Today, during the discussion on the future of media convergence, a visitor from China raised a question – how can media outlets that strive to win audience engagement ensure the accuracy and truthfulness of user-generated contents?
This is a good, and also a hard question. Something like a code of ethics of citizen journalism, or participatory journalism as a newer term, is really a complicated and controversial issue that have aroused heated debate. It is a general issue that need to be look into, not only in the more developed media markets such as the United States, but also in developing societies where new technologies are emerging and enable the traditional audience to start contributing to the news contents.
As far as I'm concerned, the trend is not simple reflected by the fact that Facebook has as many as 500 million users in the U.S., the popularity of Renren.com in China also demonstrating that new tools like social media has facilitating the free flow of information in a larger extent. Ethical citizen journalism is not simply limited to the fact-check of the news contents, but is supposed to be inclusive of all the basic values of journalism in broader sense.
Traditional journalism has pretty clear code of ethics for journalism professionals, including thoroughfulness, fairness and credibility. Generally speaking, the duty of the journalist is to enlighten the public to uphold the justice and build the foundation of democracy by seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues (Society of Professional Journalists). However, with the speedy advancement of new technologies, especially the wide application of the Internet, the audience in the traditional sense has transformed into active contributors to news stories, which has put the traditional standards in jeopardy. Anonymous Ruthless and rude comments from the readers were impossible to be put in print in the past, but now they are very likely to appear in the online comments. Fake stories or fabricated images submitted via social media may easily screw up the credibility of reputed news organizations. How can we maintain the creed of journalism as a profession while embrace the trend of interactive information sharing?
The first question we may ask is whether professional code of ethics are generalizable to non-professionals. Should citizen reporters or bloggers obey those basic principles? Well, put aside the argument whether citizen journalists, bloggers or free lancer reporters are exactly professional personnel, my logic is like this:
More than one hundred years, when Walter Williams founded the world's first journalism school, his belief was that well-educated journalists will bring quality news to the public and make the news market vital. Today, technology and education has changed the situation a little bit--"Every citizen is a reporter (OhMyNews.com)" However, being non-professional doesn’t mean there is no need to have a code of ethics or standards. If citizen journalism is to sustain, citizen journalists are subject to social audit. A code of ethics and standards should be adopted for citizen journalists around the world so news organizations can employ these citizen journalists and expect the same kind of honest reporting from them that they get from their legacy journalists.
Maybe the experience of OhMyNews may shed light on how to balance the two sides of the stories. Englis.OhMyNews.com pioneers in cultivating citizen journalism. However,citizen reporters' responsibility are clearly stated on the website http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=171638&rel_no=1. This may also well explain why this Korean citizen journalism Web site has been developed sustainably in the last few years. The practice to lay out the ethical requirement for citizen journalists or online contributors really worth thinking and trying.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Snow, Snow, Snow - at the beginning of Chinese Rabbit Year
It was the end of January. Chinese people were expecting a special holiday - the Spring Festival. According to the lunar calendar, 2011 is the Rabbit Year. Though my 3-and-a -half-year-old daughter Joyce has never been to China to experience the atmosphere of the festival, she was the most excited one in the house since I had kept telling her all interesting stuff about the Spring Festival. This year is very special for us whole family as well. My parents came to Columbia to stay with us and it was a family reunion time in the foreign country.
We scheduled a get-together for the celebration of our unique tradition on the New Year's Eve and invited as many as 10 friends to come over to my place, including several Americans in town. It is such a honor to have people who have helped us Chinese students and visitors a lot all year round. I really appreciate those native English speakers with high respect and better understanding of Chinese culture.
The weekend before the Spring Festival involved a lot of preparing and cooking for the get-together. Joyce was willing to help me around. The last year has been busy and hard for my family. So many changes. My husband moved to NY for his new job and Joyce came from St. Louis to live with me. She started preschool as a non English speaker. I myself have been trying the best to be a good mother, a dedicated graduate student, and a reliable employee. Everything went well so far. After several months in the preschool, Joyce has picked up English very fast and learned how to communicate with people from outside of my family. She is not much intimidated by the English environment anymore. At the turning point to a new year, we really need to celebrate - for all the achievement we have made.
