Chapter 10:
Chapter 10: The Changing Landscape of the Mass Media
Rock-Bottom Essentials:
Most media organizations produce news in a variety of formats
“Convergence” has blurred the distinction between the traditional categories of mass media including print, broadcast news, and online sources
Audiences are moving toward information on demand, seeking media platforms and outlets that can tell them what they want to know when they want to know it
Aggregators compile news and deliver it in what some view as a more user-friendly format
Electronic media approaches vary, including: podcasting (which some see as a reinvention of radio); blogs (which can facilitate public discussion and interaction); wikis (a form of citizen journalism); RSS (feeds that alert users to new material posted to their favorite blogs, news websites or other Internet sources); and social networks (such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter)
Traditional media, though declining in some areas and shifting in others, remains a central outlet (for now)
By the Numbers:
There are some one trillion unique URLS in Google’s Index
Approximately two billion Google Searches daily
The Online News Association, representing professional digital journalists, has more than 1,700 professional members
On average, it takes 20 on-line readers to generate the ad revenue of one print reader
Number of people globally who read blogs is 346 million
For Further Reading:
The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007)
Janet Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006)
Debora Halpern Wenger & Deborah Potter, Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World (Congressional Quarterly Publishing, 2008)
Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008, An Annual Report on American Journalism, .
Chapter 10: The Changing Landscape of the Mass Media
Introduction
Modern mass media consumption habits are changing—and fast![1] Today, environmental law and policy advocates must appreciate the changing landscape of mass media to successfully harness its power.[2] As the Pew Research Center for People and the Press explained in 2008, “[f]or more than a decade, the audiences for most traditional news sources have steadily declined, as the number of people getting news online has surged. However, today it is not a choice between traditional sources and the Internet for the core elements of today’s news audiences. A sizable minority of Americans find themselves at the intersection of these two long-standing trends in news consumption.”[3]
To get a sense of how this evolution is impacting environmental coverage, it is interesting to review a 2007 “top 10” source list for environmental news compiled by an Internet-based environmental expert.[4] That list began with six sources that are available either simultaneously or exclusively on-line (including the first, which is only available on the Internet): Grist Magazine,[5] E/The Environmental Magazine,[6] Environmental News Network,[7] Environmental Health News,[8] People & the Planet,[9] and Earth Policy Institute.[10] It is not until the seventh pick that U.S. newspapers are listed (including hometown papers as well as The New York Times,[11] The Washington Post,[12] and the Los Angeles Times[13]). It also lists as numbers eight and nine the generic categories of “International News Sources” and “News Aggregators” (including Google News[14] and Yahoo News[15]). The expert closes the list with Government Agencies, but notes that one should always “take agency news with a grain of salt, of course. Besides protecting the environment, these agencies also provide public relations for the current administration.”[16] To add to the focus on new media, in this day and age government agencies provide most of their information in digital format.[17]
“Best of” lists such as the one just described will, of course, vary in content. Yet despite likely minor disagreement as to which sources are actually tops in terms of the environment, it is likely that any “top” environmental news sources in this day and age will include a substantial number of Internet-based resource options. Even the iconic Pulitzer organization has expanded its awards to include on-line only news.[18]
News outlets are thus evolving. Platforms that offer news overlap and connect. As the Pew Center scholars noted, “[t]here is no single or finished news product anymore . . . and [a] news organization and a news Web site are no longer final destinations.”[19] In short, as the first decade of the twenty-first century draws to a close, people expect more information, faster, and from more and combined sources.
In light of multi-faceted platforms and fast-paced change in the world of media coverage, environmental advocates must understand the nature of existing news outlets, and how such outlets might evolve. To help readers gain such understanding, we have organized this chapter into four parts. The first part discusses media “convergence” and how news coverage and transmission have transformed in recent decades. We then turn to how technological advances make modern news much more “audience-centric.” We then include a brief section on how the world of news might continue to evolve. We close the chapter with some tips for managing this new and evolving media landscape.
Convergence 101
Over the past few years, distinctions between the traditional categories of mass media—including print and broadcast news—have blurred.[20] With the proliferation of the Internet, numerous media organizations produce news in a variety of platforms.[21] While this is impacting mainstream media, it is also happening in the trade press. For example, the subscription to the American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Journal that accompanies an ABA membership can be supplemented by coverage of legal issues on .[22] But that’s not all! Lawyers can also receive ABA news via email, an RSS or Twitter feed, a widget, and even join their social networking site on Facebook.[23] The term used to describe this latest phenomenon of cross-media collaboration is “convergence.”[24]
What is Convergence?
Imagine a 35 year old newspaper reporter whose experience includes more than a decade at newspapers. The reporter has never spent a day working in television news, but in minutes, s/he is about to “go live.”[25] In other words, the newspaper reporter’s job has changed, so it is no longer just covering news for the newspaper, but now may include reporting on television and/or radio, and perhaps turning the results into a multi-media story for the news outlet’s website.[26] It could include a Twitter post and a tag on a social media site.[27]
Convergence is happening across the country: from Los Angeles, California, to Shreveport, Louisiana, to Charlotte, North Carolina, where platforms from newspapers to television and radio stations and on-line partners are working together to develop news stories.[28] The relationships can range from cooperating on breaking news to sharing story ideas or newscast rundowns to working together on major investigations.[29] Sometimes these media outlets are owned by the same company, sometimes not.[30] Convergence “is about flexibility.”[31]
One of the first studied convergent efforts[32] happened in Tampa, Florida, where the newspaper, The Tampa Tribune,[33] the NBC television news affiliate, WFLA TV,[34] and Tampa Bay Online (),[35] share a website and a $40 million[36] facility. The first floor is made up of television studio space, the second includes TV and online newsrooms, and the third floor houses a newspaper newsroom where Tribune reporters can give reports for the television newscast.[37] Dozens more convergence efforts have followed.[38]
Why is convergence happening? In the twenty-first century, a wide range of news outlets, news operations, and venues provide information about the rapidly changing world.[39] Cable television has opened hundreds of channels for news, entertainment, and information, and the Internet provides many thousands of sites.[40] Yet audiences are becoming fragmented while news media ownership is becoming more concentrated.[41] At the same time, the audience is becoming more involved in all aspects of the news.[42]
In short, as one scholar has aptly explained, “[d]aily newspapers see a decline in readers, as well as a decline in advertising. The nightly network news sees its viewership decline, as the age of its audience rises. Journalism itself is being redefined. Anyone with a website and information can have access on a Web log (blog) to an audience greater than many daily newspapers or monthly magazines.”[43] Bloggers are in fact challenging the traditional media’s role as gatekeepers of news and information.[44] As one blogger has remarked, it is no longer constructive “to focus on drawing distinctions between ‘blogging’ and ‘journalism,’” [45] but suggests “seeing a blog as a platform to evolve the practice of journalism . . .”[46]
Though convergence as a concept is here to stay, how things will ultimately play out in the new world of media is unclear. In the convergent media universe, various modes and platforms of communication and information are continually reforming. This means that journalists, environmental advocates, and lawyers must be ready to adapt to the ever-changing demands of technologies.
The Media’s Web Presence
As discussed in Chapter 1, in the late 90s, just 1 in 50 Americans got the news with some regularity from the Internet.[47] The numbers have exploded exponentially in this century. By 2006, nearly 1 in 3 Americans regularly got news online.[48] In 2007, “more than 58 million U.S. Web users visited newspaper web sites.”[49] In 2008, online readership for newspapers continued to grow.[50] As 2008 drew to a close, the Internet surpassed newspapers as a preferred news source for the first time.[51] Virtually all top newspaper websites experienced increased traffic in 2008, some by orders of magnitude.[52] For the consumer who wants news and information instantaneously,[53] the Internet provides such. For the media outlet, the Internet brings infinite space.
Websites for national newspapers like The New York Times [54] receive huge numbers of hits daily.[55] Online newspaper readership is growing each year.[56] The Washington Post website lists multiple “Ways You Can Get Us,” including RSS,[57] Newsletters, Mobile, Podcasts, and Widgets.[58] On-line experts have created awards for “Best Newspaper Websites.”[59] There even are websites that aggregate thousands of newspapers and other sources for one-stop-shopping.[60] Environmental trade press likewise has a significant web presence.[61]
Similarly, from the networks to local television, accompanying websites have become the norm. Traditional networks like ABC rely on their websites for breaking stories.[62] Cable news networks operating 24 hours depend on their websites for more in-depth and multi-media coverage.[63] Local stations, such as WCCO TV[64] in Minneapolis, Minnesota, have websites that include everything from the day’s news to streaming video to blogs[65] and podcasts.[66] Network and local websites also provide instant access to weather and traffic.[67] News organizations all provide e-mail addresses and other means for audience commentary.[68]
For radio news, the new landscape picture has changed too. Minnesota Public Radio[69] announced in 2003 that ”[a]ll of our reporters now carry digital cameras…We want pictures, slide shows, links to what we put on the air. We want additional web resources’ links.”[70] National Public Radio (NPR)[71] is even more sophisticated. NPR’s Website[72] is filled with everything from audio to pictures, blogs,[73] and even services to download news and information to mobile devices such as iPhones and Blackberries.[74] Even for-profit news stations, such as WTOP in Washington, DC, have robust websites where visitors can listen live, connect to in-depth articles, watch videos, and interact through blogs.[75]
Some websites will compile and distill news from a variety of media sources in a process known as aggregation.[76] For example, the website Newser claims it allows readers to “read less, know more” through its aggregations, where “a team of editors and writers culls the most important stories from hundreds of U.S. and international sources and reduces them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs.”[77] Another approach is taken by Newsy, which notes that “[n]ews sources are abundant yet redundant”[78] and thus combines traditional and less used multi-media sources to provide “a multiperspective online video news site that monitors, synthesizes and presents the world's news coverage.”[79] Sites like Yahoo News or Google News[80] aggregate varied sources and allow viewers to personalize their source and topic choices.[81] Sites like Environmental Health News[82] and The Daily Climate[83] aggregate environmental-specific news on a daily basis.
