Convergence: News Production in a Digital - Commack Schools



Reading #38 - “Convergence: News Production in a Digital Age ” – Eric KlinenbergI. News Production in a Digital AgeParadoxically, as news organizations are becoming an increasingly prominent role of our society, the sociology of these news organizations is all but deadIronically, studies of media are flourishing in other areas of academiaThere exists a consensus that media products are essential to the operations of other fields in societySociologists have stopped examining the ways in which organizations that produce news workVast amounts of change have occurred and are occurring in the field of mediaThese transformations have caused a the need for convergence news-makingThis reading examines the point of journalistic production in one major organization and shows how members manage the restraints of convergence news-makingA multi-year ethnographic project employs case studies of these organizationsThey began as print media and now produce and distribute across platformsII. Convergence and the New Media MarketMajor media companies have evolved through four key development strategiesTaking companies out of private hands; raising capital with public stock offerings and reforming the corporate mission to meet the bottom-line demands of stockholdersBringing in new corporate managers to streamline production systems in the news roomMaking massive investments in digital communications technologies Establishing lines of horizontal integration in the companyMajor media companies had to acquire or merge with other content providers and distributors They had to link the marketing as well as the divisions of news across each of those operationsOwning such diverse operations is the key to synergistic mode of productionSome companies go as far as to further subsidize and use each branch of its operation to produce content for several media at onceThe actual content being produced is a subject of debate inside the companies as well as across the whole professionIII. The New NewsroomThe transformations of these organizations have produced changes in the physical and social space of its officesThe emergence of television as the centerpiece of a news organizations causes the mission of the journalist to be determined by the production values of TV newsJournalists have been forced to take on additional responsibilities in the same work periodThis results in severe consequences for cultural production that require serious, independent thinkingThe time cycle of news-making in the age of digital production is radically different - Transformed into a news cycloneIV. Synergy and Digital SystemsFor major media companiesCoordinated news-making activities keep labor costs down and increase output and efficiency in the production processFor reportersThese recent changes and subsequent demands of multimedia production create professional challengesThe workers of these media companies are unable to sustain the level of journalistic quality needed to maintain the company’s reputationReporters have turned to online sources instead of traditional reportingTime and space to explore is no longer seen as efficientEvents easier to cover have become more prominent in the city newsV. Target Marketing and Media SegmentationAn advantage of digital news systems is that they made target marketing easier for news organizations Target-marketed news is not available to those groups of society who lack a strong base of desirable professionals for advertisers to targetThe Internet offers the most exciting possibilities for creating new forms of journalismVI. Conclusion: Newsrooms in an Age of Digital ProductionThe most exciting innovations in journalistic forms have received little support from news organizations because they are not profitableTherefore, digital technologies have changed journalistic production in newsrooms, but not according to Journalistic preferencesThe economic, conventional and restrictive powers governing the news industry will play powerful roles in determining how advancing technologies enter the remix of journalistic productions ................
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