The unexpected blizzard comes one night before the New Year's day, causing quite much trouble. My friends are trapped in their homes unable to come out! Few would like to brave the road for the party. As a result, our get-together was called off. The snow was such an upset for us, but, Joyce can always have fun, even in the freezing weather!
While I was sweating to dig my car out from the 13-inch snow, Joyce and her grandparents decided it would be great fun to slide down the slope in our back yard. Fortunately, my neighbor lent her sled to them. I bet that Joyce is only one of hundreds of kids who "enjoy" the weather. Schools are closed. Travel was almost impossible (though I still drove to KOMU-TV Tuesday night for my web shift). But it doesn't matter. Heavy snow often brings enjoyable time to kinds who are not deterred by the cold.
In Chinese belief, the snow coming around the New Year indicates prosperity in the coming year. We are lucky enough to see and feel the snow - probably the heaviest one in the last 30 years. When the sky clears after the storm, the sunlight is just so cozy and lovely.
Snow, snow, snow - just to welcome the Chinese Rabbit Year. Here you may see the precious moment I captured :)
We scheduled a get-together for the celebration of our unique tradition on the New Year's Eve and invited as many as 10 friends to come over to my place, including several Americans in town. It is such a honor to have people who have helped us Chinese students and visitors a lot all year round. I really appreciate those native English speakers with high respect and better understanding of Chinese culture.
The weekend before the Spring Festival involved a lot of preparing and cooking for the get-together. Joyce was willing to help me around. The last year has been busy and hard for my family. So many changes. My husband moved to NY for his new job and Joyce came from St. Louis to live with me. She started preschool as a non English speaker. I myself have been trying the best to be a good mother, a dedicated graduate student, and a reliable employee. Everything went well so far. After several months in the preschool, Joyce has picked up English very fast and learned how to communicate with people from outside of my family. She is not much intimidated by the English environment anymore. At the turning point to a new year, we really need to celebrate - for all the achievement we have made.
The unexpected blizzard comes one night before the New Year's day, causing quite much trouble. My friends are trapped in their homes unable to come out! Few would like to brave the road for the party. As a result, our get-together was called off. The snow was such an upset for us, but, Joyce can always have fun, even in the freezing weather!
While I was sweating to dig my car out from the 13-inch snow, Joyce and her grandparents decided it would be great fun to slide down the slope in our back yard. Fortunately, my neighbor lent her sled to them. I bet that Joyce is only one of hundreds of kids who "enjoy" the weather. Schools are closed. Travel was almost impossible (though I still drove to KOMU-TV Tuesday night for my web shift). But it doesn't matter. Heavy snow often brings enjoyable time to kinds who are not deterred by the cold.
In Chinese belief, the snow coming around the New Year indicates prosperity in the coming year. We are lucky enough to see and feel the snow - probably the heaviest one in the last 30 years. When the sky clears after the storm, the sunlight is just so cozy and lovely.
Snow, snow, snow - just to welcome the Chinese Rabbit Year. Here you may see the precious moment I captured :)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Application of social network to keep audience for local news engaged
Recently, Pew Institute released a report of its Internet Project Surveys on the use of social networks by older adults. The document reveals that older adults have been especially enthusiastic about embracing new networking tools. According to the report, social networking use among internet users aged 50 and older nearly doubled—from 22% in April 2009 to 42% in May 2010 (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Older-Adults-and-Social-Media.aspx).
Though currently teens and adults are still the heaviest users of social media, the surge in the number of older social network users outpaced the increase in that of the younger generation. The new trend is interesting and exciting enough to bring our attention to the potentials for media outlets, especially TV stations, to take full advantage of social networks to keep in close interaction with community members, most of who are also viewers of local news.
