The Convergence Newsletter

The Convergence Newsletter

From Newsplex at the University of South Carolina

Vol. 1 No. 11 (June 2, 2004)

Exploring the Meaning of Media Convergence
The purpose of this newsletter is to provide an editorially neutral forum for discussion of the theoretical and professional meaning of media convergence.

We welcome articles on any topic directly related to media convergence, including academic research or information about convergence experiences in your newsroom. We also welcome information about conferences, publications and related links.

Holly Fisher

Editor

convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Feature Articles

Lessons from Newsplex training

New roles in converged newsrooms

Professor steps into the ‘briar patch’ during seminar

Harsh photos; Harsh truths

Newsplex News

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Conference Information

Digital Revolution Conference (call for papers/presentations)

Backpack Journalism: Multiskilled multiple-media newshandling

Digital Story Master Class

Convergence: The Tour

Convergence for Teams: Visions & Values in Action

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Announcements/News

Business Side of Convergence Has Myths, Some Real Benefits

Online News Association hiring director

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Feature Articles

Lessons from Newsplex training

By Dr. Augie Grant, Associate Professor, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, University of South Carolina

This year’s Newsplex Summer Seminars on Teaching and Research in Convergent Media concluded last month with both participants and facilitators taking a great deal away from the experience. The core of this training is “roles training,” exploring the four new journalistic roles that we’ve been exploring in this newsletter for the past few months. (Role No. 3, the newsflow editor, is discussed below.)

The participant perspective on the seminars is offered in an article by Kim Smith that also appears in this newsletter. First, it may be important to detail a set of broader lessons suggested by my experience in organizing and hosting the training.

First and foremost, there is a strong need for experimentation in converged, journalistic environments to explore both the manner in which news can be gathered, edited, and distributed and the range of new media for distribution of news. Among all new media, the Internet is the site for the greatest amount of experimentation, but other media might deserve equal attention. Cellular telephones, for example, are as ubiquitous as the Internet, but few journalistic programs are engaged in exploration of how mobile phones can be used to both gather and distribute the news.

Second, the issue of how to teach convergence may be more important to smaller programs than to larger programs. This observation reflects not only the enrollment in the Newsplex Seminars in Teaching and Research on Convergent Media for the past two years but also reflects the fact that faculty at smaller schools are likely to be less specialized, teaching courses across media rather than focusing on a single medium. (In this respect, faculty at larger schools can learn important lessons on the teaching of convergent journalism from faculty at these smaller schools.)

Another lesson from the seminars is that faculty has a stronger desire to learn and master new tools—especially computer software—than to discuss conceptual issues surrounding convergence. This situation may be as much a reflection of the relative amount of attention given to conceptual issues versus pragmatic issues at journalistic conferences. The implication is that these conferences should include a greater number of sessions dealing with the software and other practical issues. (This need for more discussion of practical issues is the major impetus behind the “Call for Showcase Presentations” that accompanies the traditional “Call for Papers” for the University of South Carolina’s October conference on digital media, also discussed later in this newsletter.)

The final lesson that has emerged from our training sessions is that there is no single, best way to implement convergent journalism in a university setting. In addition to differences in obvious variables such as faculty expertise, faculty size, and curriculum, the manner in which convergence can be implemented is affected by the number and structure of student media, availability of technological resources, the support staff for these resources, and the support available from alumni and prospective employers.

Newsplex has offered the University of South Carolina’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications an opportunity to experiment with new techniques in both the practice and teaching of journalism. We’ll continue to share our experiences in this newsletter, and we hope you also will use this newsletter to share lessons from your experimentation and training in convergent journalism.

================================================================

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

================================================================

New roles in converged newsrooms

Editor’s Note: In this issue we continue our series looking at the four new roles in a converged newsroom. Over the last two issues, The Convergence Newsletter has looked at the role the storybuilder and the newsresourcer have in a newsroom. The storybuilder supervises all aspects of an individual story, coordinating the reporters, photographers, and other personnel assigned to a story in the gathering of information and the distribution of the stories produced across media. The newsresourcer combines writing, editing and news judgment with the best of librarianship and information management to manage the wealth of information coming into the newsroom. This month, we look at the function of the newsflow editor. Our series will wrap up in July with an article on the role of the multiskilled journalist.

