The
Convergence Newsletter
From
Newsplex at the University of South Carolina
Vol. III
No. 3 (September 7, 2005)
Commenting
on Convergence
By
Jordan Storm, editor of The Convergence Newsletter
As I am
sure most of you already know, The New York Times has officially merged its print
and digital newsroom staffs. Newspaper consultant Tim Porter commented on
the merger in a Poynteronline news feed, saying, "The Times is an iconic symbol of American print
journalism, and when it says the walls are coming down, then institutional
evolution is clearly afoot." Poynteronline's news feed, The Chaser, highlighted
Porter's use of the word "evolution" rather than "revolution."
This point
cannot be stressed enough. Convergence is not a concept that will quickly
pass by as some fads have in the past (think CB radios or teletext). Rather,
as Porter remarked, it is an evolution of media practices. For this reason,
we need to continue to study, debate and modify our understanding of convergence
so that we can better apply it in the future.
With
this aim in mind, I invite you to share The Convergence Newsletter with
your students and/or coworkers in the coming weeks. As a subscriber, you
have already identified your
interest
in convergence, but your colleagues, who may not be as well read in the fundamentals
of convergence, are the readers who will benefit most from its content.
I
believe The New York Times' newsroom merger is yet another strong indicator that implementation
of convergent practices has become a reality. While The New York Times is not a pioneer, its approval
or adoption of convergence is a benchmark of acceptance. As such, it would be a shame not to help educate present and
future media practitioners and professionals about practices that are
taking
root in the industry.
In this
issue, Thomas Ruggiero from the University of Texas at El Paso discusses changes
in journalists' authority, particularly regarding new technologies. Rather
than simply extolling the virtues of convergence and the Internet, Ruggiero
explores some of the issues the field of journalism is faced with today.
Building
on Ruggiero's acknowledgement that media convergence in practice is not always
unproblematic, Augie Grant, the executive editor of The Convergence Newsletter,
has issued a call to action to the newsletter's subscribers. I encourage you
all to respond. In addition, April Brown discusses the University of South
Carolina's AMBER Alert training initiative, through which law enforcement
officers and broadcasters will be trained using converged media.
On a final
note, mark your calendars: September 29 is the last day to register to attend
the Conference on Media Convergence in Provo, Utah.
Jordan
Storm is working toward a Master of Arts degree at the University of South
Carolina. Contact her at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
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Feature
Articles
Traditional
Journalistic Authority
AMBER
Alert: Convergence at Work
The Dark
Side of Convergence
Newsplex
News: Interest in Convergence is Worldwide
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Conference
Information
Adplexing:
Cross-Media Advertising Tools & Techniques
Media
Convergence Conference: Cooperation, Collisions and Change
Society
of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference
Association
for Women in Communications 2005 Professional Conference
Citizens
Media Summit
2005 Online
News Association Conference
BEA2006:
Convergence Shockwave
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Feature
Articles
Traditional Journalistic
Authority
By
Thomas E. Ruggiero, associate professor in the Communication Department at
the University of Texas at El Paso
Historically
speaking, the prominence of established media technologies such as motion
pictures, radio, newspapers and network television have vacillated in popularity,
and often have been forced to evolve as newer technologies have developed
and diffused. While it is not yet certain that Internet news content will
eventually displace traditional news content, historical patterns of competition
among mass media provide evocative evidence for the process of convergence
and a change in the traditional role of journalists.
Correspondingly,
hyperbole about the Internet as the single most constructive and revolutionary
force in journalism since the invention of the printing press abounds. But
some journalists continue to perceive the Internet as an unreliable news source.
An apt example of the cause of their concern occurred when a Brazilian student,
Marcio A.V. Carvalho, spread false information on the Internet the night after
September 11, 2001. He asserted that CNN video of Palestinians celebrating
the terrorist attack on the U. S. was really Persian Gulf War-era file footage
from a decade earlier. The video that aired on CNN and other networks was
in fact shot by a Reuters TV crew in the hours after the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. Yet with no further corroboration or elaboration
from others, Carvalho's e-mail dispatch dashed around the world at a speed
only the Internet can offer. Within 24 hours, the story had spread so extensively
that The St. Petersburg Times
began to organize a news series to discredit September 11 rumors such as this
one.
More recently,
a site called India Daily passed through Google's rigorous approval process and is
included in their index of news sources. An April 2005 story headline reads
"Exterrestrial UFO communications systems use information transfer between
dimensions through tiny mega intensity energy modules." Other Internet
news hoaxes have ranged from Pierre Salinger's allegation that a U.S. Navy
missile downed TWA Flight 800, to novelist Kurt Vonnegut's nonexistent MIT
commencement speech in which he advised the Class of '97 to "wear sunscreen,
sing, floss and do one thing everyday that scares you."
