. Journalists will often describe what they can see at a scene, especially when they don’t have the benefit of moving footage such as with television journalism, this not only gives those reading some background on the story, but also enlightens them on what it is that has happened.
Following on from this, Berak successfully guides us through the story with the use of quotes. The quotes used are often sensational, such as: “When they were beating him, I ran over and said, ‘This man is not a criminal,’ and they asked me, ‘Do you want to die with him?’” This quote from Precious Mbedzi stands out. It is through selecting sensational quotes like this, as well as using techniques such as tripling with the words ““horror, disgust, sadness, pity”, that readers will often be drawn into a text through the use of pull-quotes. In fact, sensationalism is used right throughout this long form journalism piece, and is also apparent through print journalism in general. This is down to, as Conboy (2006, p.207) puts it, “Shifts in the boundaries of journalism, shifts in the priorities of journalism and shifts of tastes within media forms.” These shifts in the boundaries, tastes and priorities of journalism that Conboy refers to, regards the changing face of the journalism industry where readers will often now be reading on the move, rather than at home. The tastes of the public have changed, and it is important to adapt to these changes, and this long form article does that by keeping sentences short, by sensationalising to keep readers hooked and by breaking the piece down into sections with various links. These are all techniques that I will look to be using when writing my own piece of long form journalism.
Berak tries to take up a natural viewpoint throughout the article, but as it progresses, we begin to see his personal emotions come through. The long form article ends with Berak admitting “It angered me, but I said nothing.” As well as this, it is fair to say that the American journalist certainly got into the thick of the story, witnessing the horrifying incident and visiting those who had committed the crime. This is similar to regular print journalism that we see every day in newspapers, the difference being, Berak begins to add his own personal bias to the story.
Another example showing the similarity between long for journalism and shorter pieces is the way statistics are put across to the reader in a concise manner. We are told that the town of the murder has a “settlement of 150,000 people.” Much like with any form of journalism, statistics are important to make an impact, they will often stay with the reader long after reading an article.
To conclude, this piece of journalism provides the perfect example of how long form is adapting to changes, much like the industry of journalism as a whole. Long form journalism can inform, educate and entertain us more than a shorter piece or even a collection of shorter pieces could, helping to shine light on a topic that may not have been reported in the media, or an issue that is often overlooked. This long form piece typifies this perfectly.
Berak manages to not only draw the readers in through his use of various techniques, but also maintain them through to the end, making them feel as though they are at the scene. By taking a somewhat neutral view largely throughout, we have a balanced outlook, but by the end we are willing him on to ask the questions that we ourselves want answered, typifying how he manages to grip us, something which is vital in a day of short attention spans.
I will certainly take a lot of inspiration from this particular piece of long form journalism into my own work, such as the way the writer asks a range of rhetorical questions, including “Where were those despicable people?” to act as a narrative enigma – By doing this it encourages the readers to read on to find out answers. It is through techniques such as this that Berak manages to deliver some of the accepted aspirations of journalism in an age of bite-sized news, tweets and short attention spans. Journalists must now adapt their style of writing, but Berak has proved that when done correctly it works brilliantly.
What are the biggest challenges facing the modern journalist?
The modern journalist faces a challenge like no other. With newspaper sales in decline, jobs being cut, and regional news coverage receiving less funding every year, it seems as though with new technology, the old ways will die out.
Within this essay I will focus on why it is that newspaper sales are in decline, looking at the outcomes, such as newspapers completely dieing out, like The Daily Sport, which this week ceased trading - a perfect example of the modern times. I will also look at what can be done to stop this continuous decline, and the precautions that are being put in place to stop it, such as adapting to the new technology and introducing new initiatives, such as ‘paywalls’.
It is no secret that the newspaper sales in Britain are in continuous decline, in fact last year, in a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) it was revealed that UK newspaper sales had suffered the most dramatic newspaper circulation declines of any country outside of America since 2007. UK newspaper circulation had fallen by 25% between 2007-09, something which seems to be a common theme worldwide with newspaper sales dropping massively in the US, Italy and Canada, to name just a few – in fact 20 out of the 30 countries covered in the OECD report, face declining newspaper circulations.
These are damaging statistics facing the profession of journalism. With the sales of newspapers seemingly declining each year worldwide, it leads to the question, what is causing this fall in circulation? According to the same study, it concluded that: “The specialised press performs better than general newspapers” (Robinson, 2010) such as online newspapers archives, despite this, “the willingness to pay for online news remains low” - consumers can now receive the same quality of news as before, except now it is free and easier to receive.
Just last year, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp, announced that The Times, along with sister paper The Sunday Times Online, will now charge readers for access to their news website. Last month the same organisation announced that they had added almost 30,000 paying digital subscribers to their Times and Sunday Times websites in the past four months, with the number of digital-only subscribers increasing by almost 60% from last October, showing that a paywall – which asks readers to subscribe to the website before viewing an article - can very much be implemented, and more importantly, they can still draw in customers, even with this restriction in place.
