1. Media in the online age
Case Study
“News”

2. Technological Change?
• Where did we get our news from?
• How do we get it now?

3. What Issues arise?
• Viability of printing instantly out of date news.
• Web offers instant multimedia accessibility
• Web 2.0 means individuals can pass on news
quickly (twitter, facebook, blogs)
• Newspaper readers are older?
• Online news is ‘natural’ for younger generation?
• Online news tends to result in us only getting
news we’re interested in?

4. So how can we map
previous theories onto the
news?
David Gauntlett &
Creativity – using social
networks
Henry Jenkins &
Participatory culture #tags on twitter
People collaborating & discussing
the news on social network sites –
Charles Leadbeater

5. Citizen
Journalism
• What is Citizen
Journalism?
• Can you think of
any examples?

6. Dan Gillmor
• “Grassroots journalism is part of
the wider phenomenon of
citizen-generated media-of a
global conversation that is
growing in strength, complexity,
and power. When people can
express themselves, they will.
When they can do so with
powerful yet inexpensive tools,
they take to the new-media
realm quickly. When they can
reach a potentially global
audience, they literally can
change the world” (2006, XV)

7. Live Example
9/11
• According to Gimor the first draft
of history was being written, in
part, by the audience.
• Valuable context that major
American media couldn’t or
wouldn’t provide was being
received.
• We were part of the future of the
news.
• Chat groups, personal web
journals (All non-standard news
sources) were providing
information and documenting the
horrific hours and days that
followed the attacks.
Live Example
Asian Tsunami
2004
• Amateur video footage of the
horrific tsunami that killed more
than 200,000 people appeared
online
•Conveying the sheer devastation
and horror of the event as it
occurred.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=0NfKZAiWRoE

8. Live Example
July 7th
Bombing
One photograph captured the
event more than any other.
The picture was taken from a
mobile phone camera by a
man as he and others escaped
from the smoked filled train.
The picture appeared online,
in printed newspapers and
magazines, and on television
around the globe.

9. Benefit?
• Gillmor suggests the following
• “ The rise of the citizen-journalist will help us
listen. The ability of anyone to make the news
will give new voice to people who’ve felt
voiceless –and whose words we need to hear.”

10. Critics
Exploiting the public
• Thinking about an issue raised by Tapscott
and Williams that online collaboration and
sharing is promoting a "free economy"
where unpaid volunteers are exploited by
corporations. Taken from Wikinomics - Don
Tapscott & Anthony D. Williams (2006).
•
Clay Shirky points out most of the major
conglomerates and institutions we have
today will still be around tomorrow. Whilst
their hold on society may weaken they will
not just wither away (Here comes
everybody, 2008)

11. A Contemporary Case Study
• The riots make an ideal case study in many
respects and there is a real archive of material to
be had online. Youtube is packed with videos of
some of the key moments and several newspaper
archives look really useful to go back through.
The riots were constructed for us and with our
collusion as audience members; of course, the
events happened, and pretty awful they were
too, but our understanding of them was very
much mediated by the web

12. • People blamed social
media for a lot of what
happened, arguing that
gangs orchestrated looting
and violence through
twitter and facebook and
particularly blackberry
messenger. They also
argued that twitter played
a heroic role in the cleanup
with volunteers emerging
as a result of requests for
support there

13. Create your own
study of the
riots
• Create a case study
about how the internet
was used in the
coverage of the London
riots both from a
citizen journalism point
of view and how
institutions
(professional
journalists) engaged in
using social networks.

14. Useful Links
• Paul Lewis, of The Guardian was on the ground
reporting throughout the riots and his tweets
gave a vivid account of what was happening.
http://www.wired.com/cs/promo/blogs/changea
ccelerators/2011/09/26/the-twitter-riots/
• http://blogs.reuters.com/anthonyderosa/2011/08/11/a-social-media-timeline-ofthe-london-riots-2/
• www.youtube.com
• www.facebook.com
• http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com

15. What’s in store in the future?
• Will the web become part of a media package like
the Guardian / Times?
• Will newspapers die out?
• What about emerging technologies?
• Will people pay for online media?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjIB7MO48Zo
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1T43Ak0a2
A
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNVTbTMp1
DQ&feature=related

16. Reflection – Do you remember
• Dan Gillmor
• David Gauntlett & Creativity – using social
networks
• Henry Jenkins & Participatory culture - #tags
on twitter
• Who is Paul Lewis?
• What is grassroots journalism/citizen
journalism?