The Convergence Newsletter
From Newsplex at the University of South Carolina
Vol. V No. 8 (March 2008)
Commenting on Convergence
By Brad Petit, Editor of The Convergence Newsletter
In February’s issue, we tackled broadcasting from three perspectives: television, radio, and teaching. We had enough great material, we wanted to keep it coming this month.
Starting off, Dr. Tim Brown of the University of Central Florida offers some preliminary research into how TV newsrooms are using personalized new-media technology (including e-mail and text messaging) to deliver content to their audiences, even when there’s not a television in sight.
Then we have the conclusion of our interview with Maria Thomas, senior vice president of digital media at National Public Radio. Thomas gives clear insights into how a traditional media outlet can branch out and embrace new technologies while staying true to its core values. You can read part one of our interview with Thomas in last month’s issue.
We close out this issue with an announcement from Dr. Patrick Plaisance of Colorado State University on the upcoming Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics. He lays out guidelines for those interested in submitting proposals for the September colloquium.
If you would like to have your conference announcement or call for papers featured in an upcoming issue of TCN, please e-mail us.
Next month, we’ll look beyond our borders to convergence internationally, with perspectives from three regions. This summer, we’ll turn our attention to the impacts of convergence on physical and social communities. This is an important aspect of convergence we hope to do much more on. If you have insights that you’d like to craft into an article for TCN, please let us know.
We’re excited to see traffic to the blog is increasing. As you surf by, why not use the comments feature to let us know how you felt about a particular article or articles? Got questions, reactions, or relevant Web links? We’d love to see them. Let’s keep the dialog going.
Contact Brad Petit, editor of The Convergence Newsletter, at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
View past newsletters at http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/.
Visit The Convergence Newsletter blog at http://convergencenl.blogspot.com.
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Feature Articles
How Television Stations are “Broadcasting” Their News to Your Pocket
NPR: Not your Parents’ Radio – Part Two
The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics: Competing Imperatives and Duties
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Conferences, Training and Calls for Papers
Newsplex Summer Seminar
May 12 – 16
AEJMC Southeast Colloquium
March 13 – 15
BEA 2008
April 16 – 19
61st World Newspaper Congress and 15th World Editors Forum
June 1 – 4
AEJMC Convention 2008
Aug. 6 – 9
The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics: Competing Imperatives and Duties
Sept. 15 – 17
28th American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA) Annual Conference
Oct. 1 – 4
Convergence and Society: The Participatory Web
Oct. 9 – 11
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---------------Feature Articles
How Television Stations are “Broadcasting” Their News to Your Pocket
By Dr. Tim Brown, University of Central Florida
Around the “turn of the millennium,” I was lucky to work in a television newsroom that had a very active Web page. Being prone to distraction from what I ought to be doing, I enjoyed learning from the webmaster about the different ways we could use this “new media” for our product – at that time, it was a low-bandwidth Web page and a few e-mails, mostly coming in from viewers rather than going out to them.
Oh, how times have changed in those seven or so years. More and more Americans are accessing the Internet from their homes at broadband speed (Horrigan, 2006) instead of dialup and many are going online to seek out news and information (Rainie & Fallows, 2004). But it’s not just the “wired” Internet – the use of, and desire for, mobile Internet connections for e-mail and information services is also growing, signaling a change in the way people seek out and access even traditional media outlets (Rainie & Keeter, 2006). At the same time, viewership for television stations is declining (Heaton, 2006) and traditional news organizations are looking for ways to continue to disseminate content and retain current users, yet still reach new, often younger, consumers (Bergstrom, 2006). Some even wonder whether we’ll still have “the six o’clock news” for much longer (Ahlers, 2006).
All of that leads to some interesting questions – just how are television newsrooms sending out their news, and are they putting as much effort into “newer” methods of delivery as they are into their traditional broadcast? I decided to take a look at these questions and what they might mean for future generations of news consumers – and professionals.
Jumping into a national study would be daunting and might be biting off more than I could chew, so I decided to start with two states to which I have current and historical connections, South Carolina and Florida. When looking at the markets in both of them, we get a pretty good cross section of the type of television stations that are producing news. Both states have top-30 markets in their coverage areas, as well as midlevel (50-90) and small (100+) markets. Both have stations owned by large corporations (Media General, Cox, Hearst-Argyle) and some “not-so-large” ones (Schurz, Bahakel). And while only 52 stations in those two states are producing original news content (i.e., not sharing news talent/broadcasts with another station), and only 26 stations responded to an online survey, we still get a pretty good idea of not only what these stations are doing, but what other questions we need to be asking.