In sum, the Internet has become central to news delivery. Environmental law and policy advocates must be facile with the Internet, and prepared to think in terms of how best to engage through the multiple platforms the Internet involves.
Economics and the New Media
Economic realities are playing a role in the drive to new technologies. Audience declines coupled with worldwide economic realities have left many news organizations facing financial crises.[84] In fact, the state of the American news media in 2008 is more troubled than ever before, according to a study by the Pew Research Center.[85] The main problem is not the changing media landscape—rather, it is money. As outlets shift, advertising revenue is not migrating in lockstep-fashion online, and income for most media providers is thus dropping.[86]
Changes in the media landscape coupled with economic shifts are forcing many journalists to reinvent their profession and outlets their business models. This situation has led to some transformation in the way journalists cover news. For example, in 2008 WUSA TV became “the first station in Washington to replace its crews with one-person ‘multimedia journalists’ who will shoot and edit news stories single-handedly.”[87] Under this approach, television reporters will be shooting and editing their own stories, and those who have traditionally been the ones behind the camera will be doing the work of reporters, occasionally appearing on TV or in video clips on the stations’ Web site.[88] In the print arena, some “daily” newspapers are only publishing six (or fewer) days a week.[89] Conferences on achieving convergence, such as one hosted by the American Press Institute in 2005 entitled, “Cross-Platform Media Teams: Strategic Thinking for a Multi-Platform World,”[90] or another hosted by Newsplex at the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies at the University of South Carolina in 2008, entitled “Teaching and Research in Convergent Media,”[91] are becoming common.
Such convergence has the most direct impact on those working in the media. For example, one journalist described his experience with simultaneous multi-media reporting of the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show for CNN, as “getting a very personal look at how technology is changing journalism and the consumption of news.”[92] He talked about his multi-platform journalism by saying that “[n]ot only was I providing traditional live reports for CNN, Headline News and CNN International, I was also blogging for , uploading digital photos . . . for the tech section of the Web site, and, thanks to a flash memory-based microphone, I was providing audio podcast interviews that ended up on Apple’s iTunes. A camera crew following me around the Convention Center floor produced streaming video reports for the network Web site.”[93]
Thus, journalism as a profession is changing. As one reporter wrote in his blog, “[o]ur challenge in this painful, historic time is to invent journalistic forms and alliances that citizens will support to get the facts they need to govern themselves. One journalist told me it will not be a silver bullet, one-size-fits-all answer, but a media cocktail where modern news consumers choose what they want. . . . There will not be one answer, but many.”[94]
Many in the media are hoping convergence will offer a long term answer to their problems.[95] However, it is worth noting that stations in Nashville and San Francisco who used multimedia journalists on an experimental basis backed away because of “falling quality” and declining ratings.[96] Just as the first move for convergence for many media outlets has been incorporating a Web presence[97] into their traditional media platform, the environmental lawyer will need to leverage this new media (as well as traditional media) to be successful in the Internet era.
Those seeking coverage must therefore remain aware that journalists are doing plenty and being asked to do even more these days. Journalists are, at the same time, worried about their profession. The President of the Society of Professional Journalists admitted in 2008[98] that “it is difficult to be cheery and optimistic about the news business at this time, especially newspapers. We are all susceptible to the possibility of layoffs in our newsroom. . . .”[99] Furthermore, he wrote, “[t]he news business continues to struggle with a bleak economy and an industry evolution that is seeing people’s advertising and news consumption habits shift at a pace that has us struggling to keep up.”[100] Nevertheless, he concluded that “[d]espite the rough economic news and trends, there is some belief that things will settle and the reshaping and restructuring that has shaken our faith will pay dividends. The role journalists play in democracy is far too important to give up on it.”[101]
There is no doubt, however, that convergence has refocused journalism to its core mission—informing the public.[102] Today, that means a multi-layered media approach, involving news from newspapers, television, radio and the Internet.[103] So what does this mean for journalists and the future of journalism? For reporters, this new media is a new way to tell news stories.[104] For the journalism profession, “the most promising element heading into 2008 may be innovation. The news industry now appears to be taking to new technology in earnest.”[105] For the environmental law and policy advocate, it means that attracting appropriate news coverage may involve even more effort.
Audience-Centric Reporting
Recent advances in technology have transformed consumers from a passive “audience” to active participants in the creation, analysis, and distribution of mass media content.[106] As a leading media textbook by John Vivian points out, “major media companies also are trying to establish a future for themselves in reaching audiences in new digital ways.”[107] That text goes on to explain that “[t]raditional origination points for communication, like a book publisher or a radio station, suddenly have been joined by millions of additional origination points, all interconnected.”[108] This chapter is about the changing media landscape, and this section focuses on the role that the audience is playing in that landscape’s evolution.
The mass media audience has moved front and center as journalism has entered the twenty-first century. Dan Gillmor, a journalism scholar devoted to studying new media trends, describes media that come from the audience as part of “a global conversation that is growing in strength, complexity and power. When people can express themselves, they will. When they can do so with powerful yet inexpensive tools, they take to the new-media realm quickly. When they can reach a potentially global audience, they can change the world.”[109] As stated similarly by legal scholar Jerome Barron: “[Forty years ago], the media world in the United States was very different than it is today. The major television networks and the daily newspapers had an influence on and a dominance over the opinion process that they do not have today. These television networks and newspaper chains once operated as the gatekeepers to the opinion process. They are still powerful and influential, but the rise of the Internet has shrunk their domain.”[110]
In other words, news has become audience-centric. We adopt the term audience-centric, which is not original to us,[111] as representing the concept we (and other scholars) have observed in recent years. To us, the term audience-centric reporting means journalism that embraces the audience in shaping (including originating, gathering, disseminating, commenting on, etc.) news, both in real time and in reflective or investigative efforts. Terms that others have used to capture this concept include grassroots journalism, networked journalism, open source journalism, citizen media, participatory journalism, hyperlocal journalism, bottom-up journalism, distributed journalism, and others.[112] Regardless of the term used,[113] the concept of audience-centric reporting is not only a “hot topic,” it is an essential consideration for those who wish to work with the mass media in this day and time.
Freelance journalist Mark Glaser has summarized the audience-centric phenomenon as follows: “When a traditional media outlet covers a story, the editor usually assigns the story to a reporter, the reporter does the work and turns in a story that gets edited and published. But in the case of ad hoc citizen journalism, a blogger or observer might see something happening that's newsworthy and bring it to the attention of the blogosphere or the online public. As more people uncover facts and work together, the story can snowball without a guiding editor and can produce interesting results—leading to the mainstream media finally covering it and giving it wider exposure.”[114] The audience is in the middle of reporting…and often at the beginning or the end as well.
As one considers this new reality, it is important to keep in mind that the transition from the traditional media[115] has not only changed how content is created but what content is created. While traditional media had typically involved watching TV news and reading the newspaper to hear stories that reflect general news values, other factors can come into play today. In fact, as the transition to audience-centric media accelerated—when mobile devices such as cell phones became prevalent and connectivity to the Internet became mainstream[116]—the nature of news has changed on many levels. What does this mean in an environmental law and policy context? Whether it’s an update on water quality in a local stream or a disappointed taxpayer voicing objection to a building ordinance proposal, Internet and other technologies have shifted power and made the job of many journalists more participatory. It simultaneously increased the responsibility of environmental advocates to leverage the mass media when appropriate to their causes.
Today, content for the new mass media is often captured, processed, and transmitted through mobile devices, passed along social network sites,[117] and in some cases becomes the headline story for traditional media.[118] The audience is often in the thick of things.