A further example of a paywall system being implemented can be found when looking at The New York Times, who last month announced that they themselves would be introducing a paywall on their website, which is viewed by millions every single day. If a paywall system was to be introduced to major news websites across the globe, such as The Times and The New York Times, which at this stage is looking increasingly likely, it could mean that certain websites which offer ‘free news’, will in fact begin to see more and more customers. Introducing new measures, such as a paywall is a tactic which has been around for many years, as noted in An Introduction to Journalism (2006):
"Over the years, various tactics have been used in an attempt to reverse the trend. These range from changing the editorial stance, as the Mirror did for a short time post September 11th, to price-cutting wars, and even giving them away for free to try to tempt a new readership to buy them in the future." (Fleming, et al. p.9)
The point made here suggests that newspapers are always trying to change certain aspects, whether that is to do with internal measures (replacing editors, brining in new journalists, etc) or whether it is through more external matters, such as giving away free newspapers, which was introduced in an attempt to improve newspaper sales in the long-run, ultimately failing. Despite this, it shows that competition is present throughout the profession of journalism, without it, it would be significantly worse off as a result.
Regardless of the negative statistics and what looks to be a worrying future for the modern journalist, new newspapers are still being launched, including i which was launched at the end of last year as a sister paper to The Independent. The new newspaper aims to attract "readers and lapsed readers of quality newspapers" (Hewlett, 2011) with a layout reflecting a modern day newspaper. The paper is currently sold at 20p which again shows why competition is so important, offering a newspaper at such a little price will encourage readers to buy it, before the price can eventually increase when the paper is more established, should the owners wish.
What makes i so interesting, other than the fact it has been launched in this time of financial crisis, is the layout on each page, which reflects the modern day internet styled newspaper. It has been designed to be easy to read, with nice concise stories; it is the first example of the changing face of the newspaper. We could very well be seeing the end of the traditional newspaper in favour of one, such as i which has adapted to the modern day and using it to its advantage. The Independent is not the only newspaper to use the modern day to its advantage, or more specifically modern day technology, such as the iPad and the Kindle.
Using portable, hand-held devices seems the perfect market for newspapers to launch, and this is exactly what has happened. Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch – who as I’ve already touched on is clearly aware of the changing face of the journalism industry – introduced a newspaper which was exclusive to the iPad, named The Daily. Murdoch, talking of the exciting new newspaper ‘app’ said: "We feel this is better for advertisers and will draw a better class of advertising and a better rate,” again showing the importance of adapting to the modern day, and thus showing the importance of advertising funds, something which in this day and age seems vital.
This is something which is touched on by Carole Fleming, et al, who believe that newspapers, like all media (except the BBC) “depend on advertising for their survival” (2006. P.9), showing the importance of advertisers. Fleming continues by telling of how newspapers “use their content to attract a readership which is then ‘sold’ to advertisers, and this has had an effect on their content”, newspapers target specific sections of society and through advertising, this is no different. Without sufficient advertising, certain newspapers simply wouldn’t have the funding to run, such as free newspaper the Metro, which relies heavily on advertising.
One broadcast company who do not receive any money through external advertising is the BBC, who are funded through British taxpayers’ money. The company however, must now “justify its existence (and thereby its licence fee) while competing against a plethora of providers of broadcast news” (Chapman & Kinsey, 2009. P.19). This again leads us back to the earlier point I made regarding competition, which in the modern day is thriving more than ever, this can only be a good thing for the standard of journalism that the public are being offered.
With rolling news coverage being introduced by the likes of the BBC, it means that we can hear breaking stories as they happen, with reporters on the scene almost immediately. It’s partly because of this that the BBC have suffered financial difficulties of late, the costs of delivery of BBC News in the UK were around “£89.5 million for newsgathering and £23.1 million for BBC News 24’s additional running costs (figures for 2005/6)” (Chapman & Kinsey, 2009. P.19). This led to the revelation last year that the BBC would have to “cut between 16-25% on services such as TV, radio and online journalism” (Hewlett, 2011).
As a result of such revelations, members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) decided to strike in January this year over fears that as many as 300 workers could face the axe. This is another sign of the times, with Britain in a financial crisis, the trade of journalism is not exempt, journalists across the country lose their jobs every day as a result, the modern journalist will be fully aware of this.
It is not just the BBC who are suffering, one of their biggest broadcast rivals, ITV, are also facing a decline in viewers. In a report released last year by broadcast regulators Ofcom, it was revealed that regional output on ITV Wales fell by 32% between 2005-09, a worrying decline. The BBC and ITV – two of the nation’s top providers for local news – are clearly struggling, viewer numbers are declining and funding is no longer at the same level as a result.