The most important characteristic of these new roles is that they do not necessarily reflect individuals or specific positions in a newsroom. Rather, each of the four represents a new set of responsibilities and activities in a newsroom. In Newsplex training, individuals are assigned to each role, but, in newsrooms, the roles may overlap across individuals or may be split, with two or more people combining to serve the role.

As you read these articles, please keep in mind that there may be other emerging roles that also should be profiled. If you have identified any other new roles, please let us know so that we can address those in a future edition.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Newsflow editor focuses on journalism, not delivery method

By Randy Covington, instructor at the University of South Carolina School of Journalism

When the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated, a number of TV news organizations provided extraordinary on-air coverage. Yet a subsequent audit of their Web sites revealed that some lagged far behind, offering little more than brief wire reports, in some cases several hours old.

The problem was not technology, which often is blamed for new media shortcomings. The problem was not some third party, such as WorldNow or Internet Broadcasting Systems. The problem was the way these newsrooms were organized.

While I wasn’t there, I can only assume that when the disaster occurred on a weekend, thinly-staffed newsrooms had their hands full with their main service, providing over-the-air coverage. The Internet, unfortunately, became an afterthought.

However, research indicates an increasing number of people are turning to the Internet for news and information. In fact, when I ask my classes where they go for news and information, the Internet is the overwhelming preference.

Clearly, there is a disconnect between what newsrooms value and what news consumers value. That’s why newsrooms need to rethink how they operate.

At the Ifra Newsplex at the University of South Carolina, we have identified several key roles to prepare newsrooms for the future and to help them manage the news across media platforms. At the center of this process is the newsflow editor.

According to Kerry Northrup, director of the Ifra Newsplex and the person who developed these new roles, the newsflow editor looks at the management of a story from 30,000 feet while others in the newsroom are looking at it from 10,000 feet.

In a TV newsroom, the newsflow editor is similar to the managing editor or perhaps executive producer. At a newspaper, he or she probably is closest to what we know as the managing editor or perhaps the news editor. However, the key factor that differentiates the newsflow coordinator from these traditional roles is that the newsflow editor focuses on the story, not on a specific delivery platform.

Does information a reporter has learned work best in one specific medium or should it appear across titles? What questions does that information raise and in which medium or media should they be answered? How can a graphic best be used in different delivery formats?

While others in the newsroom are concentrating on individual stories, the newsflow editor is looking at everything that is coming and deciding where it best fits. The question he or she must continuously answer is whether the news organization is feeding sufficient content to all distribution channels.

For the Wireless Election Connection (see Convergence Newsletter, March 2004 at http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/issue8.html), I served in the newsflow editor role. As I managed our teams of student journalists who used photo phones to cover the South Carolina Democratic Presidential Primary, I was reminded of my days as a TV assignment editor and executive producer.

I gave out assignments and communicated with the crews in the field, moving them from location to location and from assignment to assignment. When they encountered obstacles, we talked about ways to overcome them.

I sat just a few feet away from the primary storybuilder and the lead newsresourcer. As the day progressed, we were in constant communication. Can we get more information on religion and politics? Are we doing too much on the media circus? Is our coverage diverse? Are we missing anything?

I suspect similar conversations were being held in newsrooms across South Carolina. But the fact our conversations were within a cohesive management structure made them easier and more effective.

We were providing content to one Web site (http://scprimary.textamerica.com). However with more delivery platforms, we easily could have diverted the material to where it best fit. There is no need for any medium to be an afterthought if news management is responsible for all media.

In his role as executive director of Ifra’s Centre for Advanced News Operations, Northrup visits newsrooms all over the world. He points out that everywhere he goes the production process typically is in the middle of the newsroom. That may facilitate the production process, but it doesn’t improve the journalism and it certainly does not facilitate servicing multiple delivery platforms.