As will be discussed below, some audience-centric reporting is purely user-generated. Yet in an attempt to harness the “journalist at large” evolution, traditional media outlets have also incorporated increased audience-defined content into online venues for the media outlet.[119] For example, CNN incorporates user video through iReporter[120] segments, Fox News does the same through the use of UReport,[121] and Reuters has You Witness News[122] to allow the public at large to comment, share, or report on ongoing events of interest.[123] In preparing for coverage of the 2008 Democratic and Republican conventions, Reuters openly embraced the new breed of citizen journalism in its request for mobile journalists to participate in the convention coverage. In so doing, Reuters acknowledged that “. . . because of new technology and online distribution, entire elections can now hinge on moments captured not by traditional journalists, but by ordinary citizens and those closest to the action.”[124]
Some journalists are struggling to keep up with these developments. As one commentator put it, “[a]sk any journalist today how the Internet has changed journalism, and the most likely reply will be, ‘how hasn't it?’”[125] Professional journalists are being told to “incorporate the freedom to tell the story inherent in citizen journalism without losing traditional principles.”[126] This may be easier said than done.
What does this mean for the environmental advocate? The proliferation of readily-accessible and easy-to-use technology can allow even small groups to disseminate information to a wide audience.[127] Of course, a centralized website can continue to ensure consistency of a message and accommodate the audience’s schedule.[128] Although website development is not the topic of this book, environmental stakeholders must be prepared to compliment their marketing strategy with an enticing presence on the Internet. Just as national interest groups like Sierra Club,[129] the National Association of Homebuilders,[130] and national environmental law organizations like the Pacific Legal Foundation[131] and Earthjustice,[132] rely on Internet sites to support distribution of information, smaller citizen groups such as the Colusa County Citizens for Safe Water,[133] the South Carolina-based Citizens for Sound Conservation,[134] and the South Carolina Lowcountry-focused Friends of the Rivers[135] are using the Internet to present a message and attract interest in their work.
Good websites are, however, no longer enough. Facebook[136] and Linked-In pages,[137] Twitter Tweets,[138] RSS feeds,[139] blogs and other evolving tools are becoming the common tools[140] used even by lawyers. As will be further explored below, audience-centric media is evolving quickly. In fact, portions of this book will be old news by its publication, in terms of the details of all the options available in this arena. New media expert Amy Gahran has explained that “[o]nline communication and publishing technology isn’t just one-way — it’s all ways, all the time.”[141] The role of the audience in this new world is crucial, and it is shifting.
Beyond the introduction of the Internet, it is the audience-centric aspects of the web that have most impacted the work of journalists. Emily Bell, Editor-in-Chief of Guardian, commented in May 2008 on the changing world of news, pointing not to the Internet per se when reflecting on the rapid shifts, but “much more what's happened with various programming protocols since, what you would know as Web 2.0, which is the ability to allow the uploading of information by the local generation. Flickr, blogs, etc. have completely changed the game, because it means all matter of information is exposed and is available to be manipulated, uploaded, reported on, etc. by a whole set of people who are no longer in control of a distribution bottleneck.”[142]
Below, we briefly explore some of these new audience-centric media outlets, including blogs, podcasts, RSS, Wiki, Widget and Social Networks. This section of the book is not meant to be a complete list or a definitive exploration of these areas, but rather an introduction to some “new” concepts available in an audience-centric journalism world. Direct links and further exploration of these areas are available on the book website at [INSERT].
Blogs
A blog (a contraction of the term “web log") is an Internet site with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.[143] There are many approaches to blogging.[144] In light of “the level of activity and creativity, the negative image of blogging in the mainstream media seems to be fading away as blogging becomes more popular.”[145]
Blogs by their nature are audience-centric, even though there are many forms of blogs. Many individuals and organizations have their own blogs.[146] There are a plethora of more general blogs dedicated to various environmental topics.[147] Likewise, mainstream media are increasingly relying on blogs in the environmental arena.[148] Individual journalists keep blogs about the journalism industry and related topics.[149] The world of blogs has even expanded to video blogs[150] which are sometimes referred to as VLOGs.[151]
Podcasts
Podcasts are recorded audio programs posted on the Internet.[152] As one podcasting website describes it, “‘[a] podcast’ is a buzzword to describe a very simple concept: an audio or video file available on the Internet for you to listen to and/or watch.”[153] Lawyers use podcasting all the time.[154] As the ABA Law Practice magazine explained in 2008, “[p]odcasts are great marketing vehicles for letting a wide market know how knowledgeable you are in your chosen area of expertise. And because they are voice-based, podcasts typically provide your audience with a more personal, engaging view of you, since you can use inflections and tone, inject humor and the like in ways that the written word does not allow.”[155]
If you want to use a podcast, first and foremost you must record it.[156] There are various podcasting software applications you can purchase or download for free from the web.[157] Most people use their own computer, but often invest in a good microphone even if one is built into the system.[158] You also can use services to record podcasts by phone.[159] Once you have it recorded, you can use websites dedicated to sharing podcasts, such as ,[160] and Podcast Alley,[161] for dissemination.[162] Of course, you also can post your podcast on your organization’s website.[163]
The important thing to keep in mind about podcasting is that the podcaster can create content and broadcast it via the Internet without any professional media involvement. If you don’t want to get in the podcasting business, you might connect with existing environmental podcasting efforts. For example, Public Radio International’s weekly “Living on Earth”[164] has a podcast version. The podcast is made available following the weekly broadcast of the show on some 300 public radio stations,[165] which airs in 9 of the 10 top radio markets and reaches 80% of the United States.[166] There are numerous other podcast sites about energy, alternative fuels, the wilderness and wildlife.[167] The options for creative use of podcasts by environmental law and policy professionals are considerable.
RSS
RSS, Rich Site Summary[168] or real simply syndication,[169] “alerts users to new material posted to their favorite blogs or news websites.”[170] “Instead of trying to keep up with all the websites you enjoy, or need to read, RSS will push the latest information to you. It’s news on demand based on your needs.”[171] Most newspapers, magazine and television websites now offer RSS feeds.[172]
RSS creates basically a list of hyperlinks.[173] When you subscribe to RSS feeds, you effectively are creating a wire service tailored[174] to your personal interests. As one expert described it, “RSS will save you time and make your Web surfing much more efficient. Rather than tediously checking dozens of Web sites for new information, RSS enables you to go to one place and find all the latest content from each of those sites. RSS makes it easy to read lots of sites—from weblogs to major media—in very little time.”[175]
Where does one get feeds? The Radio Television News Directors’ Association delivers RSS feeds[176] that provide updated information on everything from news research to issues regarding Freedom of Information. The American Bar Association offers feeds from the section of Environment, Energy and Resources including highlights from the section on current topics.[177] Countless other RSS feeds are available to the lawyer[178] and others interested in the environment. In addition to subscribing, RSS is also a tool environmental lawyers and advocates can use to share podcasts, website updates, and other current information.
Wiki
The wiki format is another form of audience-centric journalism.[179] Open online forums, called wikis, allow anyone to post and edit information.[180] Wikis are basically collaborative writing projects. The original idea behind wikis was to create encyclopedias collecting knowledge from anyone and everyone, like Wikipedia,[181] which describes itself as “a multilingual, Web-based, free-content encyclopedia project. The name ‘Wikipedia’ is a portmanteau . . . of the words wiki (a type of collaborative Web site) and encyclopedia. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information. Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world; anyone can edit it.”[182] Wikis have developed into a participatory journalism platform. For example, in response to Hurricane Katrina, wikis proved to be a valuable resource.[183] One site, for example, posted constantly-updated information such as facts about housing, help needed, volunteers, and jobs.[184] There are wikis dedicated to many subjects, including the environment.[185] Participating in drafting or posting links to wikis may be of benefit to environmental lawyers and advocates.
Widget
A web widget is a portable application that you can install on your website, blog, social networking page or computer desktop.[186] For example, CBS News widgets allow you to embed free breaking news and entertainment content on your personal site.[187] Once the widget is installed, it updates itself automatically with fresh stories, photos or video.[188] Widgets can be time savers and important tools for environmental lawyers and advocates.
Social Networks
Twitter,[189] LinkedIN,[190] Facebook,[191] MySpace[192] and FriendFeed[193] are all social networking sites. Scholars who study this phenomenon have defined “social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.”[194] Because “there is little empirical research that addresses whether members use [social networking sites] to maintain existing ties or to form new ones, the social capital implications of these services are unknown.”[195] But they are hugely popular. Knowing this, many mainstream media are active in these social networks.[196]
Twitter: describes itself as “a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”[197] When you send a message on Twitter, you are “tweeting.”[198] Like other social networking tools, Twitter is increasingly being used by media professionals and quickly is working its way into the reporter’s toolkit.[199] “In recent months, the Twittering crowd at CNN has exploded from 25 people to about 150.”[200] CNN anchors are tweeting while they’re on air.[201] According to Victor Hernandez, director of coverage for CNN, “[t]oday it’s a part of everyone’s lives, and not just the geeks.”[202] Twitter has been likewise touted as a tool for legal marketing.[203]
Environmental news is breaking and developing on Twitter. For example, when the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash disaster occurred on December 23, 2008, environmental journalist Amy Gahran posted the first of what would become hundreds of tweets about the breach, days before the mainstream media even carried the story.[204] Since then, hundreds of tweets have been shared on Twitter, including many from major outlets.[205]
LinkedIn: is yet another online social networking site. LinkedIn is “an online network of more than 30 million experienced professionals from around the world representing 150 industries.”[206] As one lawyer put it, “LinkedIn provides an online method to network. Simply register for a FREE account, enter a few facts about yourself (occupation, employers, education—as much or as little as you want), and you can instantly connect with people like yourself.”[207] The American Bar Association’s Section on Energy Environment and Resources has many LinkedIn members.[208] Journalists are active on LinkedIn as well, using it for both personal career reasons, as well as finding sources, topics and trends.[209]
The future of social networking is unclear, yet there clearly are opportunities for the environmental lawyer and advocate to use these facile tools.