The BBC for many years have held an advantage over ITV, this came at the start of the last decade when, “In 2002, for the first time in its history, the BBC spent more on its regional power in regional output than ITV” (Franklin, 2006. P.29). This meant that, “In a few short years, the balance of power in regional broadcast journalism was reversed, with apparently no real prospect of ITV ever regaining its power”. The BBC may feel that they hold the power, but the modern day journalist must realise that the competition between the two is no longer the same, they are both in decline. After all, as it is put so well by George Gilder: “There is a new medium that encompasses existing TV and multiplies it by a factor of millions in possibilities, and that is computer and internet technology... indeed the replacement for TV” (Gilder, 1998. P.8)
Moving away from the sales and finance aspect of journalism, the modern journalist also has new tools available in his/her arsenal, such as various social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, both of which have taken the world by storm in recent years. Social networking sites offer a platform for stories to be published, it is certainly something which is changing the way members of the public view news, as Jo Bardoel concluded well in his journal, The Internet, Journalism and Public Communication Policies (2002): “The new technology that is contained in the concept of the Internet will cause profound changes” (P.502). If Bardoel is indeed correct, journalism will certainly never be the same again, it looks as though newspapers will simply have to adapt to the present, much like Rupert Murdoch is currently doing.
It is unfair to say that as a result of the surge in popularity of the internet that modern journalists are worse off as a result, but what is fair to say, is that the internet and the various social networking sites, along with many free and easy to use blogging websites available, offer the opportunity for the public to view news in a different way, and it presents an opportunity to aspiring journalists, who perhaps, like myself, want to get themselves known. There has never been a better opportunity to do that than now, in the modern day.
To conclude, despite the damaging statistics regarding the profession of journalism, and the troubles facing the modern journalist, there is still a promising future ahead. New concepts such as handheld devices, including iPads and even more recently kindles, are being created, meaning people can read on the move. Social networking sites offer journalists the chance to share stories to people across the world. Aspiring journalists, like myself, can become known through building up a portfolio of their own work online, all thanks to the internet.
But we must remember that as a result of this, newspapers are dieing a slow death. “The whole industry, the regional press in particular, seems set to nosedive into terminal decline” (Frost, 2010. P.8), it’s as a result of the internet that newspapers will eventually die out. Despite paywalls, the public can find free news stories elsewhere. Whichever way you want to look at it, despite to positives being there for all to see, ultimately the traditional newspaper, is dieing a slow death, and the modern journalist must adapt to the changing face of the journalism industry.
Within this essay I will focus on why it is that newspaper sales are in decline, looking at the outcomes, such as newspapers completely dieing out, like The Daily Sport, which this week ceased trading - a perfect example of the modern times. I will also look at what can be done to stop this continuous decline, and the precautions that are being put in place to stop it, such as adapting to the new technology and introducing new initiatives, such as ‘paywalls’.
It is no secret that the newspaper sales in Britain are in continuous decline, in fact last year, in a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) it was revealed that UK newspaper sales had suffered the most dramatic newspaper circulation declines of any country outside of America since 2007. UK newspaper circulation had fallen by 25% between 2007-09, something which seems to be a common theme worldwide with newspaper sales dropping massively in the US, Italy and Canada, to name just a few – in fact 20 out of the 30 countries covered in the OECD report, face declining newspaper circulations.
These are damaging statistics facing the profession of journalism. With the sales of newspapers seemingly declining each year worldwide, it leads to the question, what is causing this fall in circulation? According to the same study, it concluded that: “The specialised press performs better than general newspapers” (Robinson, 2010) such as online newspapers archives, despite this, “the willingness to pay for online news remains low” - consumers can now receive the same quality of news as before, except now it is free and easier to receive.
Just last year, Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp, announced that The Times, along with sister paper The Sunday Times Online, will now charge readers for access to their news website. Last month the same organisation announced that they had added almost 30,000 paying digital subscribers to their Times and Sunday Times websites in the past four months, with the number of digital-only subscribers increasing by almost 60% from last October, showing that a paywall – which asks readers to subscribe to the website before viewing an article - can very much be implemented, and more importantly, they can still draw in customers, even with this restriction in place.
A further example of a paywall system being implemented can be found when looking at The New York Times, who last month announced that they themselves would be introducing a paywall on their website, which is viewed by millions every single day. If a paywall system was to be introduced to major news websites across the globe, such as The Times and The New York Times, which at this stage is looking increasingly likely, it could mean that certain websites which offer ‘free news’, will in fact begin to see more and more customers. Introducing new measures, such as a paywall is a tactic which has been around for many years, as noted in An Introduction to Journalism (2006):
"Over the years, various tactics have been used in an attempt to reverse the trend. These range from changing the editorial stance, as the Mirror did for a short time post September 11th, to price-cutting wars, and even giving them away for free to try to tempt a new readership to buy them in the future." (Fleming, et al. p.9)
The point made here suggests that newspapers are always trying to change certain aspects, whether that is to do with internal measures (replacing editors, brining in new journalists, etc) or whether it is through more external matters, such as giving away free newspapers, which was introduced in an attempt to improve newspaper sales in the long-run, ultimately failing. Despite this, it shows that competition is present throughout the profession of journalism, without it, it would be significantly worse off as a result.