As KOMU-TV advances in building its outreach by using both Facebook and Twitter to attract the maximum size of local audience and provide the most updated information, I would see the system not only as a tool to disseminate information, but also a source to utilize the wisdom of the crowd. The rise of social journalism in the past few years have demonstrated that consumers are more interested in news that they are closely related to, and are more engaged to the contents to which they have contribute to. With popularity of new technologies with older groups, we may use crowdsourcing to obtain some information that our reporters have yet to obtain, or check the facts that are yet to be confirmed. The point of crowdsourcing in the process of news producing is that the talent and work of a group of people, who are simply audience in the traditional settings, is superior to that of a single reporter or a few. The individuals among the audience, especially older viewers, may be expertise in some area. And that knowledge can help our station gain ratings and produce higher quality news.
The other insight social network offers us is that we can use them to grow up our audience. Since younger adults have social networks as a tool for daily communication, they obtain a significant amount of information (news) from the resource as well. Studies have shown that younger people tend to watch TV for less time. But TV news may cut into this particular group with developing its social networking system. If the young become loyal followers of TV stations, hopefully they will become viewers of the same channel when they turn into TV news viewers.
Though currently teens and adults are still the heaviest users of social media, the surge in the number of older social network users outpaced the increase in that of the younger generation. The new trend is interesting and exciting enough to bring our attention to the potentials for media outlets, especially TV stations, to take full advantage of social networks to keep in close interaction with community members, most of who are also viewers of local news.
As KOMU-TV advances in building its outreach by using both Facebook and Twitter to attract the maximum size of local audience and provide the most updated information, I would see the system not only as a tool to disseminate information, but also a source to utilize the wisdom of the crowd. The rise of social journalism in the past few years have demonstrated that consumers are more interested in news that they are closely related to, and are more engaged to the contents to which they have contribute to. With popularity of new technologies with older groups, we may use crowdsourcing to obtain some information that our reporters have yet to obtain, or check the facts that are yet to be confirmed. The point of crowdsourcing in the process of news producing is that the talent and work of a group of people, who are simply audience in the traditional settings, is superior to that of a single reporter or a few. The individuals among the audience, especially older viewers, may be expertise in some area. And that knowledge can help our station gain ratings and produce higher quality news.
The other insight social network offers us is that we can use them to grow up our audience. Since younger adults have social networks as a tool for daily communication, they obtain a significant amount of information (news) from the resource as well. Studies have shown that younger people tend to watch TV for less time. But TV news may cut into this particular group with developing its social networking system. If the young become loyal followers of TV stations, hopefully they will become viewers of the same channel when they turn into TV news viewers.
Monday, December 13, 2010
China social networking sites statistics 2009
CNNIC released a report on China social networking sites (SNS) at the end of 2009 and I’m here to share some key findings:
• By the end of 2009, the number of Chinese online social media users is about to reach 124 million.
• Every social media user owns on average 2.78 social media accounts.
• Top 5 social networking sites (SNS): QQ alumni (50%), Renren (37%), Sina Space (36.6%), 51.com (27.1%), and Kaixin001 (26.4%).
• The male to female ratio in SNS users is 52.9:47.1.
• Majority of SNS users are youth (52.6%).
• 17.8% of China SNS users’ monthly income is over RMB 3,000, higher than 13.4% Chinese netizens.
• 47.5 of SNS users’ month income is lower than RMB 1,000, also higher than the percentage of overall Chinese netizens (44.2%).
• 59.1% of Chinese SNS users own college degree and above, 34% higher than over Chinese netizens.
China Social Networking Sites Usage
• Almost 80% SNS users are referred by friends, classmates, or colleagues.
• 75.8% indicate their SNS friends are friends in real life.
• 34.3% SNS users visit social networking sites every day while about 40.2% visit SNS once a week or longer.
• Over half SNS users spend no longer than one hour daily on SNS sites; 26.6% between one to two hours; 12.8% over two hours.
• China SNS users are mostly interested in status and photo album updates from friends.
• Sending messages and uploading photos are the two most popular activities on SNS.
Which Social Networking Site to Choose?
• 63.5% users pick the number of known friends, classmates, and colleagues on a social network as the top reason for choosing that network.
