The
news profession and the news business are changing dramatically to accommodate a digital,
networked, open media environment containing
millions of free information sources.
Challenges
include:
* Multi-platform
storytelling ("convergence").
As
media become digital, their forms
intermingle. Text,
photos, audio and video, for instance, are no longer
distinct formats but merely different arrangements of
bits.
Journalists
must be able to communicate across formats (and able
to determine which format is best for
which story or which aspect of a story). Archived material
also must be available and easily retrievable in multiple forms. |
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* Participatory,
"open-source" news.
News
producers are no longer distinguishable from news consumers.
In an open-access, low-cost, networked environment,
anyone can be a publisher.
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| Traditional
news media become merely one source of information
among millions. And each one of those millions is equally easy
to access. Journalists no longer have privileged access
to distribution channels. |
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* A
desire for personalized information.
Even
when they are not seeking to generate their own information,
people expect to be able to personalize
the information that traditional news sources provide.
They become “co-producers” of media content.
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| They
also expect to be able to modify the format of that information,
for instance by accessing it through a variety of devices.
People get news in different ways at different times of
the day. |
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* Unprecedented
and intense competition for people’s time and
dollars.
Time
available for media use is divided among unlimited information
options.
|
| So
much info -- especially about current issues or events --
is freely available that charging for it either directly
(by subscription) or indirectly (through advertising) is
problematic. |
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