ONLINE JOURNALISM/ ELEMENTS OF NEWS WORTHINESS

Media consumption or media diet is the sum of information and entertainment media taken in by an individual or group. It includes activities such as interacting with new media, reading books and magazine, watching television and film, and listening to radio. An active media consumer must have the capacity for skepticism, judgement, free thinking, questioning, and understanding.




Digital journalism also known as online journalismis a contemporary form of journalism where editorial content is distributed via the Internet as opposed to publishing via print or broadcast.




What is digital journalism?

While there is no clear definition of digital journalism, it is widely recognised as being any form of journalist content that is posted on the internet. It could be in text, audio or video form and because it does not have to print and distribute content, it is much faster than traditional journalism. People can use the internet to access news and events 24 hours a day. They also like to fit their reading into busy lives, so content is shorter than it used to be: Articles are not as long, GIFs can be glanced at in a few seconds and places such as the BBC now offer 15 second snippets of longer interviews.

The roll of a digital journalist is more about compiling content sourced from places such as social media. There is a focus on getting a lot of information into a short space. In many digital articles, hyperlinks link to video or photos that have been taken on camera-phones and posted on Facebook or YouTube. For students of journalism, courses that give information on how to search for such content will be useful. The legal aspects of this, such as copyright and plagiarism, must also be learned.

Interactive journalism

People can now react to journalism in a way that was impossible before the internet. Articles have a ‘comments’ section where people can get involved and give their opinion. For journalists, this allows feedback they would not have had with traditional journalism, but it also means that content is harder to control.

The way journalists research stories has changed as well. In the past journalists would often make phonecalls to PR offices. Now they do a lot of research using social media (known as crowdsourcing.) In a study by ING last year, it was found that 50% of journalists use social media as their main source of information.

Journalist can also monitor stories using hashtags (#). Hashtags allow journalists to track a story, compile information from multiple sources and find an audience who is already interested in the topic they are writing about. There are also tools for journalists to analyse the popularity of their own posts. Websites such as Hashtagify allow journalists to see the popularity of hashtags and allow them to use the most relevant hashtag to appeal to a wide audience.

Possible problems

Because sharing opinions is so popular in digital journalism, the line between fact and opinion can be blurred. Journalists need to think about the accuracy of content on different platforms and consider their sources carefully. Due to the demand for instant news, many journalists now publish articles without checking the facts in order to get the article out quicker. Corrections and retractions are becoming more common, so it is important for journalists to follow up on work they have published to ensure it is still accurate, and change it if it isn’t.

What does this mean for students of journalism?

Practicing digital journalism in your spare time is essential. You should start a blog and post things regularly. You could use your mobile phone to record videos or interviews to add into your blog posts. Learning to edit video, audio and photos will make you more versatile and use social media to promote your work is also a good idea.

As many journalists now post their work directly onto news websites and platforms, it would also be a good idea to learn some computer coding. Knowing code such as HTML or CSS allows you to edit and personalise writing and visuals directly on a webpage. You can learn to code for free on some websites such as Code Academy or Google's University Consortium.

Older journalists and academics who are not as ‘tech savvy’ might not be as familiar with digital journalism, so it is important to consider this when looking for a degree course or training. There are some courses that specialise in digital journalism, whilst others still focus on traditional aspects. Whatever course you chose, you can use university to hone your digital research skills as much as your book skills to prepare you for the future.

Community rather than audience. News organizations should seek first to build a community around high-quality content that touches the needs and concerns of their public on social, intellectual, and emotional levels.

Users rather than advertisers and investors. The content and sponsorship messages align with the ethical and social values of the users, not the profit goals of advertisers and investors. Talking Points Memo offers a good example.

Relations rather than scale. The important metric is not the number of eyeballs in the audience but how the journalists interact with and respond to the needs of their community.

Quality rather than quantity. Instead of saturating the audience with the latest news on topics that everyone else is covering, they produce "slow news" that offers explanation, context and analysis. De Correspondent of Holland has opted for the slow-news model.

Public service rather than for-profit businesses. Digital news outlets will produce investigative reports that challenge the narratives put out by powerful business and political interests. MediaPart of France and eldiario.es of Spain have adopted this model.

