New genre & usability

With the advent of new media and specifically the Internet, the throes of journalism are a-changing.

And the news networks better know it.

In ‘Michael Jackson's death and its lessons for online journalists covering breaking news’, Robert Niles criticized certain news organisations for being slow on the uptake of the coverage of Michael Jackson’s death back in June 2009.

Image Source: Twitter RIP Michael Jackson

Twitter crashed from overcapacity on Michael Jackson's death day

Newsrooms are forced to re-examine how they handle breaking news in an increasingly hyper, competitive, instant-publishing environment (Niles 2009b). Internet users worldwide are not depending on traditional media for major breaking news anymore; they utilize Web 2.0 tools like Twitter and Google, and the news offices better jump in the wagon and go with the flow if they want to keep up.

In the article, Niles (2009b) state that reputable news organisations need not fall in line behind sources like celebrity gossip site TMZ when major news break. They should not fear acknowledging that they know that the report is out there and people are talking about it, and that they have a team out there to get the full confirmation.

Therefore Niles (2009b) advises news networks to divide people to do the actual reporting, and also not leave out the constant updating of news through the Internet. As quoted, he shares that “The worst thing you can offer you readers on Twitter is silence.”

“Report on your reporting, if that's all you have. Readers will appreciate the transparency.”

Even if a major news network does not have the luxury of reporting a news before full confirmation unlike gossip sites or social networking sites (Media Bistro 2009), it is still depended on to offer fast and instant updates. Or else it would just open them to embarrassment and give the impression that they do not have efficient people researching and reporting.

CNN experienced it in early June when they failed to provide live coverage of live protests of Iranians over elections issues, and the hashtag #CNNFail became one of the top trending topics on Twitter (Niles 2009a).

People and netizens want fast and credible instant updates, and the requirements are growing every day. And the news people better give them that, or lose their audience.

References
Niles, R. 2009, ‘Lessons for online journalists from #CNNFail and the Iran uprising’, Online Journalism Review, viewed November 17 2009, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200906/1752/

Niles, R. 2009, ‘Michael Jackson's death and its lessons for online journalists covering breaking news’, Online Journalism Review, viewed November 17 2009, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/200906/1755/

Media Bistro 2009, Twitters Of Patrick Swayze's Death Greatly Exaggerated, viewed November 17 2009, http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/show_business/twitters_of_patrick_swayzes_death_greatly_exaggerated_116909.asp

New forms of media publishing

The Internet and Web 2.0 has made possible the wide sharing of information of everything imaginable from anyone to everyone in the world, in just a few clicks.

This includes anything from hard news to social communication between family and friends as the Internet is a fast and wide-spread platform for heavy information-sharing. It is boosted by the availability of Web 2.0 applications such as Twitter, used to share on-the-spot news and pictures without having to go through a gatekeeper.

Image Source: Twitter-Logo
Twitter networks millions of people globally;
can you imagine the spread and impact of a major global rumour?

Therefore it enables the Internet to become one of the most common media outlets for journalism as publishing becomes almost free.

Online journalism are constantly bettering their standards as expectations from the audience grow; it has to be fast and credible as it becomes the top choice for news-searching and news-gathering as compared to traditional media which takes up to a day (for newspapers) or hours (for television) to report (Anderson 2009).

As in the recent case of Michael Jackson’s death in June 2009, Twitter and even Google experienced a crash due to heavy usage of information-searchers (Schofield 2009)! This shows how popular the Internet is as a search engine.

Image source: google_layered
Google experienced a major crash on the day
the world first heard rumours of Michael Jackson's death

As more and more information are put on the Web every day, there is no doubt that the issue of private data sharing would be brought up sooner or later. As netizens, we all want to keep our private data private, choose what we want to publish, and also retain the right to delete any information about us whenever we want.

But the rules of new media do not play like that.

According to author and Professor Yochai Benkler as quoted in Naughton (2006, p. 1), the output of new media is not exclusive property. Rather, it is “subjected to an increasingly robust ethic of open sharing, open for all others to build on, extend and make their own.”

But Facebook, worried about the legal issues it might face one day, has come out with several updates of their ‘Terms and Conditions’, including a clause to ‘being able to retain (our) data forever’ (Facebook: We own your content forever, and ever 2009).

Image Source: Facebook-logo
Facebook prepares for future legal issues by including tight clauses

And although a T&C of Twitter state that we can delete our text and images forever when we delete our account, there is also a final clause of ‘reserving the right…to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time’ (Bennett 2009).

Therefore, Net users must always be constantly aware of the blurring grey areas of the Internet before clicking Enter.

References
Anderson, K. 2009, ‘@media140: How Twitter is challenging the news gatherers’, Guardian, UK, viewed November 13 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/may/20/media140-twitter-journalism

Bennett, S. 2009, 'Who Owns Your Tweets – Twitter, You Or Anyone?', Blog of Mr. Tweet, viewed November 13 2009, http://blog.mrtweet.net/who-owns-your-tweets-twitter-you-or-anyone

Facebook: We own your content forever, and ever 2009, Neowin.net, viewed November 13 2009, http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/02/16/facebook-we-own-your-content-forever-and-ever

Naughton, J. 2006, Blogging and the emerging media ecosystem, University of Oxford, viewed November 13 2009, http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/discussion/blogging.pdf

Schofield, J. 2009, ‘Michael Jackson, the Twitter effect, and the 'science' of reporting’, Guardian UK, viewed November 13 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/jun/26/michaeljackson-twitter-blogs-reporting