There’s an old saying in TV news: “Your most important newscast is your next one." This philosophy succinctly captures why today’s newsrooms need a simple, cross media structure to best serve consumers who each day obtain their news and information from a variety of sources.

(Before coming to USC, Covington worked in local TV news for 27 years, 16 as a news director in Columbia, S.C., and Philadelphia.)

================================================================

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

================================================================

Professor steps into the ‘briar patch’ during seminar

Kim Smith, journalism instructor at University of South Carolina-Spartanburg and a doctoral student in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at USC

Recall Joel Chandler Harris' 1880 collection of folktales and parables told by Uncle Remus, a wise slave and philosopher. One of the stories was about Brer Rabbit outfoxing Brer Fox. The rabbit used his wits and persuaded the naïve fox to throw him into the briar patch so that he wouldn't become the fox's next meal.

I spent May 16-20 in my briar patch at the Newsplex Summer Seminar at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. In this case, the fox didn't have to throw me in. I went eagerly.

Newsplex is the newsroom of the future, a converged newsroom of the print and electronic media whose common denominator is the Internet. It's a joint venture by the University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies; Ifra, a German media publishing company; and the South Carolina Educational Television Network. The staff at Newsplex conducts research on convergence and trains student journalists, journalism educators and professionals on how to gather and deliver news using different media platforms on the Internet.

I was one of nine journalism faculty from across the country who was introduced to ways of combining photography, video and text into multimedia presentations on the Web. In this multimedia, converged environment, the definition of how to gather and deliver news and information was limited only by my imagination, and knowledge of how to use new devices. I could no longer think just as a print or electronic journalist. I was challenged to think across media platforms using the Internet as the common means to deliver news and information. Thinking out of the box and working with new technology were difficult, but rewarding.

In my briar patch, I played with Weblogs, a new Internet tool that empowers non-journalists to become writers and publishers at little or no cost. For a professional journalist, Weblogs are the key, perhaps, to more sophisticated and interactive civic journalism projects, as we try to get back in touch with our communities.

I played with Visual Communicator, my favorite of the new toys in the briar patch. It allowed me to record my voice over video and photos and graphics into a production on the Web that resembles a TV news story. Armed with Visual Communicator (less than $400) and a digital video camera, I can't think of a more effective and less expensive way to teach broadcast news writing, print writing and camera techniques to journalism students. Think of VC as PowerPoint on steroids, one of the Newsplex seminar trainers said. You can also send the multimedia package via e-mail. And the TV package is nearly broadcast quality.

I witnessed other journalism educators play with camera phones. The phones allowed them to e-mail Web-quality pictures and text for posting on the Newsplex Web site.

All of these elements have the potential to change journalism and journalism education in the United States. In fact, said the seminar trainers, the U.S. media are lagging behind the European Union in convergence journalism.

The effort to teach future journalists how to become multimedia journalists who can communicate effectively across different media platforms, is laudable, and is, beyond a doubt, the future. But the trend toward convergence has some challenges that should be addressed.

Camera phones could be dangerous in the hands of tabloid journalists and photographers who care nothing about privacy. In Hawaii, for example, it's now against the law to use camera phones to photograph a person in a stage of undress or in sexual activity without that person's consent.

(See the Pacific News Business Web site, http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2004/05/17/daily51.html).

There is the potential danger of putting too much effort in convergence at the expense of teaching students how to perform well in traditional electronic and print media. I'm reminded of a physician who said giving new technology to ill-trained, recently-graduated medical students just means they'll be making faster mistakes with their patients. Let's embrace new technology in journalism, but not at the expense of old-fashion journalism standards of good story telling, ethics (teach it every chance you get), excellent command of English, and grammar.

Will convergence widen or narrow the digital divide among races, classes of people and journalism curricula? As a product of a Historically Black College, Howard University, I'm concerned about journalism students at HBCUs and their access to a convergence curriculum and the technology. I haven't heard much discussion of that issue.

