Spotlight on LSS Researchers
Margaret Simons:
Internet journalism 'pens' the death of an empire
Monty Python fans will remember the scene from the film Life of Brian in which members of the Popular Front of Judea are sitting around plotting the downfall of the Roman Empire. “What did the Romans ever do for us?” someone asks rhetorically.The answers are uncomfortable for the would-be revolutionaries. The Romans built aqueducts. They brought sanitation, civic order and better education and health. As empires go, it hadn’t been too bad.
We are now living at the end of the age of media empires. At the same time, we are in a period of profound technological change.
I think it is clear that the changes wrought by the internet will, over time, prove to be equivalent to those brought about by the invention of the printing press.
The printing press changed just about everything. It made possible modern democratic forms. It also led to the rise of newspapers and the creation of the profession of journalism.
“Thanks to the internet, almost anyone who wishes to do so can publish news and views to the world within minutes of deciding to do so. This is new in human history.”
Once again, we have to expect just about everything to change – including journalism. The trick will be to conserve what has been good – indeed, essential – about past practice, while embracing the opportunities to evolve, by doing things better and differently.
Those of us who have been concerned about the concentration of media ownership in Australia are being forced to confront the fact that the empires had their good side. For all their legion faults Kerry Packer, Rupert Murdoch and the Fairfax family cared about journalism and content, and supported them for their own sake, even when they didn’t make a profit.
Their motives were mixed. They cared about the kudos, political power and influence that came from privileged access to the means of publication and broadcast. Nevertheless, if we were to ask the Monty Python question, ‘What did the media empires do for us?’, we would be forced to answer with a list that included supporting quality journalism (as well as some dross), building communities of interest, contributing to the free flow of information, scrutiny of the powerful and generally lubricating democracy by giving practical expression to the principle of freedom of speech.
We might have been ‘colonised’, but there were certainly benefits. Now though, Kerry Packer is dead and with him we lost quality journalism outlets such as The Bulletin and the Channel Nine Sunday program. Media in Australia is now dominated by institutional investors and private equity. These owners care only for the bottom line. The age of the dominant media proprietor is over. Only Rupert Murdoch remains and he is an old man.
The truth is we are now entering the postcolonial age in media and, like most such eras, we will find that we are thrown on our own resources to a much greater extent. It will be a time of both loss and opportunity.
The threats are obvious. The business models that have supported journalism in the past have relied on gathering audiences in one place at one time and selling their attention to advertisers. Now audiences are increasingly fragmented. Families no longer gather around the six o’clock news, but access news and entertainment separately, at times and places that suit them.
Newspapers, which have been the main employers of journalists, are seeing advertising revenue disappear. Online classified advertising sites are a far more efficient way of seeking a job, a car or a home.
While all mainstream media organisations have established popular websites, it is not possible to charge as much for an advertisement online as you can in a print product. Thus the business model that has supported journalism worldwide is under strain, and in some cases broken.
So why, at this time of profound industry adjustment, has Swinburne University of Technology chosen to get involved in journalism? Next year, the first students will enrol in Swinburne’s new Journalism Degree.
The philosophy behind these moves is a belief in the opportunities of this time of change. Swinburne wants to play a role in combating the threats and embracing the potential bought by the changes engulfing the media industry.
To see the opportunities, it is important to keep clearly in mind where the crisis is and where it is not. There is no evidence at all of a declining appetite for news and information. Quite the reverse. Young people are accessing more news, from more sources than ever before. They are also publishing their own news, whether it be to a community of a few friends, or more widely. Never before has there been so much media choice, or so many adept media practitioners.
Thanks to the internet, almost anyone who wishes to do so can publish news and views to the world within minutes of deciding to do so. This is new in human history.
It means that the audience for journalism is no longer only the audience. The leading US journalism academic Jay Rosen likes to talk about “the people previously known as the audience”.
In the future, audience members will also inform journalism and interact with it. I am not only talking about so-called Citizen Journalism – although that is a phenomenon that will not go away. I am talking about more open and transparent relationships between professional news gatherers and the audiences they serve. These, in turn, will lead to different and I believe healthier interactions than existed in the era when only a few people had privileged access to the means of publication.
Down to the nitty gritty. Where will the jobs be? In time, there will be more opportunities in media than ever before, because media will become an essential part of almost all areas of society and all industries. The growth areas for journalism will not be the media empires, but very many smaller, intensely networked media enterprises, many of which will survive because of the strength of their connections to their audiences.
The audiences may be smaller – mass media will no longer be the only or the most interesting game in town – but the relationships with audiences will be intense, interactive and mutually rewarding.
Swinburne’s new Journalism Degree has been designed with an eye firmly on the future: where the profession will be in three years’ time, when the first students graduate, rather than on where the industry has been in the past.
Some things remain constant. The core journalistic skills of clear communication, writing, research and interview skills have always been important and will remain so. They sit at the heart of the degree.
But students will also learn new media skills. Graduates will know how to publish their own material to the worldwide web. They will know how to produce digital video and audio, and how to use social networking tools to build and engage with audiences. They will be adept at the killer applications of the internet, all of which are to do with connecting and networking.
These skills will be matched with a thorough grounding in political, philosophical and media theory.
At the same time, the university has established the Foundation for Public Interest Journalism within the Institute for Social Research. With a board of leading journalists, media innovators and community activists (details at www.sisr.net), the foundation has a broad brief to explore and experiment with new media technology to advance the best of journalistic practice, and explore new business models for supporting journalism that matters.
Like most postcolonial eras, the one we are entering will be a time of uncertainty, some chaos and shifting paradigms and power relationships. Ultimately, though, I believe it will be a time of greater freedom and possibility. It’s going to be an exciting ride.
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