Despite
these examples of Internet "news" duplicity—and there are
countless more—the journalistic mandate is to continue to produce legitimate
news even in the face of the rapid incursion of convergence on traditional
journalistic formats. Whether journalists are prepared or not, technology
and business fervor is fast eroding the previous presumption that the Fourth
Estate possesses an exclusive constitutional mandate, or what Haiman calls
the "monopoly of traditional media coverage."
Blogs
appear to some to offer a particularly potent challenge to the authority of
traditional journalists. Dave Winer, CEO of Userland.com, celebrates the non-professional
nature of blogs and their nearly revolutionary potential to supersede traditional
media as news gatekeepers: We're returning to what I call amateur journalism,
created for the love of writing, without expectation of financial compensation.
This process is fed by the changing economics of the publishing industry,
which is employing fewer writers and editors. The Web has taught us to expect
more information, not less. Winer says the paradigm shift conventional journalists
are facing is how to retain relevancy to a populace that can create for themselves
what the big publications refuse to produce. Others, however, are not yet persuaded.
Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, speculates against the blog
phenomenon surpassing the primacy of traditional news sources. He says readers
need a source of information that is unbiased, accurate and coherent. News
organizations such as The New York Times can provide that far more consistently than private
parties can. Besides, the Weblog phenomenon does not represent anything fundamentally
new in the news media; The New York Times has been publishing individual points
of view on its Op Ed page for 100 years.
In spite
of Nisenholtz's bravado, rather than dismissing the blog phenomenon, a growing
number of traditional news organizations are "converging" and incorporating
blogs as part of their news content, including The New York Times, The San Jose Mercury News, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Congressional Quarterly, the Guardian in the United Kingdom and The
San Francisco Bay Guardian.
A 2005
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press survey shows favorable ratings
for daily newspapers, and favorability ratings for local TV news and network
TV news have all remained fairly stable since July 2001, even as public attitudes
toward the news media have declined. The same survey, however, begins to hint
at the progressive convergence of print news content: One third of Americans
below age 40 name the Internet as their main source of news, and many of these
people are reading newspapers online. Consequently, while people under age
50 remain far less likely to read a print newspaper than older people, they
are turning to local and national newspapers online in fairly significant
numbers.
For more
than a century, traditional journalists have defended their privilege to define
the "news." Yet, now at the birth of the twenty-first century, communities
are confronted with fewer and fewer newspapers; broadcast news divisions are
experiencing waning market shares; and many media consumers appear to be selecting
their news from online sources. Furthermore, while negative reaction by mainstream
journalists to the Internet as a news source was fiercest in the last decade,
it appears to have softened substantially with the proliferation of e-news
Web sites worldwide.
Ironically,
convergence, the Internet and blogs may ultimately represent both a boon and
a challenge to the production, distribution and basic forms of conventional
media institutions. It's probable that mainstream journalists will eventually
have much less difficulty accepting the technological advantages that convergence
has to offer, than they will sharing their authority as disseminators of news
with "amateur" journalists.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
AMBER
Alert: Convergence at Work
By
April Brown, Master of Mass Communication student at the University of South
Carolina
The AMBER
Alert System offers a good, practical example of convergence at work in this
day and age. The AMBER Alert, an early warning system used to notify the public
about abducted children, crosses media boundaries to distribute information,
particularly in the critical first three hours after abduction. The Department
of Justice awarded the University of South Carolina's College of Mass Communication
and Information Studies a $200,000 grant to conduct 25 one-day training sessions
for broadcasters, law enforcement personnel, and others involved in AMBER
Alerts. The purpose of the training
is to help develop the processes and procedures through which broadcasters
and law enforcement personnel disseminate AMBER Alerts in the future.
USC's Newsplex facility was selected because of its ability to simulate
AMBER Alerts in an environment with the latest technology and convergent media
practices. The training sessions for broadcasters, law enforcement personnel
and AMBER Alert coordinators will begin in October and run through August
2006.
Although
the primary media for AMBER Alerts are television and radio, the system also
uses highway signs, the Internet, and cell phone text messaging to disseminate
information about abducted children. USC's program will train participants
on how to use these media to disseminate AMBER Alerts in the most effective
way.
USC faculty
members will lead training participants through analysis of the AMBER Alert
system in preparation for a series of mock scenarios. The participants will
study cases of past alerts before they work through these scenarios as a team.
The scenarios are designed to walk the participants through each step of a
potential AMBER Alert, forcing participants to make decisions in regards to
what media outlets should be contacted, when they should be contacted and
what information should be shared. The training will emphasize how these choices
could affect the outcome of a future alert.
