Online News and Social Media

New Media Technologies: Social Media and News

COM 300

Kathy E. Gill11 February 2008

Agenda

More On Open Source Online News, Blogs, Podcasts Discussion Leaders & Small

Group Discussion

EC: GNU Project (1/3)

Start of open source philosophy (1985) “The word `free’ in `free software’

pertains to freedom, not price” … think free speech, not free beer!

Four principles … Freedom to: Use the program as you wish Adapt the program Distribute copies to help your neighbor Improve the program and share it with the

public to benefit the entire community

EC: GNU Project (2/3)

Technologists used their social networks to develop new software … by using communication (technology) networks

Subsequently … Linux, Apache, TCP/IP, SMTP … Important: this internet

infrastructure was not mandated by a “government”

EC: GNU Project (3/3)

Arguably provided foundational philosophy of the web (and TBL actively arguing against a patent for HTML)

Mid 90s battle between open & proprietary software; Microsoft won the battle but lost the war

Online News : Overview

Repurposing electrons from print to new media is a business decision

Fewer papers have adopted blogs than RSS Social system disconnect? Not enough time? Syndication is an integral part of

social system

What Is RSS? Rich Site Summary, Really Simple

Syndication, RDF Site Summary XML (10 years old yesterday!)

document that facilitates content syndication This “feed” contains structured data Transformed to information by RSS

reader Ease of syndication, low cost

RSS Development Timeline

March 1999 Netscape RSS 0.90

July 1999 Netscape RSS 0.91

June 2000 Userland RSS 0.91

Late 2002 RSS-Dev Working Group

RSS 1.0

January 2003

Userland RSS 2.0.1

Online News RSS Adoption

Apr 2002 New York Times (limited to Userland)

RSS 0.91

Oct 2002 Christian Science Monitor

25, RSS 1.0

Mar 2004 Washington Post 125, RSS 2.0

Apr 2006 Washington Post 150, RSS 2.0Seattle Times 47, RSS 2.0

Apr 2007 Seattle Times 54, RSS 2.0

New York Times 101, RSS 2.0

Editorial Decision 2005 research: not a

technological decision -> in 3 of 15 markets, papers are co-managed, yet RSS feeds differed Philadelphia Inquirer (16); Daily

News (2) Detroit News (35); Free Press (1) Seattle Times (45); P-I (27)

Why Rapid Adoption? Syndication in line with culture Business model is evolving

How to reverse loss in readers? How to generate online revenue? Lots of RSS Sub Options (WaPo)

Recognition of growth of blogosphere, driving readers “Pay to read” barriers (WSJ v CSM v

NYT)

Other Techniques …

… to reverse loss of eyeballs “Digg This” (Michelle Malkin) “Newsvine” link (SeaTimes) “Facebook” link (NYT) Most emailed/read (BBC)

How to bypass log in requirements BugMeNot Search GoogleNews

What is Journalism?

Journalism is “our day book, our collective diary, which records our common life. That which goes unrecorded goes unpreserved … The creation and preservation of collective memory…” is the practice of journalism.

- James W. Carey, Columbia University

What Is Citizen Journalism?

Why not just call journalism “journalism” — a word the citizens, amateurs, networks, distributors and professionals can understand? Journalism can be “practiced” in all sorts of ways, and by virtually anyone. You don’t even have to be a citizen or a professional; you could be a foreigner, or even an alien from outer space…journalism is not some exclusive club; it’s something that takes many forms… - Max Kalehoff, Nielsen BuzzMetrics

Participatory Journalism

Characterized by expanded two-way communication between media and readers.

With blogging, reader becomes author and author (journalist) becomes reader, ending the one-to-many model of communication.

Shaping the News Hole Trent Lott story (2002)

Covered by only one reporter following event Kept alive by bloggers - liberal and

conservative LA Times (2004)

Supreme Justices Scalia v Ginsburg Dan Rather (2004) Colbert’s monologue Press Club Dinner

(2006) Josh Marshall – AttorneyGate (2007)

Other Examples

Microsoft “switch” campaign (2002)

LonelyGirl15 actress outed through collaborative action (2006)

VT Shooting (2007) Obama 1984 Ad (2007)

Podcasts

Audio file + RSS = Podcast Not just iPod, it’s just that iPod

created a broad audience Incredibly fast adoption

Entered Oxford English Dictionary in 2005 Started in 2004 by Adam Curry (see

Wikipedia on trademark challenge)

Videocasts & YouTube

Robert Murdoch buys MySpace Music distribution

Google buys YouTube Army launched YouTube Channel,

“cracks down on” soldier blogs (E&P, 2 May 2007)

Two BIG Points Bottom Line Impact - Classifieds

Craigs List eBay

Bottom Line Impact - TV Ads Hence the commercial before

watching a TV clip on line Hence the angst over YouTube (et

al) Copyright

The ease of the remix

Summary Blogging (and social networks)

technology is having a profound impact on Web content and established media business models

Neither news nor politics will be the same

Next week: spotlight on politics

Resources Gill, KE (2004). How can we measure

the influence of the blogosphere. WWW2004, New York, NY USA. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/www2004_blogosphere_gill.pdf

Gill, KE (2005). Blogging, RSS and the information landscape, a look at online news. WWW2006, Chiba Japan. http://faculty.washington.edu/kegill/pub/gill_www2005_rss.pdf