Regardless of the reservations, I believe convergence has a bright future. Paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King, I've been to the mountain top (of convergence) and I've seen the Promised Land (more higher-paying jobs and satisfying careers for students).

Now back to the briar patch.

================================================================

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

================================================================

Harsh photos; Harsh truths

By Charles Bierbauer, dean of the University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies and a former CNN and ABC News correspondent

Army Pfc. Lynndie England has replaced Pfc. Jessica Lynch as the poster girl for the U.S. war in Iraq. Neither Lynch nor England may be all that first impressions portrayed each to be. Lynch was not so much the heroine in battle as the victim on a botched mission. England may prove to be more a pawn than a sadistic dominatrix.

But the photos don’t lie about some things. That’s a pathetic naked Iraqi prisoner lying on the floor. England is holding the leash around his neck. And she’s smiling.

First impressions matter. So do lasting impressions. Will Iraqis or Americans remember this military operation from the urgent video of Lynch’s rescue from an Iraqi hospital or England’s raunchy happy snaps at Abu Ghraib prison?

We’ve all heard the Chinese proverb: “One picture is worth more than ten thousand words.” The photos taken at Abu Ghraib have generated tens of thousands of words of shock and indignation about the American guards’ behavior.

Within days the story had a new and even more grisly dimension. American civilian Nicholas Berg was executed and decapitated by his hooded captors. The act was posted on an Islamist Web site. You could, if you chose, see the gruesome act on the site. Or see the prelude to it—either the prone Berg and the assassin’s raised knife or a tamer posed photo of Berg and his captors—in print and on the air across the U.S. America’s military history has been documented through photographic images since the Civil War.

Mathew Brady and other photographers lugged their cumbersome cameras to the battlefields. If they did not record the battles directly, they captured the carnage left behind on the battlefield. In the many trips I’ve taken to Gettysburg, I’ve been drawn less to the monuments than to a picture—the solitary figure of a dead southern sniper splayed against the rocks of the Devil’s Den.

The combat photographer—civilian or military—has captured heroic moments in battle. Is there a more recognized shot than that of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima in World War II? Yet even more gut wrenchingly unforgettable are the pictures of the gaunt survivors of the Nazi concentration camps and the cordwood like stacks of those who did not survive. Which tells us the most about that war?

The Vietnam War can be summed up in three photos: a South Vietnamese police chief summarily executing a Vietcong suspect, a naked girl fleeing a napalm bombing, a helicopter taking off from the roof of the U.S. embassy with the last evacuees before the fall of Saigon.

In truth, we rarely see the most gruesome photos taken in combat. Editors spare us much of the reality of war. It’s a tricky balance. For the most part media shied away from showing the charred bodies in Iraqi tanks during Gulf War I of 1991. Some, not all, ran photos of the charred bodies of American civilian workers strung up on an Iraqi bridge this year.

What’s just enough to show the agony? What’s too much? When the reality of 9/11 set in, editors at the newspapers and networks pulled back from running shots of those victims who jumped from the top floors of the World Trade Center to escape its inferno. A reader or viewer might have recognized a relative or friend in the final moments of life.

Photographs can move nations and governments to action. News photographs of starving children got the United States into Somalia in 1992 on a humanitarian mission. Photographs of an American soldier’s corpse being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu after a tactical fiasco we now know as “Blackhawk Down” got the United States out of Somalia.

Those who take such pictures are an unusual, sometimes strange, breed. In his book “Shooting Under Fire,” photographer Peter Howe describes his colleagues as “courageous men and women (who) go to the battlefield to gather the evidence that prevents anyone from saying ‘I knew nothing about that.’”

But that’s not what happened at Abu Ghraib.

The pictures that make us collectively cringe were not taken by any combat photographer. They show no act of bravery. Incongruously, they display spring break banality in a setting of indifferent inhumanity. Of course, those who took the pictures did not expect to see them in the New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers around the world.

