Showing papers by "Jane B. Singer published in 2009"

“Comment Is Free, but Facts Are Sacred”: User-generated Content and Ethical Constructs at the Guardian

Abstract: This case study examines how journalists at Britain's Guardian newspaper and affiliated Web site are assessing and incorporating user-generated content in their perceptions and practices. A framework of existentialism helps highlight constructs and professional norms of interest. It is one of the first data-driven studies to explore how journalists are negotiating personal and social ethics within a digital network.

Separate spaces: Discourse about the 2007 Scottish elections on a national newspaper Web site

Abstract: In May 2007, Scots voted into office a party and a political leader publicly committed to holding a referendum on independence from Great Britain within four years. This study analyzes nearly 4,800 comments appended to stories on the scotsman.com website, offering one of the first detailed looks at user-generated content on a newspaper-affiliated website in the context of a national election. It explores the evolving nature of online political community and the ways in which newspapers are accommodating a networked environment in their political coverage, addressing issues of citizen and journalistic engagement within a communal space.

Implications of Technological Change For Journalists’ Tasks and Skills

Abstract: The authors explore how technology has altered the work processes and activities in news organizations. They show how story ideageneration, research, sourcing, processing, packaging, and repurposinghave changed and created needs for news skills and capabilities.

User-Generated Content and Journalistic Values

Abstract: Mainstream media are increasingly appropriating citizen journalism content-broadly encapsulated under the umbrella of “user-generated content” (UGC)-in part to avoid perceptually undermining traditional journalism’s occupational values. Singer and Ashman (Chapter 19) pick up on this tension from the perspective of “journalists at Britain’s Guardian newspaper and its internationally popular website,” exploring how journalism practice is changing as it is forced to accommodate content from-and interaction with-its audience. Journalists’ responses are positioned in relation to traditional occupational values of authenticity, autonomy, and accountability. While “user-generated content” and audience interaction are cautiously embraced, journalists remain wary of the challenges inherent in negotiating new relationships with citizen contributors.

Role Call: 2008 Campaign and Election Coverage on the Web Sites of Leading U.S. Newspapers

Abstract: This study explores how websites affiliated with leading U.S. newspapers covered the 2008 campaign and election. The third in a series, it traces changes over a decade in which the internet moved from the periphery to the center of political, public, and media attention. Although the 2004 study suggested online editors were rethinking their function as information gatekeepers, this version indicates a reassertion of traditional journalistic roles despite an increase in options for user input.

Journalism in the Network

Abstract: The occupation of journalism has changed very dramatically very fast. Until the 1990s, journalists produced content for a single outlet, such as a newspaper or television program, and they produced it in a single format – printed words, say, or sound, or moving images. Most of them worked in stable media industries that, thanks largely to a lucrative advertising-based revenue model, had been highly profitable for decades if not centuries, and they had something close to a monopoly on providing news to the public. Outside the newsroom, almost all their work-related communication was with sources; only rarely did they interact directly with readers, viewers, or listeners. None of those things is true today. This chapter surveys changes to journalism since the rise of the internet as a popular medium, as well as the challenges of managing the transition. It touches on shifts in journalists’ tasks, roles and self-perceptions, and occupational culture. The overarching message for those preparing to enter, manage, and study the media workforce is: Be flexible. More change is the only thing you can count on.

Participatory journalism practices in the media and beyond: an international comparative study of initiatives in online newspapers

Abstract: This article is a contribution to the debate on audience participation in online media with a twofold aim: (1) making conceptual sense of the phenomenon of participatory journalism in the framework of journalism research, and (2) determining the forms that it is taking in eight European countries and the United States. First, participatory journalism is considered in the context of the historical evolution of public communication. A methodological strategy for systematically analysing citizen participation opportunities in the media is then proposed and applied. A sample of 16 online newspapers offers preliminary data that suggest news organisations are interpreting online user participation mainly as an opportunity for their readers to debate current events, while other stages of the news production process are closed to citizen involvement or controlled by professional journalists when participation is allowed. However, different strategies exist among the studied sample, and contextual factors should b...