Journalists in the 21st century are expected to work for different platforms, gather online information, become multi‐media professionals, and learn how to deal with amateur contributions. The business model of gathering, producing and distributing news changed rapidly. Producing content is not enough; moderation and curation are at least as important when it comes to working for digital platforms. There is a growing pressure on news organizations to produce more inexpensive content for digital platforms, resulting in new models of low‐cost or even free content production. Aggregation, either by humans or machines ‘finding’ news and re‐publishing it, is gaining importance. At so‐called ‘content farms’ freelancers, part‐timers and amateurs produce articles that are expected to end up high in web searches. Apart from this low‐pay model a no‐pay model emerged were bloggers write for no compensation at all. At the Huffington Post thousands of bloggers actually work for free. Other websites use similar models, sometimes offering writers a fixed price depending on the number of clicks a page gets. We analyse the background, the consequences for journalists and journalism and the implications for online news organizations. We investigate aggregation services and content farms and no‐pay or low‐pay news websites that mainly use bloggers for input.
The growth of so-called hyperlocal media has created new challenges for research, blurring some of the classic boundaries of local journalism and traditional media. In this chapter we try to understand the role hyperlocal media have in the local media ecosystem by focusing on two European countries: Spain and the Netherlands. We present the methodology applied for the study of hyperlocal media in both cases, adapted to their geographical, social and media context. We identify the main characteristics of hyperlocal media in both countries, observing their distribution in the territory, organizational and productive structures, news content and citizen participation. Finally, we propose some keys for the comparative study of hyperlocal media.
In the context of changing values, practices and working arrangements, the worlds of journalism and art converge. Evaluating these professions in conflux and beyond their (supposed) opposing ideologies and discourses, remains both controversial and complex. Through a critical hermeneutic analysis, this paper highlights key areas of tension regarding the confluence of journalism and arts. It is argued that journalism is and always has been inextricably interwoven with the arts, a shared existence not limited to Western democracies. The article proposes a continuum as a theoretical model for mapping and exploring the coexistence of artistic and journalistic approaches of news and news work. This “arts and journalism” continuum offers a potentially fruitful dimension of studying news work as a form of artistic practice in a variety of contexts. In conclusion, a consideration of “Artistic Journalism” is proposed as a way for the profession to articulate its creative foundation with its goal to pursue the truth, including the intrinsic and affective motivations of its practitioners.
VIRGiN reveals types of local & regional storytelling techniques that fit Virtual Reality based on research among journalists and professional and user generated VR concepts.Within a context of an already complicated media strategy puzzle, Virtual Reality (VR) has entered the news domain. VR might be a new means to attract and engage audiences with news. However, hardly any tested local and regional VR news productions exist. This makes it unclear how to create local and regional VR news and how to implement this effectively inside the newsrooms. VIRGiN aims to reveal different types of local/regional news and storytelling techniques that are suitable for VR. Based on the creation and testing of newly developed, professional and user generated VR news productions, we want to learn about the benefits and thresholds of using VR as a means to reach and engage audiences with local and regional news stories.Partners:Omroep BrabantBreda VandaagUitgeverij de BodeAPVIS