Regardless of the negative statistics and what looks to be a worrying future for the modern journalist, new newspapers are still being launched, including i which was launched at the end of last year as a sister paper to The Independent. The new newspaper aims to attract "readers and lapsed readers of quality newspapers" (Hewlett, 2011) with a layout reflecting a modern day newspaper. The paper is currently sold at 20p which again shows why competition is so important, offering a newspaper at such a little price will encourage readers to buy it, before the price can eventually increase when the paper is more established, should the owners wish.
What makes i so interesting, other than the fact it has been launched in this time of financial crisis, is the layout on each page, which reflects the modern day internet styled newspaper. It has been designed to be easy to read, with nice concise stories; it is the first example of the changing face of the newspaper. We could very well be seeing the end of the traditional newspaper in favour of one, such as i which has adapted to the modern day and using it to its advantage. The Independent is not the only newspaper to use the modern day to its advantage, or more specifically modern day technology, such as the iPad and the Kindle.
Using portable, hand-held devices seems the perfect market for newspapers to launch, and this is exactly what has happened. Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch – who as I’ve already touched on is clearly aware of the changing face of the journalism industry – introduced a newspaper which was exclusive to the iPad, named The Daily. Murdoch, talking of the exciting new newspaper ‘app’ said: "We feel this is better for advertisers and will draw a better class of advertising and a better rate,” again showing the importance of adapting to the modern day, and thus showing the importance of advertising funds, something which in this day and age seems vital.
This is something which is touched on by Carole Fleming, et al, who believe that newspapers, like all media (except the BBC) “depend on advertising for their survival” (2006. P.9), showing the importance of advertisers. Fleming continues by telling of how newspapers “use their content to attract a readership which is then ‘sold’ to advertisers, and this has had an effect on their content”, newspapers target specific sections of society and through advertising, this is no different. Without sufficient advertising, certain newspapers simply wouldn’t have the funding to run, such as free newspaper the Metro, which relies heavily on advertising.
One broadcast company who do not receive any money through external advertising is the BBC, who are funded through British taxpayers’ money. The company however, must now “justify its existence (and thereby its licence fee) while competing against a plethora of providers of broadcast news” (Chapman & Kinsey, 2009. P.19). This again leads us back to the earlier point I made regarding competition, which in the modern day is thriving more than ever, this can only be a good thing for the standard of journalism that the public are being offered.
With rolling news coverage being introduced by the likes of the BBC, it means that we can hear breaking stories as they happen, with reporters on the scene almost immediately. It’s partly because of this that the BBC have suffered financial difficulties of late, the costs of delivery of BBC News in the UK were around “£89.5 million for newsgathering and £23.1 million for BBC News 24’s additional running costs (figures for 2005/6)” (Chapman & Kinsey, 2009. P.19). This led to the revelation last year that the BBC would have to “cut between 16-25% on services such as TV, radio and online journalism” (Hewlett, 2011).
As a result of such revelations, members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) decided to strike in January this year over fears that as many as 300 workers could face the axe. This is another sign of the times, with Britain in a financial crisis, the trade of journalism is not exempt, journalists across the country lose their jobs every day as a result, the modern journalist will be fully aware of this.
It is not just the BBC who are suffering, one of their biggest broadcast rivals, ITV, are also facing a decline in viewers. In a report released last year by broadcast regulators Ofcom, it was revealed that regional output on ITV Wales fell by 32% between 2005-09, a worrying decline. The BBC and ITV – two of the nation’s top providers for local news – are clearly struggling, viewer numbers are declining and funding is no longer at the same level as a result.
The BBC for many years have held an advantage over ITV, this came at the start of the last decade when, “In 2002, for the first time in its history, the BBC spent more on its regional power in regional output than ITV” (Franklin, 2006. P.29). This meant that, “In a few short years, the balance of power in regional broadcast journalism was reversed, with apparently no real prospect of ITV ever regaining its power”. The BBC may feel that they hold the power, but the modern day journalist must realise that the competition between the two is no longer the same, they are both in decline. After all, as it is put so well by George Gilder: “There is a new medium that encompasses existing TV and multiplies it by a factor of millions in possibilities, and that is computer and internet technology... indeed the replacement for TV” (Gilder, 1998. P.8)
Moving away from the sales and finance aspect of journalism, the modern journalist also has new tools available in his/her arsenal, such as various social networking sites, including Facebook and Twitter, both of which have taken the world by storm in recent years. Social networking sites offer a platform for stories to be published, it is certainly something which is changing the way members of the public view news, as Jo Bardoel concluded well in his journal, The Internet, Journalism and Public Communication Policies (2002): “The new technology that is contained in the concept of the Internet will cause profound changes” (P.502). If Bardoel is indeed correct, journalism will certainly never be the same again, it looks as though newspapers will simply have to adapt to the present, much like Rupert Murdoch is currently doing.
