Competition, Complementarity or Integration? The relationship between professional and participatory media

Competition,
C ii
Complementarity or Integration?

The relationship between
professional and participatory media

The Future of Journalism Conference 2009
Cardiff, 10 September 2009

Prof. Dr. Christoph Neuberger / Christian Nuernbergk M. A.

Agenda
A d

New forms of news production
Methodology and Research Dimensions
Findings
Fi di
Competition
Complementarity
Integration

Conclusion

Christoph Neuberger & Christian Nuernbergk, University of Münster

Intro

What kind of change brought about by the network
information environment is subject to journalism and
current public spheres?
Emergence of new decentralized approaches:
participatory and technical media

But will common social web applications like weblogs and
collaborative edited platforms lead into a transformation of
news journalism?


Professional Participatory
communication communication

( Competition)
Identity (=Competition)

Complementarity

Integration
News related
types of
communication
Technical and their potential
communication relations


Theoretical and Empirical F
Th i l d E i i l Foundations
d i

Grounding theoretical work and typologies
g yp g
Bowman/Willis (2003): “We the media”
Bruns (2005) „Gatewatching“
( 5) „ g
Empirical research mostly focuses on single questions:
Blogs rely to professional news sites: Reese et al (2007)
al.
Blogs as sources of traditional media:
Messner/Watson DiStaso (2008)
Audience participation within journalistic framework:
Hermida/Thurman (2008)


Research D i and M h d l
R h Design d Methodology (1/4)
( / )

Are organisational forms like an editorial staff still needed in
order to gather information and select and disseminate
news? Or are alternative forms emerging?
First part: content analysis of websites (2006)
was conducted to identify websites which regularly offer
„journalistic“ content
journalistic units are specified by their identity and their
qualities – not by structural parameters

Second part: online newsroom survey (
S d t li (2007)
)


Identifying J
Id if i „Journalistic“ Websites on the Web (2/4)
li i “ W b i h W b( / )

Step 1: Selection of media types
Selection of media types which are relevant to news
production also on the internet

Step 2: Collecting a list of potential websites
Scan of national media listings and implementation
of special sample selection strategies (blogs)

Step 3: Content analysis of all websites
Criteria which were systematically checked:
accessibility, autonomy, periodicity, actuality,
universality


„
„P2P-Journalism“
J

„Search engine Journalism“


Tab. Population of J
T b 1: P l i f Journalistic W b i
li i Websites ( / )
(3/4)

Located and Therefrom as
analysed “journalistic“
websites
ebs tes identified websites
de t ed ebs tes
Weekly newspapers 10 2
TV/radio 408 89
Daily newspapers 300 265 388 = 77%
Magazines 241 30 (In affiliation
News agencies 13 2 with traditional media)
Community-edited news sites 5 5
Weblogs 97 18
Professional-edited news sites 59 40 115 = 23%
News search engines 16 13 (Internet-only)
Portals 53 39
Others 40 0
Total (as of May 2007) 1.242 503


Research D i and M h d l
R h Design d Methodology (4/4)
( / )

Online newsroom survey (part 2)
(subsequent to the content analysis)
Selected respondents were either editors-in-chief of
editors in chief
traditional news branches on the internet, or responsible for
the sampled web-only media
Mail questionnaire; field time: June to October 2007
12 In-depth interviews helped to design the questionaire
In depth
(e. g. Spiegel Online, Focus, Bildblog, Wikinews, Google)
Survey response rate: 44% (= 183)


Research Dimensions (Survey)
R h Di i (S )

Competition (RD 1) Do professional and participatory news
1):
formats compete with each other? How does this possible
competition affect professional journalism?
Complementarity (RD 2): What kind of complementary
relations do e ist between professional and participatory
exist
web news?
Integration (RD 3): In which way do professional news
organisations adopt participatory elements? What impact
does i
d increasing reader participation h ?
i d ti i ti have?


RD 1: Competition (1/2) - Fi di
C i i ( / ) Findings

In general: Respondents doubt the existence of a major
threat to traditional journalism
“Journalistic intermediation is less important on the internet
because anyone can publish without much effort” (62%,
b bli h ith t h ff t” (6 %
“not appropriate”, n=172)

Editors have different perceptions of the characteristics
applying to blogs and journalism
Journalism: neutrality, accuracy, credibility, continuity,
relevancy, in-depth reporting
Blogs: personal perspective, direct contact to authors,
diversity of opinions, intensive discussions, and hyperlinks


