Source: Storybench
Written by Rowan Walrath Compilation: Gou Yuqing
In order to gain the trust of readers, how will the self-optimization of the media affect the journalism industry? If news organizations think satire is the best way to cover politics, how should journalists deal with themselves? How can local media make money? In early October, at the 2017 annual meeting of the Online News Association in Washington, D.C., a discussion was held by 3,008 participating journalists trying to answer these questions. In addition, the discussion of dozens of sections of the conference is extensive, from business models to ethical dilemmas, including virtual reality and other technologies, this article summarizes five enlightenments from the speeches and cases of industry insiders attending the conference:
First, technology affects all aspects of news
Whether journalists are happy to see it or not, technology is heavily influencing news coverage. Asma Khalid, a journalist from Boston Public Radio (WBUR), first mentioned the impact of technology in her first keynote address, "involving media authenticity, trustworthiness and inquiry," and she was involved in NPR's coverage of the 2016 U.S. election and now covers Startups in Boston. Khalid believes that whether the role is good or bad, technology and politics are undoubtedly closely linked.
VICE News reporter Elle Reeve suggested that technology gives social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter the opportunity to make money by taking advantage of the media, but at the same time, social networks are also a valuable tool for journalists, because they can directly contact the source of events through social platforms.
The social networking leader has responded — Twitter co-founder and CEO of Medium, Evan Williams, argues that social platforms and media are not mutually exclusive, and that he is minimizing the gap between tech giants and journalists. "Silicon Valley entrepreneurs don't want society to fall apart, on the contrary, they are very optimistic about innovating, but they have not foreseen the bad content that may appear on the platform." Williams also founded Medium to improve the status quo of social networks, "it's important to know who is responsible for the content", there is no shortage of low-quality articles on Medium, but it will ensure that the name of the author or media is clearly displayed above the article.
Jim Brady of the Entertainment and Sports Television Network (ESPN) believes that privacy issues in the digital age are also worth reflecting on, arguing in a conference section discussing the current political climate and ethics that people are now always exposed to the public and there is almost no room for solitude.
Chris Hart from True Anthem, an ARTIFICIAL content delivery company, believes that using AI to run everyday tasks can liberate humans to do more creative things, especially in the advertising and distribution industry, so AI is human-centric. Rich Jaroslovsky, the lead journalist at SmartNews, a news intelligence recommendation app, expressed a similar view.
Second, the audience craves local news
In the first keynote, Khalid told an anecdote: When she started working in national media, she once returned to her hometown and a local told her that she was surprised that she would return. This reveals an urgent problem to be solved. "Going deep into the community to understand the opinions of the public is the most basic common sense of political reporting, after all, it can build mutual trust between the two sides." Although local media would have been able to make better reports, national media tended to send journalists to unfamiliar areas, which would cause resentment among local journalists. Khalid believes that the National Public Radio model is worth promoting— national centers plus numerous local sub-stations.
Some local reports can even resonate strongly nationwide. Using the example of the podcast Midnight Oil, Tammar Charney of National Public Radio One presents local reports that people are eager to be active, a series about the impact of 40-year-old pipelines on Alaska.
A series of podcasts produced by Alaska Public Media about the ups and downs surrounding the pipeline over the years, from npr.org
Tracey Taylor from Berkeleyside, a local news site in California, Marcia Parker of Calmatters, a california-based nonprofit, and Darryl Holliday of city bureau, a civic news site focused on reporting in the south of Chicago, also corroborate this view.
Taylor said that when he founded the local news site Berkelyside, no one expected it to develop so quickly, but it turned out that local coverage had been absent for a long time, and the audience was not satisfied with this situation, and began to donate heavily to support Berkelyside's reporting. Parker had a similar experience, with CALmatters focusing on California policy because "people want to know about California policy, but coverage hasn't been enough."
Third, measure the success of the report
The index is not necessarily the number of clicks
Throughout the Conference, it was generally agreed that the best measure was the time the audience spent on a particular story.