Hugh Munn,
a former law enforcement officer and current public relations instructor at
USC, was approached by the Department of Justice to create the training because
the DOJ saw the need for broadcasters to be trained by journalists who understand
the complexities of the newsroom. According to Munn, the training sessions
offer broadcasters and law enforcement the opportunity to work together and
gain perspective on the others' role in an AMBER Alert. "Our goal is
to make AMBER Alerts more effective," says Munn. "It all comes down
to communication and practice. Time is our most precious resource in an AMBER
Alert, and the training is designed to make alerts more effective, saving
lives."
The AMBER
Alert is a voluntary effort between law enforcement agencies and broadcasters
to activate an alert system that motivates the community to assist in searching
for abducted children. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency
Response. The name was created as a legacy for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman,
who was abducted on January 13, 1996, while riding her bicycle in the parking
lot of an abandoned grocery store in Arlington, Texas and later murdered by
her abductor. The Arlington community was outraged and in the aftermath, locals
questioned the lack of an alert system. In response, radio managers of Arlington
developed an idea and proposed it to Public Information Officer (now Sheriff)
Dee Anderson, who was in charge of the Hagerman case. In December 1996, the
AMBER Alert plan was unveiled, and the first activation occurred in July 1997.
In 1998,
the plan gained national acclaim, and in 2002, President George W. Bush directed
the Department of Justice to set up its own AMBER plan. A year later he signed
the PROTECT Act of 2003. Today all 50 states have plans. In addition, there
are also 27 regional plans in the United States and a plan for every province
in Canada. The AMBER Alert system is also slated to go international; Sheriff
Anderson indicated that England has finished developing its plan and Australian
officials have contacted him for direction on developing a plan.
Through
USC's training and resources, the AMBER Alert system will continue to evolve
as an effective and timely method of notifying the public about abducted children.
Using a convergence of media, the AMBER Alert is developing to meet the needs
of an increasingly technology savvy public.
For more
information on how to get involved with the training and the AMBER Alert system,
contact Augie Grant at 803-777-4464 or email augie@sc.edu.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The
"Dark Side" of Convergence
By
Augie Grant, executive editor
of The Convergence Newsletter and associate professor in the College of Mass
Communications and Information Studies, University of South Carolina
Now that
The Convergence Newsletter is in its third year of publication, I have had an opportunity to look
across the articles that we've published to see what patterns emerge. Many
of these patterns are good (the sharing of research findings, conference information,
and a wide variety of perspectives on convergence, for example), but one pattern
is disturbing—we have yet to publish an article offering a strong critique
of convergent journalism.
In creating
this newsletter, one of my goals was to provide a balance of information regarding
convergent media practices and perspectives, and that meant that this newsletter
could not become a "cheerleader" for the convergence movement. That
goal has not been achieved.
This failure
is not from lack of trying. Indeed, I've made personal appeals for such articles
to a number of colleagues across the country who have offered critical comments
relating to the wide range of activities in media convergence that emerge
from this office. I remember begging an article from a colleague from one
of our peer universities who indicated that his program was not converged
and would never converge. He made a number of strong points in favor of keeping
his curriculum as it was, but he was not willing to go "on the record"
to make those points.
So why
the concern? As a staunch advocate of converged media, I want to make sure
that all sides of the issue are addressed. Virtually every school that has
attempted to implement a converged curriculum has made a misstep or two—if
we can document these, we can help others avoid the same mistakes.
The areas
of concern are numerous:
You certainly
can add your own examples to this list. In fact, I invite to you take one
of these topics, or one of your own, and prepare a brief commentary on the
subject that we can publish in a future edition of this newsletter. Your article
can be theoretical, practical, historical, speculative or cautionary, addressing
any dimension of convergent journalism or converged media in general.
Of course,
you can also submit articles that balance the positive and negative aspects
of convergence, and I know that we will continue to publish research on commentary
on the benefits of converged media. But this forum needs to do more to provide
a balanced view of the impacts of convergence.
At a future
time, I'll address the other patterns that I've observed regarding the content
of this newsletter. It will be a lot more fun looking at the positive side.
But for now, the mission is for this newsletter to present a much broader
range of perspectives on convergence. I eagerly await your input.
To submit
an article or commentary, or to comment on this commentary, email convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Newsplex
News
Interest
in Convergence is Worldwide
By
Randy Covington, director of the Ifra Newsplex and assistant professor of
journalism at the University of South Carolina
When the
Ifra Newsplex opened in the fall of 2002, there were some who said it was
ahead of its time. Now almost three years later, it is become increasingly
apparent all over the world that the newsroom of the future needs to be different
from the newsroom today.