This is not the product of photojournalism, as we once taught it in journalism schools. It is visual communications as it has evolved in a new world of instant and omnipresent media accessible to anyone with a computer. As our journalism school launches its new Visual Communications major, the grisly stories in Iraq give us grist for raising both questions of how to use graphics effectively and why we must use them judiciously.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acknowledging there were more and presumably worse pictures yet to be seen, lamented as much how the pictures had become public as why they had been taken. “People are running around with digital cameras and taking these unbelievable photographs and then passing them off, against the law, to the media.”

The first law that seems unquestionably to have been broken in the mistreatment of the Iraqi prisoners seems to trump any law that might cover military secrecy. Even with the photos in hand, some media listened first to Pentagon appeals not to print and air them. But publishing or broadcasting was not a tough call for the media to make.

So now we have two sets of recently published photos that record the cost the U.S. is paying in Iraq and that the Bush administration would have preferred not reach public view. One set shows the arrival home of flag-draped caskets of dutiful American military personnel who laid down their lives in Iraq. The other set shows American military personnel who, for whatever reasons or orders, laid down their principles.

Not everyone is going to like seeing these photographs. Not everyone is going to think they should be published. But the media are right in showing us both perspectives—what those in the military have sacrificed and what they have squandered. The public has a need to see them.

(This column was printed in The State newspaper and on the college Web site at http://www.sc.edu/cmcis/news/column/warphotos.html.)

================================================================

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

================================================================

---------------Newsplex News

By Geoff LoCicero, Ifra Newsplex Newsresourcer

The Ifra Newsplex at the University of South Carolina has launched its Newsplex Convergence Monitor to track media operations worldwide that are working as multiple-media news providers. The site is available at www.ifra.com/newsplex-monitor.

While it is estimated that there are between 400 and 500 converged news operations worldwide—and while the Poynter Institute and American Press Institute are tracking US. Media—the Convergence Monitor marks the industry’s first international effort to systematically identify and describe news organizations.

The Convergence Monitor site contains a variety of search interfaces to access information about the news operations in the database, as well as a link to the online survey that is generating the data (available directly at http://www.ifra.com/website/newsplexonl.nsf/html/index.html). Survey users can provide information about which media platforms (print, broadcast, online, mobile) they employ; which delivery methods are used for each medium (such as newspaper, magazine, television, radio, Web site, e-mail, SMS) and numbers of readers/viewers/users/subscribers; specifics on each partner or organization that comprises the overall convergence operation; reasons for converging; rating their convergence success; a description of how the operation runs; and relevant URLs.

Each entry also is assigned a unique Newsplex number for ease of searching, as well as a unique URL that allows users to update their entries as often as they like to stay current in the ever-changing convergence landscape.

The database currently contains about 45 entries, a mix of news operations primarily from the United States and Western Europe, but also from South America, Central America and Africa. In building on the success of the Poynter and API trackers’ listings and by leveraging Ifra’s contacts with a global clientele and international trainees matriculating through the Newsplex, the Convergence Monitor aspires to be the definitive storehouse of information on convergent media. As the database grows, plans include case studies and more in-depth industry research.

Please visit the site, share it with colleagues and give us your feedback by contacting Geoff LoCicero at newsresourcer@newsplex.org or (803) 348-8401.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Newsplex at the University of South Carolina Web site: http://newsplex.sc.edu

For information about our Academic Affiliates, visit www.newsplex.org/affiliates.shtml

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Conferences

A Conference on The Digital Revolution: The Impact of Digital Media and Information Technologies (Call for papers)

Oct. 14-16, 2004 (Paper submission deadline June 15)

Location: University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a scholarly examination of the attributes and implications of the digital revolution, including discussions of social influences, media practices, integrated information systems, cultural issues, legal implications, information needs and effects upon consumers. A showcase of convergent media practices will run concurrent with the academic conference. Paper submissions may address theoretical or practical examinations of digital photography, video, information archives, telephony, consumer electronics and information infrastructure.