Speaking with Williams, Manoush Zomorodi of WNYC pointed out that some content that has not caused a frenzy can also be successful, in fact, many high-quality content is very private, but how is it judged by a content platform like Medium? Williams agrees with Zomorodi that content doesn't have to be a high-volume, low-cost commodity, and that Facebook and Twitter are pursuing pure attention as a commodity.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Vox Media's Andrew Golis and Cenk Uygur of the news commentary show The Young Turks, both of whose websites placed more emphasis on the viewing time of videos than on the number of views. On Facebook, Golis said, videos are considered one-time play as long as they are muted for more than three seconds, while Vox's videos attract an average of four minutes of viewing time and The Young Turks' data is five minutes. For media that want to monetize their videos, Golis' advice is to do what your audience really likes, and what your audience loves is far more important than clicks.
Fourth, audience participation is very important
It's not just voters and readers who get tired of partisan bias, but also journalists. Uygur of The Young Turks said the media's excessive pursuit of neutrality not only undermined the objectivity of news events, but could even distort the facts. Accurate reporting doesn't necessarily have to show the full picture of events, and partisan divisions are a serious threat to journalism. Uygur said, "Republicans say that, Democrats say that, and then what?" What is the truth? ”
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for The New York Times magazine, thinks journalists need to think about how much power they think they have left. "Journalists used to work on the premise that the audience believed in us and gave them their trust just because we were journalists, but this is no longer the case."
Jennifer Brandel, from citizen news platform Painken, said the premise of public trust in the media is that the media can hear the voice of the public and maintain a lasting interest in public issues. Hearken offers a new way of audience engagement: on this platform, the public can submit questions by filling out forms and voting on questions that journalists need to answer. San Francisco public media outlet KQED has pioneered a series called "Bay Curious," where listeners can upload topics they want KQED to investigate through Hearken, such as "Is it legal to be naked in San Francisco?" If so, has it always been legal? ”
A special section of the KQED website called "Curious Bay Area" is designed to explore the questions asked by the audience, from kqed.org
Rob Wijnberg of membership-based news site De Correspondent believes that it is crucial that media trust the knowledge of their audiences, as they are experts in their fields. "There are probably a thousand doctors in the readership of our coverage, and they know a lot more than the reporters on our medical channel." In response to this situation, De Correspondent changed the original "comments" section to "contributions" to invite the audience to share their knowledge.
Darryl Holliday, co-founder of chicago news site City Bureau, also has something to say about audience engagement, arguing that the problem city bureau is currently facing is that the target audience doesn't have many voice opportunities, or even little chance of being talked about, "Gaining trust will be a long process." "What can the media do? Holliday offers a plan where journalists should take to the streets, knock on their audience's doors, and engage in community activities. It must be proved to the reader that the media really cares about them.
John Ness, founder of Walking Media, agrees with the advice, saying, "One of our trump cards is to get out of the newsroom and walk around." But in a session discussing "Small changes in the local newsroom can make a big difference," Kristen Hare, from the news agency Poynter, asked a key question: "Is this really a matter of life and death for journalism, or are we just looking at the gourd?" ”
Fifth, innovation is always king
Sara Konrad Baranowski, editor of the Iowa news site Times Citizen, gives reporters her only advice, squeeze out time to innovate. Uygur mentioned above said that The Young Turks did not understand their position when they started, but this is the reason why the media is moving forward, and it is pointless to worry about failure, so it is better to try it calmly.
How do online news people view the trend of media focusing on video? While the national media debated whether to "transition to video," Vox's Andrew Golis feared that the substance behind the trend would not stand the test. "If you're making a video just because you think you should do it, don't do it. In fact, you need to understand and be passionate about the unique narrative approach that the video represents. After the meeting, he added on Twitter, "If you just move to video because of the megatrend, but don't have specific positioning and goals, you will definitely fail." ”
Golis points out that the media should hire creative, talented, and self-taught employees so that there is a mutual learning within the team. It is worth noting that the need for journalists to try new things is urgent. Nadine Ajaka, senior producer on the Washington Post's video team, concluded her speech: "You can't imagine what journalism would be like five years from now. ”
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