The Digital Transformation of 21 st Century News Journalism

1. The Digital Transformation of 21st Century News Journalism Presentation to Conference on Digital Media and Journalism, School of Communication, Ming Chuan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 12 October, 2012 Professor Terry Flew Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology

3. Drivers of Digital Transformation • Convergence of media industries and content • Distribution of content across multiple delivery platforms • Media globalization • Exponential increase in information and entertainment content available to consumers • User-created content, participatory media, and blurring of producer/consumer lines

4. It’s not just the Internet • Rise of knowledge-intensive industries and creative industries • Network externalities • Rise of peer production and sharing – openness and mass collaboration in Web 2.0 environments

5. From mass communications media to social media: the crisis of news

6. Ways of thinking about digital transformations

7. OECD, Evolution of News and the Internet (2010) • Declining sales of print newspapers • News consumption migrating to the Internet • Structural crisis of newsrooms – shift of classified and print advertising • New opportunities online, but new competitors (e.g. sports organizations) • Move to digital-only newspapers? • Online advertising generates less income

8. Decline in newspaper sales

9. U.S. advertising spend 2011 Source: KPCB Internet Trends 2012

10. Shift of young people to online news • Sample – font is arial 28 – only use arial on slides no other fonts including any charts or diagrams • Sample • Sample • Sample • Sample • If you need to add a graphic scale to fit inside this white box

11. The new online news media ecosystem • Sample – font is arial 28 – only use arial on slides no other fonts including any charts or diagrams • Sample • Sample • Sample • Sample • If you need to add a graphic scale to fit inside this white box

12. Newspaper advertising revenues

13. The crisis of mainstream journalism • Undermining of traditional news business models • Falling share prices/rising debt for established news media businesses • Shift in the “attention economy” of users • Crisis of authority for professional journalism • Growing public distrust of journalists • Rise of the “PR state”

14. The renewed appeal of alternative journalism • The “Fifth Estate” (Dutton, Benkler) Non-profit [organizations] focused on bringing to light direct, documentary evidence about government behavior so that many others, professional and otherwise, can analyse the evidence and search for instances that justify public criticism… [they use] uses a combination of volunteerism, global presence, and decentralized action to achieve its results (Benkler, 2011: 55).

15. Monitory democracy (John Keane) • solving a basic problem facing contemporary democracies: how to promote the unfinished business of finding new ways of democratic living for little people in big and complex societies, in which substantial numbers of citizens believe that politicians are not easily trusted, and in which governments are often accused of abusing their power or being out of touch with citizens, or simply unwilling to deal with their concerns and problems (Keane, 2010: 354).

16. Lessons from the online alternative journalism movement • A sustainable business model matters • Continuing advantages of mainstream media: brand, workforce, audience • Challenge of the news/opinion relationship • Potential for access to information to become stratified by income • Shifting role of public service media – from PSBs to multi-platform media

17. Wikileaks as an alternative

18. Pros and cons of Wikileaks • Challenge of tech-savvy “critical outsiders” • Need in democracies for transparency and information access • “Wikileaks effect” will be felt for a long time • But … • Very reliant on Julian Assnage as charismatic figurehead • Dilemma of internal accountability • Balance of fact and advocacy • Continued reliance on mainstream media outlets