21st century journalism

George BrockProfessor of JournalismCity University London

#Communicate2015/AgendaNIBelfast, February 2015

Disruptions are…routine• Writing (harder to check than face-to-face)

• Printing (harder to check than handwriting)

• Fast rotary presses

• Railways + kerosene lamps

• Telegraph

• Radio

• TV, followed by satellite and cable

• Lastly … the internet

Newspapers• No sooner were they mass than radio arrived

• High modern period of print really didn’t last very long

• Late 20th century – with advertising revenues floating print and (some) broadcast news –was historically exceptional

• Every other period from (English) Civil War onwards: experimental, improvisational, volatile and often turned upside down

3 phases of the internet already

1.Portals (AOL, MSN, Yahoo! etc)

2.Search (you know who)

3.Social media

• “It is the imagination, ultimately, and not mathematical calculation that creates media; it is the fresh perception of how to fit a potential machine into an actual way of life that really constitutes the act of ‘invention’.” Anthony Smith, 1980

In cycles of rapid change…

• Digital changes a lot - over a long time

• Change doesn’t happen and then stop: it comes in repeated cycles

• The abilities that count in this long phase of alteration are linked

3-part key to agility1. You must know what is happening, in exact

detail and depth, to the way information is travelling between people

2. You must know this because if you don’t, you cannot experiment well or tell a successful tryout from a failure

3. Winners in communication will be those who experiment at the highest quality

Note there• It’s not either digital or not-digital

• It’s both

• Essential information: engagement and reading time

• You must be across new channels – even if only to eliminate them from the mix

Fight gizmo glut!• Siri keeps a history of everything you Shazam; here's how to get to

it • Debating the rules and ethics of digital photojournalism • The New York Times is considering changing NYT Now’s

subscription plan • Solace Power aims to charge drones wirelessly while they are still

flying! • Gawker Media plans to develop an app and start producing more

video this year• Spanish smartphone maker Geeksphone, perhaps best known for

its partnership with Silent Circle over the pro-privacy Android fork Blackphone, is expanding from handsets into fitness wearable

• Plug in to Nic Newman (@nicnewman)

The main changes• “Liquid torrent” news + info

• The quantity and velocity of information

• Comparison + choice

• Uncontrolled distribution (= sharing)

• Storytelling in chaos

• Print and screens converge

• "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing.” (Jon Stewart)

Likely dilemmas• Privacy (social media, drones)

• Right to forget?

• Advertising/editorial separation

• Comprehensibility

• Bad herd behaviour

• Regulatory convergence

• PSB finance

• Business model for original reporting

Things to be realistic about

• Capital-intensive technology of print gave journalists a dominant position in the information chain.

• That position is not lost but much altered

• Digital does not favour bundles; think atoms and fragments

• The nature of impact has changed

Does journalism still have a distinct function?

• Yes: the attempt to sort the signal from the noise

• Four core tasks:–Verification (changed)–Sense-making (changed)–Eye-witness (not much changed)–Investigation (changed a bit)

• (and print isn’t going to disappear)

Revenue streams: experiment

• Ads (incl. native)

• Subs

• Premium price stuff

• Events

• Crowdfunding

• Micropayments

• Philanthropy

• www.georgebrock.net

• @georgeprof

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