Video Sharing Sites
There also are websites where anyone with an Internet connection can watch and share original videos worldwide. Perhaps the most well-known of these sites, YouTube,[210] allows people to easily upload and share videos across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email. YouTube even has a citizen journalism section called Citizen News.[211] Recognizing its power, many major broadcast news outlets have feeds on YouTube.[212] At the same time, regardless of viewpoint, many advocates frequently use YouTube on an individual level for environmental matters.[213] Environmental advocates should monitor, and perhaps consider using, this increasingly powerful medium.[214]
In closing, this section shows that much of the news audience can and has moved front and center in terms of the way they interact with news.[215] Be aware that, in light of this audience-centric world, direct communications between individuals (including reporters and sources) have become multi-faceted. No longer is it just a phone call or an in-person interview. Reporters communicate frequently via email. As one reporter described it, “in addition to standard face-to-face interviews and brief questions and fact checking done via email, Instant Messaging (IM) is finding a place of its own across newsrooms across the country as a way to streamline the reporting process. Offering reporters the ability to speak with sources in real time, IM has quickly replaced the wait reporters had to endure for a response to email or phone messages”[216] Other platforms also are becoming increasingly prevalent, including Twittering, and others. Likewise, another journalist has written that Facebook pages “are particularly useful for stories where events are still unfolding because they will often carry eyewitness accounts and background material.”[217] Thus even if an environmental lawyer or advocate is not engaged in creating content or active through LinkedIn, Twitter, or YouTube, the reporter covering the story may be getting information and contacting other sources through these audience-centric frameworks. This is an area to watch closely in the coming decade.
Predicting the Future Media Landscape
Predicting the future of media with specificity is, of course, impossible. But using concepts of what is available today, and reflecting on what historically has developed, can help. As some convergence scholars have remarked, dissecting the functions being performed by news media may assist in planning for a broader world.[218] So though the core lessons set forth in earlier chapters apply, times are changing! As one on-line source notes, “[n]ewspaper readers will demand to get the news they want, when they want it, and delivered the way they want to get it. They will never again meekly accept news distributed in the way media companies find most convenient.”[219]
Nevertheless, a vital role remains for journalism professionals to play in deciding what to report. As veteran journalist Walter Cronkite[220] put it, journalists “make the judgment as to whether something is important or not. That's how things get in the newspaper. That's how things get on the evening news broadcast. What they think is important, it may not be what we judge to be important. When we judge it, we're not judging it from on high, but through the journalism standards, on what interests most of the people at any given moment in time, and that which is important to most of the people get on the air.”[221] So being comfortable with traditional journalistic concepts will serve environmental law and policy advocates well.
For example, consumers still may want to know that print journalists are investigating and writing big stories, even though they may not read them.[222] Likewise, although network news is not going to disappear,[223] audiences are shifting and, in some demographics, declining.[224] Internet audiences are not stable.[225]
Nevertheless, the increasing role of news as entertainment[226] is real. As the former anchor of Nightline, Ted Koppel, remarked, “[t]o the extent that we’re now judging journalism by the same standards that we apply to entertainment –in other words, give the public what it wants, not necessarily what it ought to hear, what it ought to see, what it needs, but what it wants—that may prove to be one of the greatest tragedies in the history of American journalism.”[227] Yet it is probably too late to alter the way news delivery choice has moved to the consumer—as one scholar has remarked, “[e]ven if a consensus emerged to reduce media choice for the public good, it would still be technically impossible, even temporarily, to put the genie back in the bottle.”[228] Being aware of audience desires and how they may influence media professionals may, however, help the environmental law and policy advocate in achieving effective media coverage.
There is no doubt, as has been discussed throughout this book, that the Internet has changed journalism.[229] The decade-old Online News Association notes “[a]s digital delivery systems become the primary source of news for a growing segment of the world's population, it presents complex challenges and opportunities for journalists as well as the news audience.”[230] The American Society of Newspaper Editors has proposed the removal of the word “paper” to reflect plans that will expand its membership to include editors of online-only news Web.[231] Further, “[e]yetracking research” is being used to strengthen news websites.[232] And as one scholar has noted, “[f]rom a media perspective, the emergence of citizen journalism has blurred the line separating mainstream media from online new media.”[233] Journalism is transforming.
Therefore, environmental advocates must be ready for whatever comes, and responsive to what they see as emerging needs. As discussed in previous chapters,[234] one must be both responsive, nimble, and focused to maximize effective press coverage of environmental issues. These requirements will be even more important as the media landscape continues to evolve. Therefore the final section of this chapter provides a few “tips” for dealing with the changing landscape of the media, referring back in many cases to previous chapters.
“Tips” for Navigating New Media
The media landscape certainly is changing (as the previous sections of this chapter demonstrate) . . . but traditional news values are not outdated. Top environmental journalists agree that even today primary journalism values are key to environmental reporting.[235] Thus, whatever the media platform, core journalistic values should be recognized in planning media advocacy.[236] Yet succeeding in managing modern media as part of an overall legal strategy may sometimes require thinking outside the box or applying known rules in a new context. The tips in this section are designed to help you put in context earlier parts of the book and apply them in the changing world as described earlier in the chapter.
• Become familiar with new platforms. If you are reading this book, you appreciate the importance of media advocacy—yet the world of media is rapidly changing. To the extent feasible, it therefore is vital to be familiar with evolving tools in order to judge how and whether your clients or your cause fit in. Remember, however, that no matter the platform, for the public to connect with “news” it still must be compelling in order to compete with the vast amount of available information out there.
• Be brief and factual in any communication. Focus on the basics of what journalists of any kind need to know: who, what, when, where, why and how. Make your communications newsworthy. Refer back to Chapter 7, Responding to the News Media, and Chapter 8, Proactive Media Coverage.
• Write well in anything that a journalist may see. Good writing is paramount to successful journalism in any platform. Thus the “characteristics of news” discussed in Chapter 1 serve both the journalist, who is determining what to cover, and the environmental advocate, who is trying to persuade the journalist and her or his editor to cover a story, even in the new media world. Refer back to Chapter 1, Mass Media 101.
• Try to find a human-interest link or other “hook.” Media professionals work in a for-profit world. As discussed in earlier chapters, soliciting audience is even more essential to success for all media platforms in this changing media landscape. Day-to-day relevance is crucial in seeking regular, meaningful coverage. You should be prepared to help provide context for coverage with some sort of “hook.” Refer back to Chapters 7 and 8.
• Know your audience, and be prepared to provide context and sometimes educate. Understanding the characteristics of journalism professionals will help you plan advocacy in any platform. Many seasoned environmental journalists will be looking to see how your story fits in the larger “arc” of environmental coverage and will have a sense of where to go for background beyond those areas you consider. On the other hand, those journalists newer to the beat, not familiar with your particular environmental issue, or temporarily assigned to an environmental story may need quick, helpful exposure to the subject. You may need to be prepared to provide accessible background information and help whatever the experience level. Refer back to Chapters 2, The People Behind the News Media, and 8.
• Use visuals. As discussed in Chapter 8, “visuals” may be even more important in the changing landscape media. Internet sites rely on pictures and, increasingly, videos to draw visitors and to provide links to other sources. More and more newspaper Internet sites and even radio sites provide video links. Thus you should be prepared to provide visuals (especially links to non-advocacy sources). Refer back to Chapters 7 and 8.
• Be prepared to help synthesize and focus the science. As discussed in Chapter 6, The Role of Environmental Science in the News Process, journalists are aware of the daunting complexity of science underlying many environmental law and policy news stories. You may need to be prepared to provide sources and analogies that “demystify” the process. Refer back to Chapter 6.
• Be prepared to help synthesize and focus the law. As discussed in Chapter 3, The History of Environmental Law, the History of Environmental Reporting and How They Intersect, journalists may need to be brought up to speed on intricacies of the law. You may need to be prepared to provide links and basic lessons as appropriate. Refer back to Chapter 3.
• Be aware of what is “out there” on your subject. The job of a journalist is to research, distill, and present a balanced story. To make sure your story is told in the best light, you need to know what the journalist may find when researching. While you can (and should) use search engines like Google, you also should avail yourself of other tools, such as government information and other public records. Refer back to Chapter 6, FOIA and Other Government Information Avenues in the Environmental and Media Context.