It is unfair to say that as a result of the surge in popularity of the internet that modern journalists are worse off as a result, but what is fair to say, is that the internet and the various social networking sites, along with many free and easy to use blogging websites available, offer the opportunity for the public to view news in a different way, and it presents an opportunity to aspiring journalists, who perhaps, like myself, want to get themselves known. There has never been a better opportunity to do that than now, in the modern day.
To conclude, despite the damaging statistics regarding the profession of journalism, and the troubles facing the modern journalist, there is still a promising future ahead. New concepts such as handheld devices, including iPads and even more recently kindles, are being created, meaning people can read on the move. Social networking sites offer journalists the chance to share stories to people across the world. Aspiring journalists, like myself, can become known through building up a portfolio of their own work online, all thanks to the internet.
But we must remember that as a result of this, newspapers are dieing a slow death. “The whole industry, the regional press in particular, seems set to nosedive into terminal decline” (Frost, 2010. P.8), it’s as a result of the internet that newspapers will eventually die out. Despite paywalls, the public can find free news stories elsewhere. Whichever way you want to look at it, despite to positives being there for all to see, ultimately the traditional newspaper, is dieing a slow death, and the modern journalist must adapt to the changing face of the journalism industry.
Analysis of News Production
I have decided to look at a news story in which made headlines across Britain and was covered widely by the British media. The story in question broke out in December and regards an “Al-Qaeda inspired plot” (South Wales Echo, 2010) in which 12 men (later turned out to be nine men) were arrested on suspicion of ‘The commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK’.
Within this essay I will look at how the story was covered by the various types of media available, such as the internet, radio, TV and various different newspapers. After looking at a range of ways of communicating news, I will then sum-up all of my research before concluding, and seeing what the drawbacks and advantages are to each.
I will begin by looking at the form of media in which has changed the way journalists communicate, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. I am talking about of course, television news. BBC News and Sky News dominate the market for ’24-hour news’ in Britain and they were the first to break the story in which I am looking at. Within minutes they had reporters on the scene and were already speculating as to where the story may be heading. This initial stage of the story is very important, as noted by Donald Kinder, who claims that, “The media might determine what the public takes to be important. In contemporary parlance, this is known as agenda setting” (2006). Kinder’s point was made clear when watching the initial news reports on this story, the BBC decided to focus on what these alleged terrorists may have been planning to achieve whereas Sky News opted to look at what they had already done, and therefore why they had been arrested.
Once the story is better understood they will then be turned into packages, before a deadline, they can then be aired during the main news bulletins through the day. The news package of this particular incident, which was first shown on BBC’s News at 6 (Monday 20th December), began with a presenter link by Huw Edwards in the studio linking to a package of the story. The package included shots of the houses involved in Stoke, London and Cardiff whilst running over the top of this clip was a voice-over, where the reporter would explain what exactly these people had been arrested for, and what their plans were.
The major advantage television news has, is that it can break the news, and we can watch it as it develops something which is perfect for a huge breaking story. This can link in with the only real disadvantage to television news, and that is that stories may not have fully developed. For example, if an incident happens after the deadline they work with, then it will have to wait for the next news bulletin, where as newspapers can get the full story, and more importantly, make sure it is correct upon publishing.
Closely linked with television, is radio. Radios can also use 24 hour operation to their advantage, broadcasting breaking news as it happens. They will usually have a news bulletin on the hour, every hour. Again, looking at the story I have chosen, BBC Radio 1 included the story in their hourly news bulletins throughout the afternoon and evening, talking of any developments as they happened. Like with the television news, the radio news includes packages, made up of a reporter talking us through the story, as well as including interviews, something which is hugely important to all forms of media. Radio 1 included interviews within their package from those who lived near the alleged terrorists from Riverside, Cardiff, as well as including an interview with a police sergeant as the day and the story progressed.
There is one obvious major disadvantage to using Radio to communicate with listeners, and that is, you cannot use videos or images, something in which is said to paint a thousand words. This is why on the radio; the presenter will often describe the scene in-depth as well as often giving details on those being interviewed, including ages.
There is however a form of media in which has changed the way that journalists think and work, that is, the internet. The internet has revolutionised journalism, any major news corporation will have their own webpage, which will be updated regularly with all the latest news. Likewise, all major newspaper names in the UK will have their own website (which they will advertise heavily within their paper); this is their way of hitting back at the revolution of the internet, or at least, their way of using it to their advantage.