First, some quick numbers. Every station reported having a Web page, and most (72 percent) reported they had been online more than six years. Weather radar was the most visited feature on their Web pages, and 66 percent of the stations said they broke their last big story online. However, it is interesting to note that almost half of the stations (44 percent) said they employed only one full-time staff member dedicated to new media. Some said they employed part-timers as well, but rarely more than two.
When it comes to e-mail alerts and news blasts, 70 percent of stations send e-mail news alerts to subscribers, usually less than three per day. Those not sending e-mails usually point to corporate technology pressures; that is, the individual stations are waiting on a corporate decision to install or repair orupgrade the technology to send out e-mails. The same could be said for text message (SMS) alerts; 65 percent of responding stations said they send them out, usually about three per day. It is interesting to examine the 35 percent who don’t: Half of those say they are likely to try SMS alerts soon, but the other half say they have already tried SMS alerts and have abandoned them. Again corporate technology policies and pressures are a popular reason for not sending SMS alerts.
Stations were asked about blogging on their Web sites, and some interesting results emerged – specifically, the issue split stations down the middle. Half of those responding say they do host blogs, but a small percentage of their reporters actually take part (less than 20 percent). In addition, most said that while blogs are designed to allow more personal opinions and experiences of the reporters to come through, they don’t allow viewers/Web users to add comments. That then leads to the question: Are they really blogs? Of those who aren’t blogging, most respond that they’re likely to try it, but that they are cautious as to how it will be perceived. In other words, they want to maintain the news credibility of the station while still allowing reporters the freedom to add personal experiences. And at least one respondent offered my favorite comment: “… Haven’t had anything to blog about!”
These numbers must be considered in context – namely, the small number of responses. However, as a pilot study, these numbers do point us in some interesting directions for further study. First, they seem to confirm that stations are recognizing the need to deliver their product in different, nontraditional ways. In addition, two themes seem to have emerged: Stations are facing corporate technology and funding pressures when it comes to new delivery methods, and they are trying to maintain their identity and credibility within the new-media delivery methods. As we have become much more of a “user-generated” content society, stations seem to be concerned that new-media delivery methods may be perceived as “social” or “less serious” and that the perception might detract from their credibility. And as economic pressures increase on media companies, it will be interesting to see how stations incorporate these technologies in the future. Knowing that could help answer a question that was raised during the initial presentation of this data at the Convergence Conference in Columbia, S.C., in October – namely, do new methods of delivery change perceptions of what is “breaking news”?
Clearly, more research (with more respondents) is needed to generalize these initial findings. Data collection on a national version of this study should begin in the next month. And other current research can also help fill in the gaps, namely blogging research from Doug Fisher, hiring research being conducted by Harvie Nachlinger, and research into nonlinear editing conducted by me and Augie Grant. The more we know about how traditional broadcast outlets are using new media, and how that use affects the view of news, the more we can help both students and professionals use that new media to their fullest.
References:
Dr. Tim Brown is an assistant professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida. This article was based on a presentation at the annual Convergence Conference at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, October 2007. He can be reached at timbrown@mail.ucf.edu.
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NPR: Not your Parents’ Radio – Part Two
(Editor’s note: Maria Thomas is the senior vice president of digital media at National Public Radio. Since 2001, she has directed NPR’s digital media activities and has led the growth of NPR.org. Recently, TCN spoke with Thomas by phone about the role digital media play in influencing the way NPR does business. Part one of that interview ran in February’s issue of The Convergence Newsletter. What follows is part two.)
TCN: Inasmuch as it seems NPR is trying to stay out in front of what the Web can do, to what extent is that a reflection of how NPR is always striving to maximize the use of radio and what that format allows?
Thomas: I think that NPR has a fantastic opportunity in the digital space – when I say “digital space” I specifically mean the Web and mobile platforms – for the following reasons: If you look at the distinctive qualities of radio as a medium and you map those to the distinctive qualities of the Web as a medium, they’re almost exactly opposite. And this is not true for a newspaper, let’s say, which is essentially going print to print when they move the newspaper to online. You look at radio and it is first of all, of course, audible only. It is geographically bound – that is to say, the signal is broadcast from a station’s tower and it only goes so far. It’s time bound; you only have 24 hours in a day. And it’s linear, meaning you must listen in the order in which it’s presented. And it’s ephemeral. It’s here, it’s gone. So those are five qualities that are distinctive to the radio. If you map those against online, they’re almost exactly opposite. So online is not geographically bound, it’s not time bound, it’s not ephemeral, it’s not linear, and it’s certainly not audible only. So you could look at that and say, “Oh my god, this is a train wreck.” Or you could look at it and say, “What an enormous opportunity to serve an audience, to serve the public by expressing all of the things, all of the wonderful qualities that brand NPR has come to stand for over the decades, and expressing them in different ways creatively, different ways from a convenience and delivery perspective, in a personalized way, in a way that connects listeners and ideas.” So, I think that the two mediums are highly complimentary. When I say that, I’m talking about that from the perspective of an audience and also from the perspective of what a creative institution is capable of doing.