• Be cognizant of potential ethical issues. In addition to being familiar with any applicable Rules of Professional Conduct that may apply to lawyers interacting with the media, be aware of the special ethical obligations that apply to journalists. New media platforms may create new (or recasted) ethical) challenges. Refer back to Chapter 9, The Ethics of Working with the Media
• Be available. The move to 24-hour coverage and Internet news means that many journalists are not functioning under traditional deadlines. Reaching out to journalists means you will need to make yourself available via traditional, and perhaps non-traditional, means (cell phone, instant messaging, text messaging, etc.). Refer back to earlier parts of this chapter.
• Be flexible. Journalists themselves are struggling to adapt to this changing media landscape. Be aware that flexibility can serve you and your clients well when working with journalists today.
Conclusion
Despite the new and ever-changing media landscape, journalism is far from a dying profession.[237] Mass media will continue to serve as the conduit for most news to the public. As a 2007 Pew Research Center for The People and The Press survey of journalists nationwide concluded: “[m]ost of the news professionals surveyed say that even in this era of online news, journalists still fulfill their traditional role as the ‘gatekeepers’ of news and information. Majorities of national (64%), local (63%) and Internet journalists (58%) believe that journalists still serve as information gatekeepers—and those who express this opinion overwhelmingly see this as a good thing.”[238]
But the mode of delivery and the framework are shifting—perhaps to the advantage of the environmental advocate. As the American Press Institute’s 2008 report Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond “Newspaper Companies” describes the future of newspaper companies, “in concept it could become a new kind of local information and connection utility. As such, it would serve a wide range of local information and connection needs for consumers and businesses, using a wide range of products, technologies and platforms. It would be part multimedia news, information and knowledge provider, part community connection and interaction platform, part commerce enabler, part multimedia marketing communications company.”[239] Providing direct links and employing modern technology is something that environmental law and policy advocates can do—and in so doing can help the media in providing facts to the public.
But be aware that there is more information out there than ever before…and people can get lost in it! As the first of the now-annual State of the News Media reports by the Pew Center Project for Excellence in Journalism commented in 2004, “[q]uality news and information are more available than ever before, but in greater amounts so are the trivial, the one-sided and the false. Some people will likely become better informed than they once could have been as they drill down to original sources. Other consumers may become steeped in the sensational and diverting. Still others may move toward an older form of media consumption—a journalism of affirmation—in which they seek news largely to confirm their preconceived view of the world.”[240] Environmental law and policy advocates will need to work even harder to get appropriate coverage.
In this new media age, the environmental law and policy advocate definitely has a role. As one scholar has remarked, the “former audience . . . [once] mere consumers of news, . . . is learning how to get a better, timelier news report. It’s also learning how to join the process of journalism, helping to create a massive conversation and, in some cases, doing a better job than the professionals.”[241] Again, keeping up will be hard work…but almost certainly worth it.
Speaking of the work you will have to undertake, we as authors must include a closing caveat. In writing this chapter (and indeed the whole book) we acknowledge there is no “sure thing” to guarantee reasonable coverage of your environmental law and policy issue. Nor, unfortunately, can we craft a “one size fits all” approach that will give you definite answers about every matter you may face with respect to media coverage. What we hope you take away, nevertheless, is one truth: advocates who seek to maximize thorough and balanced coverage of environmental law and policy matters must acknowledge the shifting landscape while applying some tried-and-true methods of journalistic norms. The story of the laws and policy decisions that affect the environment are worthy of reporting. Those working in the area must help the new media provide coverage that these matters deserve and the public should know about.
-----------------------
[1] At the end of the 2008 election season, the Pew Research Center for People and the Press reported a tripling of the use of the Internet for tracking election news in just four years (one election cycle). Pew Research Center for People and the Press, Internet Now Major Source of Campaign News—Continuing Partisan Divide in Cable TV News Audience (Oct. 31, 2008) (”percent who say they get most of their campaign news from the internet has tripled since October 2004 (from 10% then to 33% now).”) See also Adam Singer, 49 Amazing Social Media, Web 2.0 and Internet Stats, TheFutureBuzz (Jan. 12, 2009), (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“As our digital and physical lives blur further, the internet has become the information hub where people spend a majority of their time learning, playing and communicating with others globally. Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of just how staggering the numbers are of people collaborating, researching, and interacting on the web. I thought it might be fun to take a step back and look at some interesting/amazing social media, Web 2.0, crowdsourcing and internet statistics. I tried to find stats that are the most up-to-date as possible at the time of publishing this post.“).
[2] Henry Jenkins, an expert on the convergence culture paradigm and Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has identified convergence as “the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behavior of media audiences.” Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide 2 (NYU Press, 2006).
[3] Pew Center for People and the Press, Key News Audiences Now Blend Online and Traditional Sources—Audience Segments in a Changing News Environment (Aug. 17, 2008), (last visited Dec. 11, 2008). See also American Press Institute, Seventy Percent of Media Consumers Use Multiple Forms of Media at the Same Time, according to a study for The Media Center at API (Mar. 24, 2004), (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[4] Larry West, Top 10 Environmental News Sources, July 31, 2007, (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[5] See news/ (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[6] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[7] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[8] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[9] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[10] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[11] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[12] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[13] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[14] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[15] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[16] Larry West, Top 10 Environmental News Sources, July 31, 2007, (last visited Dec. 11, 2008).
[17] See generally E-Gov, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009). See also The Center for Democracy and Technology, E-Government Handbook, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[18] The Pulitzer Prizes, Press Release, Prizes broadened to include online-only publications primarily devoted to original news reporting (2009), (last visited Dec. 28, 2008).
[19] Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008, An Annual Report on American Journalism, Executive Summary at 2, .
[20] Sonya Forte Duhé et al., Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms: A Nationwide Look, 10 Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 81 (2004).
[21] Id.
[22] ABA Journal, (last visited Jan. 7, 2009).
[23] Id.
[24] The scholarly journal Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies refers to its mission (since 1995) as addressing “the creative, social, political and pedagogical issues raised by the advent of new media technologies and includes the topics of Video games * Cable and telecomms * Mobile media/content * Internet studies * Digital/new media art * Digital photography * VR * Control and censorship of the media * Copyright/intellectual property * New media policy * New media industries/institutions * New media history * New media in cross-cultural/international contexts * New media products * Digital TV * DVD * Digital music—recording, production, distribution, file formats/file sharing * Cinema * Gender and technology.” See (last visited Dec. 12, 2008). See also The Convergence Newsletter, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[25] Joe Strupp, Three Point Play, Editor and Publisher 23 (Aug. 21, 2000).
[26] Duhé et al., Convergence in North American TV Newsrooms: A Nationwide Look, supra note 20.
[27] See infra Part.III. See also Katie King, Journalism as Conversation, 62 Neiman Reports 11 (Winter 2008), available at (That author wrote “[w]e don’t know what the impact will be of this flood of free, ubiquitous, easy-to-use new digital communication, content creation, and publishing tools that relate to journalism. ‘What tools?’ we might ask. Well, the list changes so quickly that it will require updating in the time between when I write this article and when it is published.”).
[28] See The Media Center at the American Press Institute, Convergence Tracker Search Page, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008). On December 14, 2008, the site listed a total of 107 “Convergence Relationships.” Id.
[29] See Encyclopedia Brittanica Online, Media Convergence, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008) (“phenomenon involving the interlocking of computing and information technology companies, telecommunications networks, and content providers from the publishing worlds of newspapers, magazines, music, radio, television, films, and entertainment software. Media convergence brings together the ‘three Cs’—computing, communications, and content.”).
[30] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media (Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, 2007).
[31] Janet Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media viii (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006) (Preface: Why a Textbook on Convergence in Journalism?).
[32] See, e.g., The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 22-23.
[33] See (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[34] See (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[35] See (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[36] See The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 22-23.
[37] Id. at 23. Like other media outlets in 2008, this convergent effort has faced economic downturns in recent years, and offered buyouts to half its staff in April 2008. Nat’l Press Photographers Ass’n, Hundreds of Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV Staff Offered Buyouts, (last visited Dec. 30, 2008).
[38] Laura K. Smith et al., Convergence concerns in local television: conflicting views from the newsroom, J. Broadcasting & Electronic Media (Dec. 2007). Case studies of several convergence efforts can be found at The Media Center, U.S. Convergence Tracker, (last visited Dec. 30, 2008) (Topeka Capital-Journal, and Florida Today).
[39] Janet Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media 3 (Rowan & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006) (Chapter One: Why Convergence? It’s the Consumer, Stupid). See also Convergence Tracker, (last visited Dec. 30, 2008).
[40] Id.
[41] Id.; see also Center for Public Integrity, Media Tracker, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[42] See infra Part.III.
[43] Kolodzy, supra note 39, at 3.
[44] Id.