Faculty and graduate students are invited to submit in one of three categories: completed papers, proposals or abstracts of papers in progress, or proposals for panels. Papers, proposals, abstracts, and panel proposals should be addressed to: Augie Grant, conference chair, Digital Revolution Conference, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, Carolina Coliseum, Columbia, SC 29208 or via e-mail: augie@sc.edu. For more information, see http://newsplex.sc.edu. Submission deadline (postmark) is June 15, 2004.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A Showcase of Digital Media and Information Projects and Practices (Call for presentations)

Oct. 14-16, 2004 (Presentation submission deadline June 15)

Location: University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C.

The purpose of this showcase of digital media and information projects and practices is to provide a venue for scholars and professionals experimenting with digital media and information technologies to demonstrate their systems, processes, experiments and innovations. This showcase is the demonstration component of The Digital Revolution: The Impact of Digital Media and Information Technologies, an academic conference exploring practical, theoretical, phenomenological, critical and/or empirical approaches to digital media and information technologies.

Faculty and graduate students are invited to submit in one or more of four categories: hands-on demonstrations of media and information projects and practices; PowerPoint, video or other multimedia presentations of digital media projects or practices; software demonstrations; or case studies (poster format with demonstration)

For registration and further information about the academic conference or this showcase, visit the conference Web site at http://newsplex.sc.edu. Proposals and questions about the showcase should be submitted electronically to augie@sc.edu or mailed to: Augie Grant, Conference Chair, Digital Revolution Conference, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, Carolina Coliseum, Columbia, SC 29208. Submission deadline (postmark) is June 15, 2004.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Backpack Journalism: Multiskilled multiple-media newshandling

June 21-25, 2004

www.newsplex.org

Newsplex, Columbia, S.C.

A five-day intensive, hands-on course designed to expand the skills of the monomedia journalist to build competencies in video, audio and text-based journalism. Participants will work individually and in teams to create cross-media journalism packages every day, publishing for all points of the convergence compass: text, video, audio and wireless. Exercises will center around realistic news scenarios that participants will act out and create journalism packages across media. Journalists will learn Visual Communicator, a unique and simple multimedia journalism storytelling tool.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Digital Story Master Class

July 26-30, 2004

http://www.mediacenter.org/04/Digitalstory/

Reston, Va.

Geared toward online content managers, editors, directors, visual and graphic designers, and senior producers for any Internet site where compelling content is critical to success; traditional print and broadcast journalists who want to learn new ways to communicate with online audiences. Attendees will learn ways to push the creative, journalistic limits of the Internet to serve audiences better and an understanding of the latest trends and state-of-the-art tools in online story-telling and interactive communications.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Convergence: The Tour

Oct. 19-22, 2004

http://www.mediacenter.org/04/Convergence/index.cfm

Location: TBA

Visit three of the most fully converged multi-platform newsrooms in the world in this convergence tour hosted by the American Press Institute. Meet executives and rank-and-file staffers who “do” convergence, see firsthand what convergence is all about and learn what it takes to build a converged news operation. Attendees will gain a better understanding of the costs and benefits of the various convergence models and of the nuts and bolts of structuring a convergence partnership. Tuition is $2,100 or $1,890 if you register by the Aug. 19 early-bird deadline.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Convergence for Teams: Visions & Values in Action

http://www.poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=3128

Oct. 24-29, 2004

St. Petersburg, Fla.

A Poynter Institute program

Companies are eager to build and discover ways to share their journalism on television, radio, in newspapers and on the Web. But many fear they will damage their core values or water down their reputation for excellence. Converged newsrooms need a practical plan that will help them strengthen their journalism, maintain their standards and reach more people. You will see the plans and best practices of other converged newsroom around the country. As a team, you will evaluate your own convergence efforts and make specific plans to move forward and you will get feedback from your newsrooms about what is working and what needs work in your convergence plan. You also will explore the ethics and leadership issues that arise when newsrooms converge.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Announcements/News

Business Side of Convergence Has Myths, Some Real Benefits

Source: Online Journalism Review (www.ojr.org)

By Mark Glaser (May 19, 2004)

It very well could have started with a bean counter deep within a media company somewhere. That person must have said, thinking out loud: "Golly, we have people covering local news for our TV station and we have people covering the same news for our newspaper. Why can't we converge them and cut half the staff?"