• 32.4% users find it important to get useful information on a social network
• Having lots of interesting topics is important to 21.4% users for choosing that social networking site
• 18.4% find a social networking site attractive if it provides lots of online games
The primary purpose of logging in a social network is entertainment for over 42.4% users being interviewed. 27.4% just log in to play games.
• By the end of 2009, the number of Chinese online social media users is about to reach 124 million.
• Every social media user owns on average 2.78 social media accounts.
• Top 5 social networking sites (SNS): QQ alumni (50%), Renren (37%), Sina Space (36.6%), 51.com (27.1%), and Kaixin001 (26.4%).
• The male to female ratio in SNS users is 52.9:47.1.
• Majority of SNS users are youth (52.6%).
• 17.8% of China SNS users’ monthly income is over RMB 3,000, higher than 13.4% Chinese netizens.
• 47.5 of SNS users’ month income is lower than RMB 1,000, also higher than the percentage of overall Chinese netizens (44.2%).
• 59.1% of Chinese SNS users own college degree and above, 34% higher than over Chinese netizens.
China Social Networking Sites Usage
• Almost 80% SNS users are referred by friends, classmates, or colleagues.
• 75.8% indicate their SNS friends are friends in real life.
• 34.3% SNS users visit social networking sites every day while about 40.2% visit SNS once a week or longer.
• Over half SNS users spend no longer than one hour daily on SNS sites; 26.6% between one to two hours; 12.8% over two hours.
• China SNS users are mostly interested in status and photo album updates from friends.
• Sending messages and uploading photos are the two most popular activities on SNS.
Which Social Networking Site to Choose?
• 63.5% users pick the number of known friends, classmates, and colleagues on a social network as the top reason for choosing that network.
• 32.4% users find it important to get useful information on a social network
• Having lots of interesting topics is important to 21.4% users for choosing that social networking site
• 18.4% find a social networking site attractive if it provides lots of online games
The primary purpose of logging in a social network is entertainment for over 42.4% users being interviewed. 27.4% just log in to play games.
Hiring? Try the crowdsourcing method
There are no easy ways to determine if you’re hiring the right person for a job and, in my opinion, complex approaches to hiring may be still very possible to get the wrong person.
Those who have used regimented hiring methodologies created by behavioral scientists and organizational behavior experts know exactly what I’m talking about. Nothing is better than simply laying down a few basic guidelines, understanding what you’re really looking for, knowing what’s important to you and listening to your gut to maximize your chances of hiring a good and right person.
After learning about the concept of crowdsourcing, I really think it is a effective way. It opens up the employers' eyes to wider resources and make it possible to put the candidates into a more practical and competitive environment. Crowdsourcing promotes creativity and interaction, which is essential for all jobs in a modern society.
The beauty of the application of crowdsourcing in this case is it helps employers see people’s behavior – in this case, how they work in more realistic environment – is strongly indicative of how they will work when they’re your employee. Notice the small stuff like this and you’ll get that gut feel you need to hire the right person.
Those who have used regimented hiring methodologies created by behavioral scientists and organizational behavior experts know exactly what I’m talking about. Nothing is better than simply laying down a few basic guidelines, understanding what you’re really looking for, knowing what’s important to you and listening to your gut to maximize your chances of hiring a good and right person.
After learning about the concept of crowdsourcing, I really think it is a effective way. It opens up the employers' eyes to wider resources and make it possible to put the candidates into a more practical and competitive environment. Crowdsourcing promotes creativity and interaction, which is essential for all jobs in a modern society.
The beauty of the application of crowdsourcing in this case is it helps employers see people’s behavior – in this case, how they work in more realistic environment – is strongly indicative of how they will work when they’re your employee. Notice the small stuff like this and you’ll get that gut feel you need to hire the right person.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Week 6 Blog
The Future of Media
“Email is probably going away.” Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg told a conference crowd. “I can't imagine life without it,” she added.
