With these new changes happening in communication, writers had to develop new thinking in cross-media journalism, using technology as the new source for news delivery.
In the previous post, we briefly talked about the new demands by audiences – they wanted their news delivery fast and convenient. Technology was a result, and audiences were heavily relying on media devices to gain information. To keep up with these new demands, journalists had to quickly shift into convergence journalism. As described in Janet Kolodzy's (2013) book on cross-media storytelling, convergence journalism is proving news to people from anyplace, at anytime of day, and in any format by using all communication tools available (Kolodzy, 2013, 1). As the technology landscape was changing to this new format, journalists needed to find efficient methods for quick news delivery and consumption.
The role of a journalist is to provide information to an audience. To do so, the mindset had to change from traditional methods of news gathering and writing.
Audience-centric is one idea, and it is pretty self explanatory. Audiences want to be active in the after-chat of a provided story – they demand to be active participants according to Kolodzy in what they read, listen, or watch. They want to decide how they choose to tell the news to others, or what feedback to provide. Writers had to change views on their audience if they wanted to achieve this new goal in audience-centric writing. Rather than view as an audience, they had to be viewed as a community. This change as noted in Adweek is significant; an audience is that of people who may be "sitting at home in front of a TV, ready to change the channel at any given second" whereas a community are people who "actively seeks out a certain experience, so its members will in most
cases be far more receptive to expertly created and delivered messages" (Coffee, 2015). The focus of news delivery is now based on the audiences best interest.
Journalists also had to focus on being tool-neutral. With the popularity of devices these days, we've become habit of multitasking. Limiting to just one device won't help journalist, as there is more than one method to reach out to audiences; by limiting the tools opportunities of gaining new views and insights are lost. According to Adweek, at least 60% of people are visuals learners; without the inclusion of interactive or multimedia content, people will get lost in the writing (Coffee, 2015). This is why journalists needed to be tool-neutral and work with multiple offerings. Offering as such include multimedia tools in digital writing, audio, video, graphics, and so forth (Kolodzy, 2013, 7). Having more tools means the journalists can work on multiple Internet platforms, catering to the specific audience look for (such as video, audio, etc.)
Resources
Coffee, P. (2015). 6 Big Changes in the Corporate Communications Model: What does "corporate communications" mean today? Adweek. Retrieved at http://www.adweek.com/digital/6-big-changes-in-the-corporate-communications-model/
Kolodzy, J. (2013). Practicing Convergence Journalism: An Introduction to Cross-Media Stroytelling. New York, NY: Routledge.
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