TCN: So how have those new technologies and those new delivery formats changed the way NPR views itself and views the role it plays among today’s media?
Thomas: I think the answer is that it doesn’t change our view of our mission at all. Our mission says “educate, inform, and entertain” essentially the American public. You might question that word “American” just because the Web is a global platform, but essentially we are still about educating, informing, and entertaining; and if you go onto our Web site and look at our mission and our vision and our core values and all that stuff, they are actually beautifully written in such a way that they can be applied in a platform-agnostic way. So I don’t think that the Web changes our mission in any way and I also don’t think that it changes how we would measure our success. If we’re doing our job, I think it basically means that we’re reaching more and more people and a greater diversity of people.
TCN: I know NPR Music just recently launched. Talk about if it’s been successful, how it’s been received and if it really demonstrates more of a departure from what NPR has traditionally done in the sense that now you’re not necessarily just repackaging things for the Web. What does it mean for your digital operation?
Thomas: We’re very excited about NPR Music. I would say that in its first month and a half of its existence, it’s been very well received. I think that what’s exciting about NPR Music, first of all it’s just a treasure trove of music information and an opportunity for music lovers to discover new music and information about music. So from an audience perspective I think that it fills a niche that wasn’t being filled on the Web. And we’re certainly seeing that in the numbers and in the comments and in the press. From our own perspective, I think it illustrates something really important, which we have not been able to illustrate as well in other parts of the site, which is the notion that creating a Web site called NPR.org is about something much bigger than creating a radio companion site. If we just wanted to create a radio companion site, that would be a narrower strategy and a smaller investment. And we’re not a radio station – we’re a brand that’s about ideas and about information and about curiosity and about joy and all those things I mentioned before. And I think what the music site begins to showcase in a small way is how we can do that without losing our identity. Part of our identity is that we are part of a local-national family, and the music site brings in a lot of that content from around the country and showcases it. So we be who we are online – which is we’re a lot of things – and we have to think about expressing who we are in a way that’s not just about representing individual radio shows online.
TCN: So the Web has really enabled you ... more to address those core principles that you talked about that with radio, for better or worse, you weren’t able to necessarily capitalize on?
Thomas: Not exactly. I actually think the radio does a wonderful job of being true to the core values of the institution, so I don’t want to suggest that I don’t think that. We’re never going to change the fact that if there’s a beautiful story being told in audible form by a seasoned NPR reporter, there’s nothing like the intimacy of that experience of listening to radio. And I don’t want to take anything away from that because I think that persists, even in a digital environment. So I don’t think that it’s fair to say that the Web enables us to do things that just weren’t happening or just weren’t possible. I think it’s just an entirely new paradigm. If you want to talk about music specifically, it does enable the aggregation of content from across an entire public radio system. We have 12 station partners right now in that project. So that is different, because it’s hard to showcase all of that on one radio station. But the principles underlying it, the core values of the programming and the approach haven’t changed, and I hope that you can begin to see that in this visual, nonlinear experience.
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The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics: Competing Imperatives and Duties
By Dr. Patrick Plaisance, Colorado State University
As part of a decade-long series aimed at enhancing scholarship in applied media ethics, a consortium of Colorado universities will host the colloquium – the ninth in the Colloquia 2000 series – to bring together scholars exploring the intersection of media ethics and media economics. The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics: Competing Imperatives and Duties will be Sept. 15-17, 2008, in Estes Park, Colo. The deadline for receiving proposals is April 15.
Ten research fellows will be selected from the proposal competition to develop scholarship on media ethics theory's application to commercial media systems. Single-authored proposals are welcome, but selected fellows will be paired to produce a total of five papers. Fellows will be selected in part with the aim of creating teams to combine disciplines or pair junior scholars with senior scholars. Once selected, teams will develop a draft paper that will be presented at the colloquium. Team members then will refine their work into a co-authored manuscript to be given priority consideration for publication in the Journal of Mass Media Ethics.
Selected fellows will receive an honorarium and support to cover transportation, accommodations, and meals. They will stay at the colloquium site, the YMCA of the Rockies, a premier mountain resort in Estes Park. At 9,000 feet above sea level, Estes Park is the scenic gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park, 90 minutes from Denver International Airport.