RD 1: Competition (2/2)
Tab. 2: Statements about Competition among Journalism, Blogs, and Community-edited Sites

appropriate
somewhat
Statements rated as… (in %) to a high
appropriate
degree
Competitive relations between journalism and blogs
Weblogs have nothing to do with journalism (n=163) 44,2 25,2
Weblogs are a new type of journalism (n=163) 59,5 12,3
Bloggers perceive themselves as j
gg p journalists (
(n=135)
) 61,5 19,3
Bloggers believe that journalists are reporting negatively about bloggers because they
57,0 20,3
perceive them as competitors (n=128)
Information in the blogosphere is regularly accurate because of mutual control among
g p g y g
52,2
52 2 17,4
17 4
bloggers (n=138)
Competitive relations between journalism and community-edited sites
Community-edited sites are a new type of j
y yp journalism (
(n=162)
) 35,8
, ,
18,5
Information is regularly accurate [in community-edited sites]
59,5 29,4
because of mutual control among users (n=163)

In
I community-edited sites b is avoided d to mutual control among users (n=159)
d d bias d d due l l ( 159) 56,0
56 0 28,3
28 3

Community-edited sites need to be professionally moderated (n=162) 27,8 64,2
3-point-scale. Expression “not appropriate” is not shown. The expression "I cannot say" was not considered in the analysis.


RD 2: Complementarity (1/4)
Meta-Level:
orientational reporting,
reciprocal critics,
i l iti
quality assurance/control

Follow-up
Follow up conversation of
the people – (formerly
known as the audience)

Blogs and MM can use
each other as sources
(story ideas etc.)
Source:
B /Willi ( )
Bowman/Willis (2003: 9)


p y ( /4)
Tab. 3: Statements about Complementarity among Journalism, Blogs, and Community-edited Sites

somewhat
h t appropriate t
pp p i t to
Statements rated as… (in %)
appropriate a high degree

Complementary relations between journalism and blogs

Weblogs and journalism complement each other and do not compete (n=161) 49,7 44,7

Within weblogs the audience communicates about mass media coverage (n=155) 63,9 29,7

The balance of power between journalism and the audience is changing towards the
51,7 14,5
audience because of the advent of weblogs (n=145)

Weblogs foster the quality of journalism through their media criticism (n=148) 55,4
55 4 12,2
12 2

Blogging is spreading fast because of the press and broadcasting coverage (n=147) 41,5 16,3

Journalism is orientating about the blogosphere and criticizes it (n=136)
(n 136) 62,5 8,1

Complementary relations between journalism and community-edited sites

Community-edited sites and journalism complement each other and do not compete
y j p p
39,4
39 4 55,2
55 2
(n=165)
3-point-scale. Expressions “not appropriate” is not shown. The expression "I cannot say" was not considered in the analysis.


C l i ( / )

Impact of blogs in terms of journalistic investigation
p g j g
2007 survey: 76 % (n=131) of the online editors-in-chief
stated that their staff members are using blogs
2006 survey: 41 % (n=90) of the interviewed non-internet
newsrooms use blogs
Impact of Wikipedia
Almost all of the newsrooms claim to use Wikipedia: “not
not
used”2007: 1 % (n=145); 2006: 4 % (n=90)
Source of topical background information
Wikipedia is considered to be a reliable source: 83% (n=148)


Motifs for Using of Weblogs (in Terms of Work)

(non-internet divisions) newsrooms 2006 survey (n=29-35) online newsrooms 2007 survey (n=81-87)

50 46
45 42
40 38
35
35 32
30 28

25
20
20 16
13 14
15
10
5
0
Watching weblogs as Range of opinion with Topic ideas Response to own Criticism on
a phenomenon regard to a reporting companies, political
controversial issue parties etc., which
(**) may be taken up
in %; only expression„often“


RD 3: Integration (1/1)
I i ( / )

Integration of participatory formats within professional
journalistic frameworks
Spreading in 2007: 55 % (n=145) have implemented blogs, video
blogs or podcasts

Extensive citizen contributions within the news process are less
common (“pro-am journalism”)
( p j )
Users are often encouraged to comment on stories written by
editors (40%, n=161), and to send in photos (50%, n=163)
Only few editorial offices allow their readers to support editors in
writing/investigation (12%, n=161)

Editors stated that more personal effort is needed if UGC
opportunities are provided (56%, n=108)


Conclusion – Th Future?
C l i The F ?

Only few German blogs and other social media perform in a
traditional journalistic manner – competition is less likely
Social web applications have become important sources in
terms of journalistic investigation
The integration of UGC within professional journalistic
frameworks still lacks innovative and comprehensive
approaches
h


Contact

Christoph Neuberger
neuberger@uni-muenster.de

Christian Nuernbergk
nuernbergk@uni-muenster.de
nuernbergk@uni muenster de

http://internetjournalismus.uni-muenster.de


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