Social capital rather than financial capital. These digital media often lack financial capital, so they need to find ways to monetize their social capital to gain contributions and investment based on the credibility of their content, the reputation of their journalists, and their links to other media and community organizations.

Members rather than subscribers. Those who contribute money to a publication are not buying information in a purely economic transaction; they are supporting the mission of the publication, which is usually service to a specific community. Whether they are called partners, members, friends, supporters, sponsors, or what have you, they are providing the backbone for dozens of service-oriented media. The Membership Puzzle Project has identified more than 100 examples.
 

Niche media rather than mass media. The media that are prospering are those that exploit topics and audiences bypassed by traditional media because they aren't lucrative enough. Among neglected topics or communities--human rights, public education, quality of public services, health, environment, gender, small business, innovation, and science. Perspective Daily of Germany has 13,000 paid subscribers to its articles on science aimed at a general audience.

The rebirth of personal media such as email and blogs. The advantage of these personalized media is that they can be walled off from Google and Facebook. TheSkimm and Business of Fashion are two examples of media that have accomplished this.

New narrative formats driven by new technologies. Many of these formats are driven by free or inexpensive technologies that permit the organization and mining of huge databases. Linguoo of Argentina started as a news-reading service for the blind that has expanded into other services.
And a bonus paradigm for those who have read this far. 

Collaboration rather than competition. A wonderful example is the work of OjoPúblico of Peru, which engaged four other publications in its investigation of the theft of thousand of objects of art and culture from Latin America.




Elements of News Worthiness

Good news stories have more than one of these elements. Sometimes it becomes a trouble to prioritize News. At one time we may have different kinds of information and then we have to shortlist the most important ones among them. As long as we do not know the value of the content our efforts are useless. It’s a troublesome to figure out content when there is less space left and content is more. Journalists are always running out of time. A journalist should be superfast to determine the value of a news.

1. Timeliness: Current news has more impact than something that happened yesterday or last week. The news media loses interest in past events because there is always fresh news somewhere.

2. Proximity: Location, location, location. If an event is happening nearby, it will impact readers more than if it were happening somewhere else that doesn't affect them as much – in another state or in another country. Depending on the story, it may as well be the same thing.

3. Prominence: A well-known person, place or event has a stronger news angle than something that the audience isn’t familiar with. A guest speaker visiting your local elementary school to take over story time doesn't resonate with many people unless that speaker is Johnny Depp.

4. Impact: Whether it's a peaceful protest that encompasses five city blocks or a 23-car pileup on the pike, the more people involved in the event, the more newsworthy it is. Similarly, the number of people affected by the event will affect its newsworthiness, whether it's an adjustment of minimum wage or an alleged outbreak of Ebola.

5. Conflict: Readers are always interested in disagreements, arguments and rivalries. If an event has a conflict attached to it, many readers will be interested on that basis alone. Let's not forget that it's human nature to choose sides and stand up for that choice. Stories that involve conflict include those about religion, sports, business, trials, wars, human rights violations, politics or even struggles against nature, animals or outer space.

6. Oddity: If something is unusual, shocking or bizarre, the strangeness alone could make it newsworthy. Think Octo-Mom.

7. Consequence: If the impact of an event may directly affect readers, they will want to know about it. A run-of-the-mill burglary at the Watergate Hotel was white noise on the airwaves until it became clear what the identities of the key players meant for the nation. That bit of news cost a U.S. President his seat.

8. Human interest: If a situation draws any sort of emotional reaction, then it might contain the news element of a human-interest story. These stories can be "soft" kid-at-the-petting-zoo snapshots, inspiring comeback accounts or infuriating reports of incompetence on the part of a public figure.

9. Extremes/superlatives: Reporters and audiences alike love to hear about the first, the best, the longest, the smallest, the highest. If you can claim one for yourself, do it.

10. Scandal: Everyone loves to hate on the philandering congressman who sends inappropriate pictures under an absurd virtual handle. If you've got info on an honest-to-goodness scandal, reporters everywhere are frothing at the mouth to get the scoop on it.