Even more recently social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have again revolutionised journalism. Twitter allows users to enter a 140 word ‘Tweet’ which is used to sum up a story. Looking back at the news story I have selected, The Sun went with the Tweet “12 men detained by police in Cardiff, Stoke and London on suspicion of terrorist activity”. This was the first of many updates on the story, and every time there was an update, it would make its way on Twitter, where it could be linked to an article.
It is certainly something which is changing the way members of the public view news stories, but it is something in which may take time to fully take off, as Jo Bardoel concluded well in his journal, The Internet, Journalism and Public Communication Policies (2002):
The new technology that is contained in the concept of the Internet will cause profound changes in the process of social communication, but precisely for that reason the process will go quite slowly. Technological changes can indeed proceed quite rapidly, but changes in social behaviour take – luckily – much longer. This observation is even more relevant when we realize that this actually was already the second Internet-hype. The first hype took place around 1980, and was about – as many of us will remember – new applications such as teletext, viewdata and interactive videotext. The very simple and cheap teletext is the only service that survived the first hype.
Whether Bardoel is right or not, we won’t know for a while, but it is certain that more and more people now rely heavily on the internet as the income for their daily news. This is the down to the fact that you can immediately link readers to various different places, such as a video of the incident, pictures, audio, etc. It is almost as if TV, radio and print based journalism have come together as one, and you can also view it on the go, like a newspaper, and very often, for free.
The internet also offers the chance for anyone to publish their work, and have it possibly read on a large scale. This is thanks to the many blog websites available, which are free and easy to use. People can ‘blog’ on a specific subject or give opinions on a specific news story. Simply searching my news story on the internet returned me with many different blogs which gave differing views on the subject. It is something which has seen both praise and criticism in the past, “it can present a challenge to journalism, an opportunity for journalism, or a bit of both.” (Lowry, 2006). Lowry here makes a point about blogging presenting “an opportunity for journalism”, and in my opinion, he is spot on, but again, this could cause a problem for journalism as a profession, due to the continuing success of freelance blogging.
So where has all this left newspapers? Online articles may be viewed a lot more than newspapers themselves, but this hasn’t stopped people buying newspapers in their millions every day. Newspapers range from regional, to nationwide; from broadsheet to tabloid, depending on the preference of the reader, there will be a newspaper that suits them.
The story in which I looked at was covered widely by the British press as you would expect. The South Wales Echo a regional paper for South Wales covered the story in depth, simply because five of the men involved were from the South Wales area. They attempted to pull in readers with the gripping headline “Terror Swoop on City”. David Randall discusses the importance of headline writing in his book The Universal Journalist, where he makes the point that “over the last 50 or so years headlines have become progressively larger in size and thus the amount of words in headlines have become much shorter” (2007). This is made clear when looking through a pile of newspapers; it helps to hype the story up, and consequently makes the reader want to read more.
As the terrorism story - or any story in fact - progresses and changes, so too does the angle in which the newspaper chooses, two days after the story broke, the South Wales Echo decide to look into which local buildings may have been targeted by these alleged terrorists.
This works not only with regional newspapers but also with national newspapers, such as The Guardian and The Sun. Both newspapers likewise used the story on their front pages and even included different features, such as timelines, ‘vox pops’ and guest columnists personal views as the story progressed.
The inclusion of features such as timelines adds a little more dimension to the story and can also inform the reader – which after all is one of the main priorities of newspapers (along with being entertaining). Vox pop’s can help to give a mixture of views on the story, but they don’t necessarily tell the full story, something which is again touched on by Randall, “they are too facile to get anything more than a knee-jerk response, or the responses are too prosaic” (2007). Randall is spot on of his analysis of vox pops here, and it is backed up by The Sun’s inclusion of them regarding this story, one response reads “I believe terrorism is unacceptable...” clearly, something which we all already knew and something which has added no depth to the article.
One of the reasons that newspapers are still a highly successful type of media is their inclusion of guest columnists, which they will advertise on the paper in order for people to purchase them, the articles written by these ‘guests’ will have their own spin and often represent their own personal views and not that of the paper itself. This is something that Randall again mentions in his book when discussing columnists, claiming that these guest columnists are needed by readers even more now, due to the fact that readers often “receive the first reports of events from television, radio and the internet. As well as reporting in depth as the media broadcast cannot, newspapers should also explain what the events and developments mean” (2007). Guest Columnist Morgana Robinson in The Sun for example mocks the alleged terrorists, “I shudder at the thought of this motley crew even managing to get to London in the first place” (2010), this coming after the severe snow that Britain suffered. But it is this type of humour in which will help to sell the newspaper, “As television news channels and websites proliferate, such comment is an important part of newspaper content” (Randall, 2007), such comment is needed by newspapers, and it means that readers will remain loyal to the paper and purchase it again and again.