[45] Scott Karp, Can Blogs Do Journalism?, Publishing 2.0 (Dec. 17, 2007), (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[46] Id.
[47] Debora Halpern Wenger & Deborah Potter, Advancing the Story: Broadcast Journalism in a Multimedia World 167 (Congressional Quarterly Publishing, 2008); see also generally Chapter 7, Writing for the Web).
[48] The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, News Release, Maturing Internet news Audience—Broader than Deep Online Papers Modestly boost newspaper Readership: Pew Research Center Biennial News Consumption Survey 2 (July 30, 2006), (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[49] Id.
[50] Wendy Davis, Just an Online Minute…Good News and Bad for Online Papers, Online Media, Marketing & Advertising Conference & Expo, Apr. 24, 2007, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[51] Pew Center for People and the Press, Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Source (Dec. 23, 2008), . (“The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%).”).
[52] Jennifer Saba, Big Gains Among Top 30 Newspaper Web Sites, Editor and Publisher (Dec. 23, 2008), (last visited Dec. 23, 2008) (“There were big year-over-year gains to be had among several of the top 30 newspaper Web sites for November. The Detroit News soared 232% to 1.9 million uniques in November compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online. The Star Tribune in Minneapolis: up 265% to 3.5 million uniques. Politico spiked 203% to 4.1 million. In Los Angeles, the LAT was up 143% in November to 11.1 million uniques landing the site in the No. 2 position, with just slightly more audience than .”).
[53] Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008: An Annual Report on American Journalism, available at (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[54] See (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[55] See, e.g., , (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[56]Newspaper Ass’n of America, Press Release, ONLINE NEWSPAPER VIEWERSHIP REACHES RECORD IN 2007: Unique Audience for Newspaper Web Sites Grows Six Percent in 2007; Nine Percent Increase in Fourth Quarter Adds to Banner Year, (Jan. 24, 2008), (last visited Dec. 29, 2008) ("Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper Web sites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, a record year for the industry and an increase of more than six percent over 2006 numbers. Monthly unique visitors to newspaper Web sites averaged 62.8 million in last year’s fourth quarter, a record number in itself and the largest in any quarter since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004. According to the data, which is part of a new report by Nielsen Online for NAA that takes into account home and work Internet usage, unique visitors in the fourth quarter represented a nine percent increase over the same period a year ago (57.6 million).”).
[57] See infra note167- 176 and accompanying text.
[58]
[59] See Web Marketing Ass’n, Best Newspaper Websites, (last visited Dec. 30, 2008).
[60] See, e.g., , (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[61] See, e.g., Endangered Species & Wetlands Report, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008), Greenwire, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[62] See, e.g., ABC News, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[63] See, e.g., CNN News, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[64] See (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[65] The word “Blogs” comes from “Web logs.” Rebecca's Pocket, weblogs: a history and perspective (7 Sept. 2000), (last visited Dec. 29, 2008). In the world of journalism, blogs may be included on a media outlet’s Website to facilitate public discussion and interaction. See Jay Rosen, The Best Blogging Newspapers in the U.S. (Mar. 1, 2006), (last visited Dec. 29, 2008). For an example of multiple blogs hosted by one media outlet (National Public Radio), see (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[66] Podcasting is defined by PC Magazine as “[a]n audio broadcast that has been converted to an MP3 file or other audio file format for playback in a digital music player. Although many podcasts are played in a regular computer, the original idea was to listen on a portable device; hence, the ‘pod’ name from ‘iPod.’ Although podcasts are mostly verbal, they may contain music, images and video.” , Definition of: podcast, (last visited Dec. 29. 2008). Some refer to podcasting as the reinvention of radio. See The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 18. The host or author of the podcast is often called podcaster. Id.
[67] See (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[68] See Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media, supra note 39, at 72.
[69] See (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
[70] Al Tompkins, Minnesota Public Radio Gets Visual (Jan. 14, 2003), (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
[71] Nat’l Public Radio, (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
[72] Available at (last visited July 24, 2008).
[73] See (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[74] See (last visited Dec. 29, 2008).
[75] , (last visited Dec. 24, 2008).
[76] One popular website lists dozens of news aggregators: News On Feeds, (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[77] See (last visited Dec. 11, 2008) (The Newser description of its services continues “It’s the Newser guarantee: we can take any report or column or video and pack what you need to know into 120 words or less. Newser’s short-form aggregation, visual format, and unique information tools help you get more of the kind of news you want, in a quicker and more entertaining way. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters.”)
[78] See (“In an increasingly connected world, access to multiperspective news is in demand by global citizens. News sources are abundant yet redundant. delivers context with convenience to help keep you better informed. Through short video segments available on the web and mobile devices, offers a way to accelerate your global understanding of a news story. takes a step back to show how the world's news organizations are reporting a story—providing an unprecendented [sic] global and macro point of view. You'll find CNN right next to Al Jazeera, the BBC right next to ABC. also covers major newspapers, news magazines as well as top blogs from around the world.”)
[79] Id.
[80] See (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[81] Id.
[82] Environmental Health News, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[83] The Daily Climate, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[84] Pew Research Center Publications, Financial Woes Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists (Mar. 17, 2008), (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
[85] Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008, An Annual Report on American Journalism,
[86] See Pew Research Center Publications, Financial Woes Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists, supra note 84.
[87] Paul Farhi, WUSA moves to One-Person News Crews, Wash. Post, Dec. 12, ____, at C01, available at .
[88] Id.
[89] See, e.g., Joe Strupp, Georgia Daily to Drop Monday Paper, Editor and Publisher (last visited Dec. 23, 2008).
[90] See The Media Center, American Press Institute, Cross-Platform Media teams—Strategic Thinking for a Multi-Platform World, (last visited Dec. 23, 2008).
[91] University of South Carolina College of Mass Communications and Information Studies, Teaching and Research in Convergent Media, (last visited Dec. 30, 2008). Newsplex has been teaching and studying convergence since 2002. History of Newsplex, (“At a time when some are just discovering and experimenting with the concepts of convergence, we have been practicing them in Newsplex since 2002.”)
[92] Renay San Miguel, If Users Are 'Integrating' TV, Web News, Why Can't Journalists?, E-Commerce Times, Aug. 18, 2008, available at .
[93] Id.
[94] Joe Grimm, How to Stop the Bleeding from Journalism Job Cuts, Poynter On-Line (Sept. 4, 2008), (last visited Dec. 21, 2008).
[95] See The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 24.
[96] See Farhi, WUSA moves to One-Person News Crews, supra note 87.
[97] Id. at 23.
[98] Dave Aeikens, Our profession is not dying, it’s just changing, Quill Magazine, Dec. 2008, at 3, available at (last visited Dec. 20, 2008).
[99] Id. (“Newspaper circulation and network news viewership is sliding, yet millions of people are still watching the network news—and cable TV news is showing growth. Thousands of people are still buying newspapers, and thousands more are reading stories online or getting them sent to their phones. News sites are among the most trafficked Web sites in the country. CNN and The New York Times rank in the top 25. The most popular Web pages are search engines and social networking sites.”).
[100] See Aeikens, Our profession is not dying, it’s just changing, supra note 98.
[101] Id.
[102] Kolodzy, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media, supra note 31, at 4.
[103] Id.
[104] John V. Pavlik, Journalism and The New Media 3 (Columbia Univ. Press, 2001) (“. . . today it can be said that the Internet is a journalist’s medium. The Internet not only embraces all the capabilities of the older media (text, images, graphics, animation, audio, video, real-time delivery) but offers a broad spectrum of new capabilities, including interactively, on-demand access, user control, and customization.”).
[105] Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2008: An Annual Report on American Journalism, available at . (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[106] See, e.g., Columbia Journalism Review and Consumer Reports, The New Age of Citizen Journalism, Jarvis/Darnton Panel On Citizen Journalism, Nov. 20, 2008. Audio available at (last visited Jan. 18, 2009) (The Panel “was designed to address questions about how professional journalists should cover consumer issues at a time when big-name bloggers, online vigilantes, and anonymous user-reviewers have turned word-of-mouth into a powerful weapon and traditional consumer reporters are falling victim to budget cuts. CJR publisher Evan Cornog moderated a panel discussion on the relative merits of citizen and professional journalism.”).
[107] John Vivian, The Media of Mass Communication 271 (Pearson, 8th ed. 2008).
[108] Id. at 253.
[109] Dan Gillmor, We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, For the People xv (O'Reilly, 2006)
[110] Jerome A. Barron, Reclaiming The First Amendment: Constitutional Theories Of Media Reform: Access To The Media—A Contemporary Appraisal, 35 Hofstra L. Rev. 937, 945 (2007).