Huffinton Post, Youtube and other online media released the video of Sandberg’s keynote address to Nielsen's Consumer 360 Conference Tuesday, June 15, in which she cited that only 11% of teens use email daily. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/17/facebook-coo-email-is-pro_n_615816.html)
Sandberg’s witty argumentation initiated several waves of laughter and helped the audience see the future when social networking would usurp email. “E-mail’s reign is over. Social networking will be the new king.” The presentation reminded me of previous experience of finding the central compelling character in my story on the Facebook.
Though whether the prediction will become true in the near future is up in the air, Sandberg is right in saying that “if you want to know what people like us will do tomorrow, you look at what teenagers are doing today." This is big news for businesses and online advertisers because social networks such as Facebook may connect consumers and advertisers more easily and directly than email. It broadened the thinking of entrepreneurs and urged journalists to get ready in advance for media evolvement-young people’s news consumption pattern shapes the future of media.
Look around. We can easily see that young people are significantly different from older generations in media consumption. Teenagers are more connected, savvier to new and high technologies, and more likely to take the advantage of smartphones, laptops and other devices for information gathering and exchange.
When email still plays an important role in modern communication, Sandberg’s idea is shocking and forces me to think about the future of media. With technology advancing quickly in communication, we must begin to consider how to engage our audience in active conversation and disseminate information efficiently. It poses challenges to traditional media, while provides opportunities for multiple media storytelling.
The news sets an urgent need for the development and utilization of convergence, in which stories and information reach the consumers in different communication styles. When traditional media are declining, many journalists have become aware that interaction with viewers via the Web or social networking is taking a growing portion of media market. Peaple are now spending a fair amount of time online for high interest contents, supplementary information and news updating. Modern journalism must pick up the pace to embrace the trend.
.
How will TV remain as the most prevalent media after five decades? Wenger and Potter, authors of Advancing the Story-Broadcast journalism in a multimedia world may have presented a good answer. Traditional broadcast journalism must offer its audience with unique contents and help them relate to the story through interactive and multiple platforms to retain controlling position in face of overwhelming competition with new media. Furthermore, broadcasting has to develop its own new platforms to attract the attention of advertisers, whose participation is critical for the survival of media.
To allow multiple uses of traditional broadcasting, journalists should transform to continuous news producing on the Web and social networking. The change requires reporters to post information quickly, produce impressive online stories with short video clips and participate actively in the community affairs by blogging or staying on the Bulletin Board System (BBS). Modern journalism is a team work, between reporters, the public and the technical staff who excel at Web skills.
Research for Story Ideas
“Many story ideas will come to you. You may find interesting stories even when you are hanging out with friends in a bar.” That was what Professor John Schneller said in a training session for new students to Missouri School of Journalism. For all the time, our instructors in reporting classes have been teaching how to discover great stories. After half a year’s practice, I find there are multiple sources that may enlighten reporters. Moreover, good story ideas should withstand extensive research.
I parked on the top of the hill. There were a group of people in the berry fields. Among them were a reporter from the Missourian and a videophotographer from the university’s TV station. The next morning after my package was released, the Missourian took a whole page to report the same training session with a number of nice pictures. Actually I got my original idea from the Missourian’s previous story about another event on that farm. That’s why I believe the most direct sources are local newspapers where journalists may easily get knowledge about the community, although simply copying from local newspaper makes no sense to TV news production. Last Sunday I was reading the Missourian when an article about the Summer Celebration of a local farm caught my attention. At the end, the reporter told readers that the farm looked for more funds to get open to the general public. There were no further details so I turned to the Web for more details.
After surfing the net for half an hour, I understood that the farm was non-profitable organization and focused on research and educational program. It does not host training programs very often and the next one would be two days later. Excited with the findings, I got in touch with the institute and consulted with the staff about the best time to shoot impressive videos.
Many local newspapers, like the Missourian, feature one section of readers’ letters and opinions. Journalists may find interesting stories. People who express their own views on the newspapers may also be willing to address certain issues, which can be used as sources for broadcast stories.