Whether
in Europe or in Asia, media houses are wrestling with very similar issues—circulation
that generally is declining, an audience that is fragmenting, and new media
that are being produced and used in increasingly creative ways. So it is not
surprising that media houses
In September,
a second Newsplex will open at Ifra headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany. (Ifra
is the world's leading association of newspaper publishers with more than
3,000 members in 70 different countries.) Newsplex Europe primarily is intended
to serve the European market. It will offer hands on training in weeklong
increments, as at the U.S. Newsplex, as well as special seminars on topics
such as backpack journalism and Podcasting.
Over the
summer, I learned the conversation about convergence is indeed a global one.
I have done presentations in Seoul, Korea; Cains, Australia; Prague, the Czech
Republic, and Madrid, Spain. While I was many miles and time zones away from
Columbia, S.C., the issues and questions were identical to the ones we hear
from journalists and academics who come to Newsplex.
Media
houses are turning to Newsplex for answers, and, quite frankly, there is much
we can learn from them. As I travel, it is interesting to see how experiments
in new media journalism, such as OhmyNews in Korea and the use of SMS as a
reader feedback tool in Australia, are
Continuing
on this one world theme, this fall some of the world's leading media houses
will come to the U.S. Newsplex for training, including the Guardian Media
Group from the UK, El Tiempo from Bogota, Colombia and two groups of newspaper executives from Norway.
It would
Newsplex
at the University of South Carolina Web site: http://newsplex.sc.edu
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---------------Conferences
Adplexing:
Cross-Media Advertising Tools & Techniques
IfraNewsplex
September
19-22, 2005
Columbia,
South Carolina, USA
http://newsplex.org/program/training_adplexing05.shtml
The IfraNewsplex's
four-day Adplexing seminar is in its third year. It is reflective of the explosive
growth of the cross-media advertising phenomenon that has been taking the
media world by storm. Millions of dollars, euros and pounds are being made
building a cross-media advertising enterprise, and this workshop will show
you how to build one and maximize its revenue-making potential.
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Conference
on Media Convergence: Cooperation, Collisions and Change
Co-sponsored
by Brigham Young University and the University of South Carolina
October
13-15, 2005, Provo, Utah, USA
Now in
its fourth year, the purpose of this annual conference is to provide a scholarly
forum for the presentation of theory, research and practice related to media
convergence. A showcase of convergent media practices will run concurrent
with the academic conference. For registration and further information about
this academic conference or the showcase, visit the conference Web site at
http://convergence.byu.edu.
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Society
of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference
Oct. 16-18,
2005
Las Vegas,
USA
The Society
of Professional Journalists' National Convention offers members and the journalism
community an opportunity to reflect on the industry and to engage in thought-provoking,
stimulating and hands-on training. Reporters, editors, educators and students
from across the U.S. and several foreign nations will make this event a top
priority.
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The
Association for Women in Communications 2005 Professional Conference
October
20-22, 2005
Lubbock,
Texas, USA
The Association
for Women in Communications is a professional organization that champions
the advancement of women across all communication disciplines by recognizing
excellence, promoting leadership and positioning its members at the forefront
of the evolving communications era.
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Citizens
Media Summit
October
24, 2005
University
of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/citizens_media_summit/
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2005
Online News Association Conference
October
28-29, 2005-October 29, 2005
New York,
New York, USA
http://www.onlinenewsassociation.org/news/archives/000144.php
The conference
will explore topics such as Defining Online Journalism, What's Still New in
New Media, Participatory Journalism Ð What's That all About?, Web Analystics,
Working Without a Net and a Blogging 'how-to.'
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Broadcast
Education Association
Convergence
Shockwave: Change, Challenge
and Opportunity
April
27-29, 2006
Las Vegas,
USA
The BEA2006
Conference aims to create a forum for discussion and research on the issues
that face media convergence today. The deadline for research papers is December
2, 2005.
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---------------Announcements/News
Publishing
a Book about Convergence? The
Convergence Newsletter regularly publishes information about new and upcoming books on convergent
journalism. Send your submissions to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Publisher
and Editorial Staff
The
Convergence Newsletter is free and published by The College of Mass Communications and Information
Studies at the University of South Carolina.
Executive
Editor
Augie
Grant, Ph.D.
Editor
Jordan
Storm
convergence-news@mailbox.sc.edu
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Copyright
and Redistribution
The
Convergence Newsletter is Copyright © 2005 by the University of South Carolina, College of
Mass Communications and Information Studies. All rights reserved.
This newsletter
may be redistributed in any form - print or electronic - without edits or
deletion of any content.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Submission
Guidelines/Deadline Schedule
The
Convergence Newsletter provides an editorially neutral forum for discussion of the theoretical
and professional meaning of media convergence. We welcome 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 7th
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.
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---------------Subscribe/Unsubscribe
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