[111] See, e.g., PRWeb, Bonfire Chief to Present Webcast on Audience-Centric Communication Planning (Sept. 14, 2007), available at (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); Pei Jiun Tan & Dave Clarke, Audience-centric taxonomy: using taxonomies to support heterogeneous user communities, International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 2007, available at (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[112] Mark Glaser, Your Guide to Citizen Journalism, Mediashift, Sept. 27, 2006, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[113] There is some debate about various terms, including citizen journalism, that should be acknowledged. Steve Boris, Citizen Journalism is dead. Expert Journalism is the future (Nov. 28, 2007) (last visited Jan. 28, 2009) (“Citizen Journalism seems to serve the wishful-thinking needs of job-fearing journalists, but not the real needs of typical news consumers who would just as soon read quality material without being asked to help. The model that will work — that will make news better, not worse — is one that combines the talents of topic experts throughout the web with those who have a knack for aggregating and editing their material to satisfy an audience.”)
[114] Id.
[115] One commentator has opined about the emerging role of journalists thusly: “If the public is assumed to be ‘out there,’ more or less intact, then the job of the press is easy to state: to inform people about what goes on in their name and in their midst. But suppose the public leads a more broken existence. At times it may be alert and engaged, but just as often it struggles against other pressures – including itself—that can win out in the end. Inattention to public matters is perhaps the simplest of these, atomization of society one of the more intricate. Money speaks louder than the public, problems overwhelm it, fatigue sets in, attention falters, cynicism swells. A public that leads this more fragile kind of existence suggests a different task for the press: not just to inform a public that may or may not emerge, but to improve the chances that it will emerge.” Jay Rosen, What Are Journalists For? 19 (Yale Univ. Press, 2001).
[116] See Helen Legatt, Number of American Internet Users Continue to Rise, BizReport, Nov. 6, 2007, .
[117] See, e.g., Facebook, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); LinkedIn, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); MySpace, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009); Spoke, (last visited Jan. 23, 2009).
[118] See, e.g., CNN iReport, (last visited Oct. 23, 2008) (local “iReporter” published information on beached Killer Whale in Hawaii), Fox News uReport, (last visited Oct. 23, 2008) (photos of Hurricane Dolly in Corpus Christi, TX and Galveston, TX submitted by “UReporters” and used on the Fox News Channel broadcast).
[119] Please note that mainstream media has accepted helpful visuals from audience members for decades. So while this phenomenon has certainly increased recently, audience participation is not unique to the Internet age. Telephone interview with Matthew F. Connolly, Jr. (January 24, 2009).
[120] CNN iReport, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[121] Fox News UReport, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[122] Reuters You Witness News, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[123] In fact, some entrepreneurial efforts are directed at making mobile phone videos easier to transfer to newsroom feeds. See Viz|Reporter 1.0 Makes Cell Phone Video Transfer to Newsroom More Efficient, MobileWhack, (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[124] Adam Pasick, Tales from the Trail, Reuters, July 28, 2008, (last visited Aug. 19, 2008) (request by Reuters for attendees of either party’s convention to participate in Reuters’ mobile journalism project to capture “unseen side of the conventions”).
[125] Katherine Noyes, Journalism 2.0: Power to the People, TechNewsWorld (May 3, 2007) (last visited Jan. 19, 2008) (“Indeed, journalists of past generations would scarcely recognize the profession today. Most journalistic research is done on the Web; interviews are frequently set up, if not conducted, over e-mail; and telephone interviews have become the norm. Many reporters never leave the office all day. Virtually every newspaper, magazine, TV and radio station now has an online component, while Internet news aggregators serve up selections from all across the Web. Meanwhile, the rise of blogs and citizen journalism have created a world in which anyone can create their own journalism—and get it heard by an audience of millions.”).
[126] Aligning Citizen Journalism and Traditional Journalism, Int’l Online Magazine (Apr. 28, 2008), (last visited Jan. 18, 2009).
[127] See David Barboza, China Surpasses U.S. in Number of Internet Users, N.Y. Times, July 26, 2008, available at (estimated that there are approximately 220 million Americans have Internet access).
[128] For example, publishing a phone number for concerned citizens for more information may provide consumers with updated information but there will be the additional cost of staffing the phones to answer the potential calls as well as ensuring that the same message is communicated based on the number of resources used to respond to inquiries. By complimenting a campaign with a website, an organization can provide a single location for inquiries which may provide many of the standard questions and answers that are foreseeable. Also, websites are available when the consumer is ready to receive the information—not just during business hours such as 8am–5pm when a call center may be staffed to take a call.
[129] Sierra Club, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[130] National Association of Home Builders, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[131] Pacific Legal Foundation, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[132] Earthjustice, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[133] Colusa County Citizens for Safe Water, (last visited Jan 19, 2009) (citizen group in California seeking to prevent a local initiative that would turn the Cortina Indian Land into a landfill).
[134] Citizens for Sound Conservation, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[135] Friends of the Rivers, (last visited Jan. 19, 2008) (“providing water quality education and information to residents of the South Carolina Lowcountry as it relates to a community’s cultural, social, economic, or scientific concerns.”)
[136] Facebook, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[137] Linked In, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[138] Twitter, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[139] Denis Sureau, RSS—Really Simple Syndication Building and Using an RSS Feed, (last visited Jan. 24, 2008).
[140] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 5, 16-18.
[141] Amy Gahran, Participatory Journalism in the USA: My Talk (Nov. 16, 2007), (last visited Jan 19, 2009).
[142] Jean Yves Chainon, Future of journalism series: Emily Bell—guardian.co.uk (May 19, 2008), (Answering the query “How long do you think you will define your company as a newspaper company or a print company?” with the response “We're not doing that already. We changed our names last year from Guardian Newspapers Limited to Guardian News and Media, so we're moving away from defining ourselves as a newspaper company. But we are still news. We are news-oriented, we are a news media company.”).
[143] See generally Arianna Huffington et al., The Huffington Post Complete Guide to Blogging (Wiley, 2008); Axel Bruns & Joanne Jacobs, Uses of Blogs (Peter Lang, 2006).
[144] Michael Conniff, Just what is a blog, anyway?, Sept. 29, 2005, OJR, (“Defining this variable form is not easy in the highly opinionated blogosphere—nor is it simple in the increasing number of newsrooms that are in embracing blogging.”).
[145] Id.
[146] DOSHDOSH, Top 20 Environmental Blogs You Can Read, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[147] Josh Catone, The Top 35 Environmental Blogs, Oct. 15, 2007, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[148] See, e.g., Dot Earth, NY. Times, available at (last visited Jan. 24, 2009); MSNBC Environment, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[149] A good compilation of blogs by and about journalists is available at American Press Institute, Journalism and News Industry Blogs, (last visited Dec. 20, 2008).
[150] See , which “was launched in March 2006 by Andy Plesser as an exploration of the transformation of media, using the platform of video blogging. Within six months, the editorial direction became clearly focused on the rapid emergence of online video and its impact on industry and society…” , About Us, (last visited Dec. 20, 2008).
[151] Jay Dedman et al., Videoblogging 3 (John Wiley & Sons, 2006).
[152] Linda Zimmer, Modern Media Tools for Modern Media Relations—Podcasting, Znetlady: Modern Media, (last visited Jan. 19, 2009).
[153] , What is a podcast?, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[154] Eriq Gardner, Lawyers Podcast a Wide Net, Corporate Counsel, Nov. 2, 2005, available at (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[155] Sharon Nelson & John Simek, Lawyers on the Air: How to Get Started in Podcasting, Law Prac. 24 (Jan./Feb. 2008).
[156] For one example of step-by-step directions, see Jake Ludington’s MediaBlab, Recording a Podcast, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[157] See TopTenREVIEWS, Podcast Software Review 2009, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[158] See WIZE, Best Microphones for Podcasting, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[159] See, e.g., Bloggers Blog, Podcast by Phone with Gcast, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009), Hipcast, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[160] , (last visited Jan 24, 2009) (“ is the premier podcast destination that provides access to a growing list of over 60,000 curated and constantly updated podcast feeds representing more than 1 million episodes of audio and video content. 's unique value proposition to content consumers also presents an unsurpassed way for content providers to reach an audience that consumes podcasts via the Web, multimedia devices and Internet radio.”).
[161] Postcast Alley, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“Welcome to the best place to find all information relating to podcasts and podcasting. We are striving to develop the biggest and best directory of podcasts (podcast directory) available on the Internet. Podcasting is a great way for professionals and individuals alike to create audio news files (podcasts) that people can download to their iPods or other portable media devices and listen to when they are away from their computers. Heck, some people even listen to these podcasts directly from their computers, no mp3 player needed!”).
[162] For a list of some services, see Robin Good, Podcasting Services: Best New Media Tools of the Week—Sharewood Picnic 89, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[163] See Indiana University, Posting A Podcast, For Authors, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[164] Public Radio International, Living on Earth, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[165] Public Radio International, About Living on Earth, where to tune in, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[166] Id.
[167] Joe Davis, Environmental Podcasts: New Opportunity for the Beat, Oct. 12, 2005, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[168] ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle, (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
[169] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 18.
[170] Id.
[171] ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle, (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
[172] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 18
[173] Id.
[174] Id.