To conclude what I have learnt from looking into these various forms of communicating news, it is clear to see that the internet is growing and growing in popularity, and is looking increasingly more likely to become the dominant way of communicating news to the public. It offers free, quick and easy, on-the-go access to news, something which in this day and age seems imperative. Social networking sites such as Twitter offer journalists a different platform to report stories and through the web, stories can be given an extra depth with journalists able to link readers away from the page to various other places. There are very little disadvantages to using the web, except of course, it will eventually dominate the market with the demise of newspaper sales.
Despite this, newspapers still sell in high numbers and they will not die out completely, they still offer a great way of communicating news stories, as seen with the terrorism story that I looked in to. Radio and TV also remain very popular with 24 hour operation and lots of employees, it means that within minutes of an incident happening, they can have a reporter on the scene and the story will already be receiving coverage. One thing is for certain, as time goes on, the platform for communicating stories is getting vaster by the day.
Within this essay I will look at how the story was covered by the various types of media available, such as the internet, radio, TV and various different newspapers. After looking at a range of ways of communicating news, I will then sum-up all of my research before concluding, and seeing what the drawbacks and advantages are to each.
I will begin by looking at the form of media in which has changed the way journalists communicate, it runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every day of the year. I am talking about of course, television news. BBC News and Sky News dominate the market for ’24-hour news’ in Britain and they were the first to break the story in which I am looking at. Within minutes they had reporters on the scene and were already speculating as to where the story may be heading. This initial stage of the story is very important, as noted by Donald Kinder, who claims that, “The media might determine what the public takes to be important. In contemporary parlance, this is known as agenda setting” (2006). Kinder’s point was made clear when watching the initial news reports on this story, the BBC decided to focus on what these alleged terrorists may have been planning to achieve whereas Sky News opted to look at what they had already done, and therefore why they had been arrested.
Once the story is better understood they will then be turned into packages, before a deadline, they can then be aired during the main news bulletins through the day. The news package of this particular incident, which was first shown on BBC’s News at 6 (Monday 20th December), began with a presenter link by Huw Edwards in the studio linking to a package of the story. The package included shots of the houses involved in Stoke, London and Cardiff whilst running over the top of this clip was a voice-over, where the reporter would explain what exactly these people had been arrested for, and what their plans were.
The major advantage television news has, is that it can break the news, and we can watch it as it develops something which is perfect for a huge breaking story. This can link in with the only real disadvantage to television news, and that is that stories may not have fully developed. For example, if an incident happens after the deadline they work with, then it will have to wait for the next news bulletin, where as newspapers can get the full story, and more importantly, make sure it is correct upon publishing.
Closely linked with television, is radio. Radios can also use 24 hour operation to their advantage, broadcasting breaking news as it happens. They will usually have a news bulletin on the hour, every hour. Again, looking at the story I have chosen, BBC Radio 1 included the story in their hourly news bulletins throughout the afternoon and evening, talking of any developments as they happened. Like with the television news, the radio news includes packages, made up of a reporter talking us through the story, as well as including interviews, something which is hugely important to all forms of media. Radio 1 included interviews within their package from those who lived near the alleged terrorists from Riverside, Cardiff, as well as including an interview with a police sergeant as the day and the story progressed.
There is one obvious major disadvantage to using Radio to communicate with listeners, and that is, you cannot use videos or images, something in which is said to paint a thousand words. This is why on the radio; the presenter will often describe the scene in-depth as well as often giving details on those being interviewed, including ages.
There is however a form of media in which has changed the way that journalists think and work, that is, the internet. The internet has revolutionised journalism, any major news corporation will have their own webpage, which will be updated regularly with all the latest news. Likewise, all major newspaper names in the UK will have their own website (which they will advertise heavily within their paper); this is their way of hitting back at the revolution of the internet, or at least, their way of using it to their advantage.
Even more recently social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have again revolutionised journalism. Twitter allows users to enter a 140 word ‘Tweet’ which is used to sum up a story. Looking back at the news story I have selected, The Sun went with the Tweet “12 men detained by police in Cardiff, Stoke and London on suspicion of terrorist activity”. This was the first of many updates on the story, and every time there was an update, it would make its way on Twitter, where it could be linked to an article.
It is certainly something which is changing the way members of the public view news stories, but it is something in which may take time to fully take off, as Jo Bardoel concluded well in his journal, The Internet, Journalism and Public Communication Policies (2002):
The new technology that is contained in the concept of the Internet will cause profound changes in the process of social communication, but precisely for that reason the process will go quite slowly. Technological changes can indeed proceed quite rapidly, but changes in social behaviour take – luckily – much longer. This observation is even more relevant when we realize that this actually was already the second Internet-hype. The first hype took place around 1980, and was about – as many of us will remember – new applications such as teletext, viewdata and interactive videotext. The very simple and cheap teletext is the only service that survived the first hype.
