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UCLA Extension New Media Reporting Summer 2012: Week 1 Summary

[Some of this content has been duplicated from New Media Reporting Fall 2011].


During our Week 1 session we covered the following topics:

HISTORY

We discussed the history of newspapers going digital, specifically the onslaught of newspaper-based websites in the mid-1990s. Timeline histories from the Poynter Institute, most interestingly, include 1991, 1994, 1995 and 1996, which can all be accessed here.

What stood out in the timeline was that the bulk of major newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times (1996), launched in their sites in the mid-1990s.

I made the point that newspapers at the time only saw websites as mirrors of their core product, the newspaper. They were seen as ways toward "alternate delivery" of the paper that could cut print costs.

We got some laughs watching a video, "The Tablet Newspaper," that demonstrated that point. In it an editor says that new technology will provide "a bridge of familiarity" for newspaper readers as they go digital.

NEWS ORGS TRY TO MAINTAIN

I argued that this mindset remains today: That newspapers and TV news operations have not fully embraced the inevitability of online migration and the dominance of digital news.

In broadcasting the story's the same, but via a different tact: Local news stations see online as a way to drive viewers to the telecast, not vice-versa, which one of you pointed out was the way most people see a TV news site.

The reason? They want to capture younger eyeballs they're losing during newscasts, which are still cash cows, albeit diminishing ones.

An ad in a newspaper is worth about 10 times, often more, than what it's worth online. The contrast is even larger for television. The flipside?

The DIY revolution: It often takes far fewer people to put together a digital news operation, and thus the advertising scale can actually make it profitable for some.

BLOGGERS RISE

YouTube Video Production Class Launches

YouTube launched a DIY video production class this week.

The weekly sessions will happen at Google Plus Hangouts Wednesdays at noon Pacific time, according to Social Times. The schedule.

Here's one tip video about how to schedule an upload:

Online News Video Can Outpace Entertainment Clips For Traffic

The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism says today that news videos, particularly in YouTube, have sometimes outpaced online viewership of entertainment clips.

The most-viewed news videos "tended to depict natural disasters or political upheaval -- usually featuring intense visuals," according to Pew's research. No surprise there.

While much of the video was taken by so-called "citizen journalists" on the ground, it was often found incorporated into professional broadcast packages that were then uploaded to the web, according to the study.

One expert says the findings indicate that news video clips aren't just supplemental -- they're a staple for news consumers.

Majority of News Consumers Get Content on Portable Devices

Wow. The latest from the Pew Internet & American Life Project says most news consumers now get their content via handheld devices such as the iPhone and iPad. That should help news organizations figure out how to position their products, no? Read more here.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 9 Summary

During our Week 9 session we debated some more whether pay walls in online journalism can work. This time we discussed our assignment: Analyzing this excerpt of Chris Anderson's Free and coming up with an argument for or against the future of pay-wall publications.

Surprisingly many of you argued for the viability of online subscriptions, stating that if the writing were compelling enough, the product focused enough and the content fresh enough, we should pay for it. I still held that the pay wall's possible heyday was at least 10 years ago, when the industry would have had to erect a universal wall and have each and every publication adhere to it. Today there would be too many leaks by aggregators.

UCLA Extension New Media Reporting: Week 8 Summary

During Week 8 we talked about using Twitter as a channel to spread news. I noted that some AP reporters were recently chastised for breaking news via Twitter before the wire service had spread the information.

I argued that AP's thinking on this might be a little behind the times. It's good for reporters to live tweet events on a few fronts: First it establishes them as a brand and makes followers want to go to them for news. This only benefits their organizations. Second it teases the news. As you know Twitter is a limited medium. If you want to dig deeper and find out details, you'll have to go to the news outlet in question for the bigger picture. Finally, live tweeting events (as many reporters did during coverage of the Occupy L.A. evictions this week) breaks down the wall between news product and process, letting readers in on the raw material of news and allowing them to make their own conclusions.