The second kind of possible sources is national newscasts. Good journalists always keep an eye on what happens nation wide, and think about the possibilities to do stories from local angles. However, my recent experience caught me on guard of the difference among regions, which means a good story in
Last week, I found an interesting article in The USA Today. It addressed the increasing cost of small toy stores that caused by lead-paint inspection. I thought I might do a story from the local angle and started my research. I reached out to local stores that might be affected and found the idea was not applicable to
My last secret, stories may come with all kinds of newsletters. The subscriptions of City Source coming with my utility bills have saved me many times from running out of story ideas. This morning, I got the idea of doing a story about the program of Tree Power from a newsletter that I almost threw into the trash can. The contents of the community’s newsletters are often different from local newspapers. I have developed a habit of read through the Quarterly Report of Columbia Public Schools, which is found every couple of months in my mailbox. I get electronic newsletters from a number of organizations or businesses. One interesting thing journalists should know is, most of us would spend hours searching for stories, while simply ignore helpful information which is always around us.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Week 4 Blog
I. Citizen Journalism-Why we need it?
Recently I attended lecture of Pro. Mike McKean on Convergence. During the lecture, I found the concept of citizen journalism interesting. The term is new to me. In China, mainstream media do not have much practice of it. Pro. McKean talked about citizen journalism in the context convergence news reporting. We are in an age of fast development of multi-media news reporting, when audience increasingly defines and shapes the news. Good examples of citizen journalism are the first video of London Tube Bombing and images of VA Tech shooting, both of which are captured by non-journalists and uploaded onto the Web soon after the incidents.
Citizen journalism, or user generated news, is the concept that members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information." (wikipedia.org). The idea is that people without professional journalism training can utilize modern technologies and the Internet to create, discuss or examine media contents on their own or with others. The intent of citizen journalism is to encourage democracy by allowing people to share independent, wide-ranging and relevant information.
In the US, people are enjoying and utilizing citizen journalism in many ways. They can write about an event in their community on their blog or in an online forum. Or they could post their comments of a newspaper article, and point out factual errors or bias via BBS. They may videotape a newsy event and uploaded it on a site such as YouTube. A major practice of citizen journalism in China is Tianya Forum, where netizens can enjoy greater liberty to express their views.
The new situation initiates two questions. First, how can “traditional” Journalists keep in pace with the development? When many traditional media are declining, journalists should embrace and shape user-generated content and culture. As Shook pointed out in Chapter 13 of Television Field Production and Reporting(P.244), community involvement is crucial to the success of TV stations. Actually, the rule is true for all media outlets including print and radio. Journalists should know that audience is more interested in their own stories or stories happening in their proximity. Citizen journalism helps journalists understand what the public care about. Journalists should explore new digital tools for more effective storytelling and put traditional journalism into personal media space, together with video, audio, photos and slideshows and interactive graphics and data. Journalists can also encourage audience to combine news with blogging, tweeting or other social networking tools.
Second, is citizen journalism is a viable substitute for mainstream output? Citizen journalism will not be able to replace mainstream output. A main problem in citizen journalism is that user-generated contents are usually in low quality compared with professional journalism. Media may not sacrifice the basic journalism standards to encourage the participation of the public. It is always professional journalists’ responsibility to maintain the quality and fairness of news. Furthermore, according to a research carried out by three American universities in June and July 2009, only 25% of the amateur sites published on a daily basis. Though some did have daily postings, they tended to have significantly fewer news items.
II. Improve with Each Story
I was searching on the Internet for artists who would present their work at the 52nd Art in the Park, when an electronic image popped up on the screen. It feature photo by photographer Kent Durk. The Edgewood Farm on the picture was built in 1902. I got an idea that Durk may be the central compelling character in my story of this event.
Kent Durk was not yet a member of Columbia Art League. Therefore, I did not have his contact information. I googled his name and discovered that he was on Facebook. On that day, I made contact with him and he replied, excitedly telling me that it would be his first exhibition at Art in the Park. Durk suggested that I visit the homepage of his studio “360icon” to learn about his photography. After visiting his Web site, I was very impressed by Durk’s talent and unique vision. Information of Durk’s adventurous team “Old Creepy House Explorers Club” and learning of his artistic style helped me do the story from the perspective of the artist.