Proposals should focus on questions involving media ethics theory and economic structure. The colloquium encourages proposals that explore the increasingly competing imperatives of media economics and the ethical dimensions of media practice. Proposals may focus on one or more media sectors such as journalism, advertising, public relations, community media, and new communication technologies; and they may address issues such as profitability, public service, media capitalization, social justice, corporate responsibility, and notions of harm, accountability, and control. The colloquium is most interested in proposals with a macro-level focus on applied moral philosophy – for example, innovative efforts to explore intersections of business or economic theory with ethical theory, in the context of media performance – and is less interested in case studies or more prescriptive “media reform” advocacy.
During the colloquium, fellows will present their work to, and solicit feedback from, each other and the senior scholars who form the colloquium series steering committee. Students and faculty from the hosting universities – the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado, and Denver University – also will be invited to attend a public session.
Proposals should include the following:
• A 500-word abstract for an envisioned original paper
• A curriculum vitae
• Indication, if any, of a desired team membership
• Notification of whether you have applied for or participated in previous colloquia in the series (for data-collection purposes; this will not affect decisions for fellowships)
The call for proposals also can be found at:
http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~tbivins/aejmc_ethics/news-events.html
E-mail proposals by midnight April 15 to:
Patrick Lee Plaisance
patrick.plaisance@colostate.edu
Dr. Patrick Plaisance is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Technical Communication at Colorado State University. He can be reached at patrick.plaisance@colostate.edu.
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---------------Conferences, Training and Calls for Papers
Newsplex Summer Seminar
Columbia, S.C.
May 12 – 16
http://newsplex.sc.edu/newsplex08/sumsem.html
As of March 4 only 1 space remains. If you are interested in the final seat, please register online as soon as possible by following the link above.
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AEJMC Southeast Colloquium
Auburn, Ala.
March 13 – 15
http://aejmc.org/_events/regional_meetings/index.php
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BEA 2008: The New Communications Frontiers
Las Vegas
April 16 – 19
http://www.beaweb.org/bea2008/index.html
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61st World Newspaper Congress and 15th World Editors Forum
Goteborg, Sweden
June 1 – 4
Congress: http://www.wan-press.org/
Forum: http://www.worldeditorsforum.org/
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AEJMC Convention
Chicago
Aug. 6 – 9
http://aejmc.org/_events/convention/08convention/index.php
Call for Papers deadline: April 1
http://aejmc.org/08convention.php
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The Colorado Colloquium on Media Ethics & Economics: Competing Imperatives and Duties
Estes Park, Colo.
Sept. 15 – 17
http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/~tbivins/aejmc_ethics/news-events.html
Call for Papers deadline: April 15, 2008
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28th American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA) Annual Conference
Oct. 1 – 4
Seattle
http://ajhaonline.org/convention.html
Call for Papers deadline: May 15
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Convergence and Society: The Participatory Web
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S.C.
Oct. 9 – 11
http://newsplex.sc.edu/newsplex08/cfpapers.html
Call for Papers deadline: June 15
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---------------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
Doug Fisher
dfisher@sc.edu
Editor
Brad Petit
convedit@mailbox.sc.edu
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---------------Online
Visit The Convergence Newsletter blog at http://convergencenl.blogspot.com, where you can comment on recent articles and keep up with the latest in convergence news. There is also an RSS feed option for those who want alternative access.
View past and current issues of The Convergence Newsletter at http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Licensing and Redistribution
The Convergence Newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
This newsletter may be redistributed in any form — print or electronic — without edits or deletion of any content.
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---------------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, book reviews, calls for papers and conference announcements. Our audience is both academics and professionals; the publication style is AP for copy and APA for citations. Feature articles should be 750 to 1,200 words. Other articles should be 250 to 750 words; announcements and conference submissions should be 200 words. Please send all articles to The Convergence Newsletter editor at convedit@mailbox.sc.edu along with your name, affiliation, and contact information.
If you would like to post a position announcement, include a brief description of the position and a link to the complete information. All announcements should be submitted to The Convergence Newsletter editor at convedit@mailbox.sc.edu.
The Convergence Newsletter is published the first or second week of each month except January and July. Articles should be submitted by the 15th of the month to be considered for the next month’s issue. Any questions should be sent to convedit@mailbox.sc.edu.
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---------------Subscribe/Information
To subscribe or edit your information, please send a message to convedit@mailbox.sc.edu. You may write to The Convergence Newsletter c/o School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.