Whether Bardoel is right or not, we won’t know for a while, but it is certain that more and more people now rely heavily on the internet as the income for their daily news. This is the down to the fact that you can immediately link readers to various different places, such as a video of the incident, pictures, audio, etc. It is almost as if TV, radio and print based journalism have come together as one, and you can also view it on the go, like a newspaper, and very often, for free.
The internet also offers the chance for anyone to publish their work, and have it possibly read on a large scale. This is thanks to the many blog websites available, which are free and easy to use. People can ‘blog’ on a specific subject or give opinions on a specific news story. Simply searching my news story on the internet returned me with many different blogs which gave differing views on the subject. It is something which has seen both praise and criticism in the past, “it can present a challenge to journalism, an opportunity for journalism, or a bit of both.” (Lowry, 2006). Lowry here makes a point about blogging presenting “an opportunity for journalism”, and in my opinion, he is spot on, but again, this could cause a problem for journalism as a profession, due to the continuing success of freelance blogging.
So where has all this left newspapers? Online articles may be viewed a lot more than newspapers themselves, but this hasn’t stopped people buying newspapers in their millions every day. Newspapers range from regional, to nationwide; from broadsheet to tabloid, depending on the preference of the reader, there will be a newspaper that suits them.
The story in which I looked at was covered widely by the British press as you would expect. The South Wales Echo a regional paper for South Wales covered the story in depth, simply because five of the men involved were from the South Wales area. They attempted to pull in readers with the gripping headline “Terror Swoop on City”. David Randall discusses the importance of headline writing in his book The Universal Journalist, where he makes the point that “over the last 50 or so years headlines have become progressively larger in size and thus the amount of words in headlines have become much shorter” (2007). This is made clear when looking through a pile of newspapers; it helps to hype the story up, and consequently makes the reader want to read more.
As the terrorism story - or any story in fact - progresses and changes, so too does the angle in which the newspaper chooses, two days after the story broke, the South Wales Echo decide to look into which local buildings may have been targeted by these alleged terrorists.
This works not only with regional newspapers but also with national newspapers, such as The Guardian and The Sun. Both newspapers likewise used the story on their front pages and even included different features, such as timelines, ‘vox pops’ and guest columnists personal views as the story progressed.
The inclusion of features such as timelines adds a little more dimension to the story and can also inform the reader – which after all is one of the main priorities of newspapers (along with being entertaining). Vox pop’s can help to give a mixture of views on the story, but they don’t necessarily tell the full story, something which is again touched on by Randall, “they are too facile to get anything more than a knee-jerk response, or the responses are too prosaic” (2007). Randall is spot on of his analysis of vox pops here, and it is backed up by The Sun’s inclusion of them regarding this story, one response reads “I believe terrorism is unacceptable...” clearly, something which we all already knew and something which has added no depth to the article.
One of the reasons that newspapers are still a highly successful type of media is their inclusion of guest columnists, which they will advertise on the paper in order for people to purchase them, the articles written by these ‘guests’ will have their own spin and often represent their own personal views and not that of the paper itself. This is something that Randall again mentions in his book when discussing columnists, claiming that these guest columnists are needed by readers even more now, due to the fact that readers often “receive the first reports of events from television, radio and the internet. As well as reporting in depth as the media broadcast cannot, newspapers should also explain what the events and developments mean” (2007). Guest Columnist Morgana Robinson in The Sun for example mocks the alleged terrorists, “I shudder at the thought of this motley crew even managing to get to London in the first place” (2010), this coming after the severe snow that Britain suffered. But it is this type of humour in which will help to sell the newspaper, “As television news channels and websites proliferate, such comment is an important part of newspaper content” (Randall, 2007), such comment is needed by newspapers, and it means that readers will remain loyal to the paper and purchase it again and again.
To conclude what I have learnt from looking into these various forms of communicating news, it is clear to see that the internet is growing and growing in popularity, and is looking increasingly more likely to become the dominant way of communicating news to the public. It offers free, quick and easy, on-the-go access to news, something which in this day and age seems imperative. Social networking sites such as Twitter offer journalists a different platform to report stories and through the web, stories can be given an extra depth with journalists able to link readers away from the page to various other places. There are very little disadvantages to using the web, except of course, it will eventually dominate the market with the demise of newspaper sales.
Despite this, newspapers still sell in high numbers and they will not die out completely, they still offer a great way of communicating news stories, as seen with the terrorism story that I looked in to. Radio and TV also remain very popular with 24 hour operation and lots of employees, it means that within minutes of an incident happening, they can have a reporter on the scene and the story will already be receiving coverage. One thing is for certain, as time goes on, the platform for communicating stories is getting vaster by the day.