I found the Internet a great source for searching background information. I did not have an opportunity to speak with someone from Columbia Art League. However, the official site of Art in the Park provided me with information about the history of the event, and a list of exhibitions and estimated number of visitors.
One problem with my story of Art in the Park was that it lacked a new angle. When I reviewed my package, I realized that Art in the park has a history of more than 50 years; therefore, the public must have seen local media’s coverage every summer. From the very beginning, I have restrained my thinking to covering the opening of the event, routinely assuming “sooner is better than later” because I would not risk missing the deadline.
KOMU did a reporting on the closing ceremony, which was different from stories in the Tribune and the Missourian. On the second day of the event, Art League released the names of the winners for Best of Show the following day after the closing of the art show. Emma Ginsberg, a 25-year-old painter, won second place. Ginsberg had her show in Emerging Artist Pavilion, which is new in Art in the Park’s 52-year history. I reached out to Emma and spoke with her two days before Art in the Park, but decided not to shoot her showcase and interview her during the festival. If I had attended the prize awarding ceremony on the second day; I may have done a more compelling story.
This experience gave me enlightenment. By comparing my story with published ones on local media, I got some idea of how to improve my writing and enrich my vocabulary. I saw what angles should be taken in the reporting of large event which happens each year. Another improvement was, I did my stand-up in a place with a lot of people, which I had previously shied away from.
With the sixth story, I was not confident with my coverage of the Standing Committee on Public Art. My story lacked basic information on the amount of construction cost, and an in-depth analysis of the committee’s decision on the design proposal for the parking garage. However, I learned a lot from the procedure of doing my story.
It was my first experience of doing a story in one day, which I had never tried before. Second, the focus of the story was different from the style of the stories I had done before. I had intended to cover volunteer events and art activities, but I became aware of the lack of my ability to report issues in public life. Third, I realized I had forgotten to change the background of my interviewees once I captured the video onto computer. I set up my camera in a hurry, and I was restricted to the corner of the meeting room to do interviews. However, according to Shook, it was not an excuse for bad video or framing, but an admission of failure. Forth, although I got two minutes of sound bites from two sources, I still found relevant bites workable for my package. It was very different from my previous experience of more than 20 minutes interviewing each person. Last, I was more confident with my stand-up, although it was far from being perfect. For my first two packages, it took me one hour to do stand-ups, but they looked bad. For the last stand-up, I tried three times before I was done.
Recently I attended lecture of Pro. Mike McKean on Convergence. During the lecture, I found the concept of citizen journalism interesting. The term is new to me. In China, mainstream media do not have much practice of it. Pro. McKean talked about citizen journalism in the context convergence news reporting. We are in an age of fast development of multi-media news reporting, when audience increasingly defines and shapes the news. Good examples of citizen journalism are the first video of London Tube Bombing and images of VA Tech shooting, both of which are captured by non-journalists and uploaded onto the Web soon after the incidents.
Citizen journalism, or user generated news, is the concept that members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information." (wikipedia.org). The idea is that people without professional journalism training can utilize modern technologies and the Internet to create, discuss or examine media contents on their own or with others. The intent of citizen journalism is to encourage democracy by allowing people to share independent, wide-ranging and relevant information.
In the US, people are enjoying and utilizing citizen journalism in many ways. They can write about an event in their community on their blog or in an online forum. Or they could post their comments of a newspaper article, and point out factual errors or bias via BBS. They may videotape a newsy event and uploaded it on a site such as YouTube. A major practice of citizen journalism in China is Tianya Forum, where netizens can enjoy greater liberty to express their views.
The new situation initiates two questions. First, how can “traditional” Journalists keep in pace with the development? When many traditional media are declining, journalists should embrace and shape user-generated content and culture. As Shook pointed out in Chapter 13 of Television Field Production and Reporting(P.244), community involvement is crucial to the success of TV stations. Actually, the rule is true for all media outlets including print and radio. Journalists should know that audience is more interested in their own stories or stories happening in their proximity. Citizen journalism helps journalists understand what the public care about. Journalists should explore new digital tools for more effective storytelling and put traditional journalism into personal media space, together with video, audio, photos and slideshows and interactive graphics and data. Journalists can also encourage audience to combine news with blogging, tweeting or other social networking tools.