Alas for the bean counters, if it were only that easy. Instead, the early convergence experiments combining print, broadcast and online operations are finding that they need more people to do more work -- including a "market director" who makes sure salespeople are working in concert and not against each other. The idea that you could train someone on multiple platforms doesn't mean you can stretch them beyond human capacity.

That's just one of the myths we'll debunk as we turn our attention toward the business, sales and marketing side of converged newsrooms.

Read the full story at http://ojr.org/ojr/business/1084948706.php.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Online News Association hiring director

The Online News Association is looking for a part-time executive director to help the organization continue its growth and development.  The position will be approximately half-time, except during July, when the ONA is accepting entries for the annual Online Journalism Awards competition; and during October, when the ONA is preparing for its annual conference.  During those periods, the position may increase to

75-time.

This is an ideal opportunity for a professional who is familiar with digital journalism issues and concerns, and who is looking for a part-time position with real responsibility, great networking opportunities, flexible hours, and the opportunity to work from home (it's a telecommuting position).

Job responsibilities may include:

Member services:

*Respond to member inquiries

*Process membership applications;

*Provide administrative support to ONA committees

*Produce the ONA newsletter every other week

Grant development:

*Produce successful grant proposals

*Provide oversight to grant projects

Program partnerships:

*Work with new and existing organizational partners (such as ONA's current partnerships with the APME Roundtables project, and the Knight-funded NewsTrain).

Conference:

*Work with outside vendors to identify potential conference sites

*Maintain the conference budget

*Hire and supervise outside registration and exhibition vendors

*Produce or supervise production of the conference program

*Serve as a point person for inquiries and problems during the event

Contest:

*Serve as the liaison between the ONA and representatives of the University of Southern California Annenberg School in the planning and implementation of the contest process;

*Serve as the point person for entrants during the entry period

*Work with USC Annenberg to provide support to wranglers and screeners.

Interested persons should contact current ONA Executive Director Dianne Lynch at dlynch@journalist.org or at (802) 434-7730.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Interesting Links

NYU Goes Interactive – New York University is home to an Interactive Telecommunications Program, a graduate program combining the study and design of new media, computational media and embedded computing under the umbrella of interactivity, according to the program’s Web site at http://itp.nyu.edu/. It goes on to explain that the “department encourages students to create new forms of communication through the exploration of social applications, physical computing, interactive games, multimedia art, sound, video and much more while focusing on user interaction. ITP's goal is to train a new kind of professional – one whose understanding of technology is informed by a strong sense of aesthetics and ethics.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

From A to Z – Check out www.clickz.com interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion and research. The goal, according to ClickZ, is to help interactive marketers do their jobs better. But if you have an interest in technology, ClickZ has plenty of useful statistics, breaking news and features.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Copyright and Redistribution

The Convergence Newsletter is free and published by The Center for Mass Communications Research at the University of South Carolina, College of Mass Communications and Information Studies. It may be redistributed in any form – print or electronic – without edits or deletion of any content.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Submission Guidelines/Deadline Schedule

The Convergence Newsletter welcomes articles of all sorts addressing the subject of convergence in journalism and media. We also accept news briefs, calls for papers and conference announcements. Our audience is both academics and professionals, and the publication style is APA 7^th edition. Feature articles should be 750 to 1,500 words; other articles should be 250 to 750 words; announcements and conference submissions should be 200 words. All articles should be submitted to The Convergence Newsletter Editor at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu. Please include your name, affiliation and contact information with your submission.

The Convergence Newsletter is published the first week of each month (except January). Articles should be submitted at least 10 days prior to the publication date. Any questions should be sent to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

---------------Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information

To subscribe, unsubscribe or edit your information, please send a message to

convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu or write to The Convergence Newsletter c/o School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.