SensibleTalk.com Front Page Archive for August 2008

Over the course of this year, my research has examined the current state of the news industry, delved into readership trends for both print and online newspapers, and assessed technology’s effect on journalism. I have interacted with many industry experts and read countless articles on the transforming world of journalism. Under the mentorship of Professor Mary Nesbitt at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, I have learned more than I could have imagined this year and am that much more prepared to enter the industry as a productive and effective journalist.

Culminating in this fourth paper, my research presents how print and online newspapers are able to not only coexist in the future, but make each other stronger by adopting changes that respond to reader behavior and preferences, while maintaining journalistic integrity.

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If you call your readers stupid for reading the content in your newspaper, don't be surprised when they quit reading your paper altogether.
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For my third research paper I will focus on how new technology has paved the way for “multimedia journalism,” and examine the changing relationship between reporters and readers resulting from this development. This topic naturally follows the subject of my second paper – story content/presentation. My second paper analyzed the effect which story content and presentation have on readership, and looked at how to draw in readers with the way in which a story is written or presented. My third paper takes my research one step further, by exploring how multimedia journalism (through enhanced content and presentation) can increase readership and reader engagement by appealing to their visual as well as auditory senses. I further discuss what technology has done not only for journalism, but also for reporters and readers.

Multimedia journalism – which often includes a print or online story supplemented by some other form of media that is more interactive than just text – is becoming a prevalent way to “do” journalism. New technologies will solidify this trend. Multimedia stories require additional skills from journalists, but provide readers with more choices to interact and be informed. If they choose to do so, readers can only read the article; however, they can also watch the supplemental video and be “on-the-scene” with the reporter, or listen to sound clips taken at the scene. The stories become more enjoyable and may help some readers better understand an issue if they are aural learners, for example. In addition, readers may save time by watching a two-minute video clip instead of taking five minutes to read an article.

Multimedia journalism, enabled by new technologies, has provided readers and journalists alike with new opportunities, as well as transformed how they interact with each other.
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You know the solution you just thought of to a long-standing problem is probably the right one if... it makes you feel like a complete idiot for not thinking of something so obvious long, long before.
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For my second research paper I focus on how story content and the way news is presented impact print and online newspaper readership. This topic naturally follows the subject of my first paper – culture change. My first paper analyzed the effect of the Internet on readership, how people’s lives have changed their reading habits and the evolving perception of media. In this paper I discuss what turns readers on/off to newspapers based on the societal changes which I reported on in my first paper.

In a world where people’s time seems more valuable than ever, story content has become that much more important – it is one of the main factors drawing readers into or turning them away from reading newspapers. Without appealing content written in a reader-friendly manner, readers won’t want to read newspapers. Newspapers will serve no purpose if they don’t have an audience to inform.

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The 21 drinking age was a stupid idea and it is past time for it to go.

Dozens of U.S. college and university presidents have signed a letter urging a public debate over lowering the nation's drinking age to 18. Let's make that debate swift, though. Millions of Americans already have spoken on the worth of the drinking age law.

By breaking it.
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Over the past several years, it has been widely reported that print newspaper circulation has declined substantially. More and more readers prefer to get their news from other forms of media. Consequently, advertisements have been migrating away from print newspapers to other channels that have wider and growing audiences. With fewer advertising dollars to support the operations of print media organizations, hundreds of journalist positions have been eliminated, adversely impacting print newspapers and arguably the quality of their content.

As a budding journalist, I have naturally been following these developments with keen interest for quite some time now. The world is becoming increasingly driven by technological advances and the news industry is transforming rapidly in unexpected ways. Since many media experts are predicting the inevitable death of print media, I decided to research this topic to examine the reasons behind this prediction. My goals are to explore whether print media is destined to die off as so many have forecast and to suggest changes which print media can make to remain relevant going forward. This research is extremely pertinent to today’s society and helps us better understand the rapidly transforming face of journalism and its impact on and interaction with society.
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I had to share a quote from Annette Haddad's story in this morning's Los Angeles Times on July home sales and prices in Southern California.

The quote, a paraphrase really, comes from homebuyer Dale Smet of Santa Clarita. Haddad writes: "Smet, who works in marketing for Southern California Gas Co., said he carefully conserved an equity line of credit during the boom years, which he tapped to pay $300,000 cash last month for two foreclosed condos near his house."

What the heck does that even mean? Let's dissect it, after the jump.
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Every time I try to read a story on Yahoo! News this morning, and error window pops up:

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One thing's been bugging me about the John McCain ad that I see every time I turn on the Olympics. It's the line that says Barack Obama is "for "higher taxes and more government spending, so, fewer jobs."

How does higher taxes and more government spending automatically lead to fewer jobs? Let's break down that claim, forgetting what Obama actually does and does not propose, for a moment.
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Late last week I got another political flyer in the mail, this one with a full-page photo of a sack of groceries under the tag "Don't Let Sacramento Politicians Remove Products From Your Grocery Bag"

Open it up, and its a pitch to call legislators asking them to vote no on S.B. 1713, which would ban the use of something called "BPA," which the flyer says is "a material that's been safely used for 50 years in food packaging and a wide variety of plastic products like reusable water and baby bottles."

Curious, I hit the Internet and did a little Googling.

"BPA" is actually Bisphenol A, a chemical that's been the subject of much recent scientific research. The flyer said that "rigorous scientific reviews in the United States, Europe and Japan have all concluded that these products are safe for use."

Umm... no. The U.S. National Institutes of Health last year expressed [huge PDF file] "some concern for neural and behavioral effects" of BPA upon infants and children. Some research suggests that BPA can disrupts the body's hormones, especially in children, leading to an earlier onset of puberty among girls and lower testosterone levels in boys.
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