[175] Jonathan Dube, RSS for Journalists, Poynter Online, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[176] RTNDA RSS feeds, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[177] ABA, Legal Technology Resource Center, Helping Lawyers Solve the Technology Puzzle, (last visited Jan 24, 2009).
[178] Feed for All, Lawyers Use RSS Feeds, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[179] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 18.
[180] Id.
[181] Wikipedia, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[182] Wikipedia, Wikipedia:About, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[183] The Missouri Group, Telling the Story: The Convergence of Print, Broadcast and Online Media, supra note 30, at 18. See also Hurricane Katrina Wiki at (last visited July 24, 2008).
[184]Hurricane Katrina Wiki at (last visited July 12, 2008).
[185] See, e.g., Wikiagreen, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[186] Widgets for Web 2.0, What is a Web Widget, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[187] CBS News Widgets, Widget FAQ, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[188] Id.
[189] Twitter, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008). See also Nicole Garrison-Sprenger, Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, Quill Magazine 12-14 (Oct./Nov. 2008), available at .
[190] Linked In, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[191] Facebook, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[192] MySpace, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[193] Friend Feed, (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[194] Danah M. Boy & Nicole B. Ellison, Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship, 13 J. Computer-Mediated Comm. 11, available at .
[195] Nicole B. Ellison et al., The Benefits of Facebook ‘‘Friends:’’ Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites, 12 J. Computer-Mediated Comm. 1143 (2007).
[196] See, e.g., CNN, Tools and Extras, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[197] Twitter, (last visited December 14, 2008).
[198] Id.
[199] Garrison-Sprenger, Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, supra note 188, at 12-13.
[200] Id.
[201] Id.
[202] See Garrison-Sprenger, Twittery-Do-Dah, Twittering Pays, supra note 188, at 13.
[203] Kevin O’Keefe, Lawyer marketing with Twitter has arrived, May 5, 2008, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[204] Twitter, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[205] Twitter, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[206] (last visited Dec. 14, 2008).
[207] Andrew Flushe, LinkedIn Can Network Lawyers to Each Other and to Clients, Oct. 17, 2006, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[208] ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[209] See also 10 Ways journalists can use LinkedIn, Apr. 24, 2007, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) Kevin O’Keefe, Lawyers use of LinkedIn : It's becoming an avalanche, (last visited Jan. 24, 2008).
[210] YouTube, (last visited Dec. 14 2008).
[211] YouTube, Citizen News, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009). See David Chartier, News unfilter4ed: YouTube embraces citizen journalism, May 20, 2009, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (“Elbowing aside the media elite, YouTube wants to grab a seat at the anchor desk with a new channel dubbed ‘Citizen News.’ Harnessing the advantages of the burgeoning citizen journalism movement, YouTube aims to aggregate and capitalize on newsworthy content produced by an increasingly well-equipped user base.”).
[212] See YouTube, News & Politics, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009) (including feeds from Associated Press, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and others).
[213] Compare YouTube, John A. Rapanos v. US, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009); YouTube, Oberstar Statement: Clean Water Restoration Act. Part—1, (last visited Jan. 24, 2008); YouTube, American Rivers, Congress Acts to Protect Clean Water, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[214] Laura Knoy, New Hampshire Public Radio, The Power of YouTube, (Oct. 31, 2006), (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[215] Educause Learning Initiative, 7 things you should know about Citizen Journalism (Nov. 2007), available at (“While conscientious professional journalists are careful to separate supportable evidence from opinion or speculation, many citizen journalists have a weaker sense of what constitutes a reliable story, free of conjecture. Consumers of citizen journalism should understand that however well-intentioned a citizen journalist might be, reading the news with a skeptical eye is a good practice.”)
[216] Brandon De Hoyos, Transforming the Newsroom with Instant Messaging—IM Streamlines the Reporting Process, , (last visited Dec. 28, 2008).
[217] Shane Richmond, Facebook for journalists, (Jan. 11, 2008), Telegraph.co.uk, (last visited Jan. 24, 2009).
[218] Steven Schnaars et al., Predicting the Emergence of Innovations from Technological Convergence: Lessons from the Twentieth Century 28 J. Macromarketing 157, 167(2008).
[219] See (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[220] Some even refer to Walter Cronkite as the “most trusted man in America.” Paul Westman, Walter Cronkite: The Most Trusted Man in America (Taking Part Books, 1980).
[221] Walter Cronkite, on Frontline, The Future of News, (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[222] See Larry Kramer, on Frontline, The Future of News, (last visited Dec. 12, 2008) (“The Washington Post – every Sunday and many days of the week we'd have a story that would start on the front page down in the corner, and it would be two columns wide and there would be a headline, and then there would be a jump, and you'd open up the page, and there would be two pages on the inside on this story. . . . But the reality is most people didn't read all those stories. They wanted those stories to be there. They read the lede; they read the headlines. They read some -- depending on their interest in the subject matter, read deeper and deeper into the story perhaps. But most importantly, they wanted to know that The Washington Post was watching these institutions and was devoting the resources to see if we, as the public, were being ripped off in a way that we could never find out ourselves. That's great journalism. . . . That's still true.”).
[223] See Tom Bettag (Former Executive Producer, Nightline, CBS Evening News), on Frontline, The Future of News (2007), (“[Question:] So network news, 60 Minutes, The New York Times, Washington Post -- not going to disappear? [Answer:] Not going to disappear. I've been hearing since 1985 about the death of the evening news, and, you know, wake me when it happens. People have been talking about this forever and ever, and there are always going to be smart people who want to know what went on today.”).
[224] See Jim Meyer, Despite Election, Network News Audience Shrinks, Nov. 21, 2008, , (last visited Dec. 11, 2008); Project for Excellence in Journalism, Audience, in The State of the News Media 2008, available at .
[225] Jennifer Saba, Time Spent at Most Top Newspaper Sites Declined Last Month, Dec. 29. 2008, Editor and Publisher, (last visited Dec. 29, 2008) (“The average time spent at most of the top 30 newspaper Web sites (as ranked by unique visitors) went down in November compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest data from Nielsen Online.”).
[226] Markus Prior, News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout, 49 Am. J. Pol. Sci. 577 (July 2005).
[227] Ted Koppel on Frontline, The Future of News (2007), (last visited Dec. 12, 2008).
[228] Prior, News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout , supra note 225, at 589.
[229] Tara George, With Few Job Prospects, Journalism Students Should Learn Web Skills, PoynterOnline, (last visited Dec. 22, 2008) (“In 2007, 55.6 percent of B.A. graduates with jobs in communications wrote and edited online, compared with 41.5 percent a year earlier and 30.3 percent in 2005.”).
[230] Online News Association, Mission, (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
[231] News Release, ASNE proposes taking 'paper' out of name, other significant changes to bylaws, (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
[232] See, e.g., Nora Paul & Laura Ruel, Eyetracking research shows how younger readers view news websites, Knight Digital Media Center, (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
[233] Michael Geist, We Are All Journalists Now, Toronto Star (June 2006), available at .
[234] See Chapter 7, Responding to the News Media, and Chapter 8, Proactive Media Coverage.
[235] See They Walk the Line: Top environment reporters talk about journalism vs. activism, (last visited Dec. 19, 2008).
[236] David LaFontaine & Taylor Elmore, Technological changes make core journalistic values even more important, (last visited Dec. 19, 2008).(“Whatever the changes in media by which news is delivered to the public, the fundamentals of serious journalism remain the same.”).
[237] Christopher Connell, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Forum on the Future of Journalism Education, Journalism’s Crisis of Confidence: A Challenge for the Next Generation (2006), available at
[238] Pew Research Center for The People and The Press, The Web: Alarming, Appealing and a Challenge to Journalistic Values—Financial Woes Now Overshadow All Other Concerns for Journalists, Mar. 17, 2008, (last visited Dec. 22, 2008).
[239] American Press Institute, Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond ‘Newspaper Companies’ (Feb. 2008) 5, available at .
[240] Pew Center Project for Excellence in Journalism, The State of the News Media 2004, 3-4, .
[241] Gillmore, We The Media, supra note 109, at xxv.
-----------------------
“Journalism of the future will involve all sorts of media: old and new, niche and mass, the personal and the global. It will involve storytelling in every combination of words, picture, and sound. And it will be propelled not just by journalists but by news audiences. That is already apparent today.”
—Janet Kolodzy
................
................
In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.
To fulfill the demand for quickly locating and searching documents.
It is intelligent file search solution for home and business.
Related searches
- tom sawyer chapter 10 summary
- chapter 10 photosynthesis quizlet
- chapter 10 photosynthesis pdf
- chapter 10 photosynthesis key
- chapter 10 photosynthesis answer key
- chapter 10 photosynthesis answers
- chapter 10 photosynthesis reading guide
- chapter 10 vocabulary us history
- the outsiders chapter 10 answers
- chapter 10 outsiders questions quizlet
- chapter 10 biology test answers
- chapter 10 vocabulary words