The Future of Journalism: Blog tasks

 

The Future of Journalism: Blog tasks

Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shirky says. 



Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript which is absolutely fine), answer the questions below:

1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?

Clay Shirky argues that "accountability journalism" is important because it allows the media to shed light on things that are happening, Shirky talks about how the "audience created the public" meaning that regional stories become highlighted and worldwide because the of the social media shares it has generated. The example Shirky gives would be the "upcoming trial of father John Gagmen" 

2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?

The relationship described by Shirky about newspapers and advertisers would be capital invested. This means advertisers over-pay their content which leads to  long-range and high risked published stories.  

3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?

Shirky suggests that "unbundling of content" is when people are reading newspapers in a different way, this means that the distribution of articles stores are pushed only through the rise of shares because of social media outlets. 

4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?

He had suggested if the internet wasn't so widespread and accessible in 1992 then the scandal with the catholic church would've received little or no coverage by audiences responses. 

5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? 

Shirky argues against paywalls because it prevents high quality news articles from being distributed, this means that paywalls would make it difficult for newspapers to publish and get high readerships numbers for in-depth articles.   

6) What is a 'social good'? In what way might journalism be a 'social good'?

Social good is media produced that would cater to the wider knowledge audiences have about the world, journalism would be considered social good because it helps keep audiences in the know about current affairs. 

7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes? 

Shirky suggests that we can replace the importance of newspapers back into society through" we need a model that produces five percent of accountability journalism.". This means that the short-terms danger would be that media environment would over-lap and would take some time to implement back into the media ecosystem. 

8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?

Personally, i would say that the importance of major news brands such the New York Time and the Guardian staying in power to provide news would be informative and well-known amongst their audiences and potential audiences. "So at least part of the institutional power is the ability to swing an audience, that is part of the political core of any society that demands answers. The easiest way to imagine that is exactly as you say — there is simply a counterweight institution to the church and it’s The Globe. There’s a counterweight institution to Ford and it’s The New York Times.

We’ve lost the ability for media to operate as force in almost all cases — which is to say a lot of the forces associated with previous forms of media had to do with scarcity, and that the scarcity premium in almost all media is vanishing."