Second, is citizen journalism is a viable substitute for mainstream output? Citizen journalism will not be able to replace mainstream output. A main problem in citizen journalism is that user-generated contents are usually in low quality compared with professional journalism. Media may not sacrifice the basic journalism standards to encourage the participation of the public. It is always professional journalists’ responsibility to maintain the quality and fairness of news. Furthermore, according to a research carried out by three American universities in June and July 2009, only 25% of the amateur sites published on a daily basis. Though some did have daily postings, they tended to have significantly fewer news items.
II. Improve with Each Story
I was searching on the Internet for artists who would present their work at the 52nd Art in the Park, when an electronic image popped up on the screen. It feature photo by photographer Kent Durk. The Edgewood Farm on the picture was built in 1902. I got an idea that Durk may be the central compelling character in my story of this event.
Kent Durk was not yet a member of Columbia Art League. Therefore, I did not have his contact information. I googled his name and discovered that he was on Facebook. On that day, I made contact with him and he replied, excitedly telling me that it would be his first exhibition at Art in the Park. Durk suggested that I visit the homepage of his studio “360icon” to learn about his photography. After visiting his Web site, I was very impressed by Durk’s talent and unique vision. Information of Durk’s adventurous team “Old Creepy House Explorers Club” and learning of his artistic style helped me do the story from the perspective of the artist.
I found the Internet a great source for searching background information. I did not have an opportunity to speak with someone from Columbia Art League. However, the official site of Art in the Park provided me with information about the history of the event, and a list of exhibitions and estimated number of visitors.
One problem with my story of Art in the Park was that it lacked a new angle. When I reviewed my package, I realized that Art in the park has a history of more than 50 years; therefore, the public must have seen local media’s coverage every summer. From the very beginning, I have restrained my thinking to covering the opening of the event, routinely assuming “sooner is better than later” because I would not risk missing the deadline.
KOMU did a reporting on the closing ceremony, which was different from stories in the Tribune and the Missourian. On the second day of the event, Art League released the names of the winners for Best of Show the following day after the closing of the art show. Emma Ginsberg, a 25-year-old painter, won second place. Ginsberg had her show in Emerging Artist Pavilion, which is new in Art in the Park’s 52-year history. I reached out to Emma and spoke with her two days before Art in the Park, but decided not to shoot her showcase and interview her during the festival. If I had attended the prize awarding ceremony on the second day; I may have done a more compelling story.
This experience gave me enlightenment. By comparing my story with published ones on local media, I got some idea of how to improve my writing and enrich my vocabulary. I saw what angles should be taken in the reporting of large event which happens each year. Another improvement was, I did my stand-up in a place with a lot of people, which I had previously shied away from.
With the sixth story, I was not confident with my coverage of the Standing Committee on Public Art. My story lacked basic information on the amount of construction cost, and an in-depth analysis of the committee’s decision on the design proposal for the parking garage. However, I learned a lot from the procedure of doing my story.
It was my first experience of doing a story in one day, which I had never tried before. Second, the focus of the story was different from the style of the stories I had done before. I had intended to cover volunteer events and art activities, but I became aware of the lack of my ability to report issues in public life. Third, I realized I had forgotten to change the background of my interviewees once I captured the video onto computer. I set up my camera in a hurry, and I was restricted to the corner of the meeting room to do interviews. However, according to Shook, it was not an excuse for bad video or framing, but an admission of failure. Forth, although I got two minutes of sound bites from two sources, I still found relevant bites workable for my package. It was very different from my previous experience of more than 20 minutes interviewing each person. Last, I was more confident with my stand-up, although it was far from being perfect. For my first two packages, it took me one hour to do stand-ups, but they looked bad. For the last stand-up, I tried three times before I was done.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)