The
Convergence Newsletter
From
Newsplex at the University of South Carolina
Vol. III
No. 1 (July 7, 2005)
Commenting
on Convergence
By
Jordan Storm, editor of The Convergence Newsletter
It seems
everyone is buzzing about convergence.
For the past four weeks, I have been working as a management intern at
Morris Communications in Augusta, GA.
There, along with five other interns, I have had the pleasure of touring
Morris’ media holdings and discussing media management principles with various
department directors. Without
inquiring specifically about convergence, I have been amazed at the amount of
times convergence has been discussed, debated and put into practice by these
directors.
While I
will not detail my musings on Morris’ use of convergence now, I must share how
excited I am about Morris’ use of convergence within their advertising
departments. Throughout most of
the facilities I have toured, I have encountered exceptional communication
between the different advertising sales departments. One department director stated that while convergence
does not always work as a business model, it should be used to streamline
advertising sales across media publications and media platforms.
In this issue,
Augie Grant at the University of South Carolina explores lessons journalists
can learn from studying advertising and the Internet. He states advertising that utilizes multimedia is not always
as effective as simple text ads.
In his article, Grant identifies many of the issues that media
companies, including Morris, are grappling with today, such as how to deliver
information effectively and the ways in which effectiveness can be
measured.
Mindy
McAdams at the University of Florida continues the discussion on multimedia and
the Internet in her piece on Flash journalism. McAdams book on the subject, Flash Journalism: How to
Create Multimedia News Packages, was published in April 2005. I believe it is
fitting to feature Augie Grant and Mindy McAdam’s pieces in the same
issue. Their different takes on
multimedia highlight just one of the many debates surrounding new media and
convergence today.
On an
academic note, Shirley Staples Carter and Susanna Priest discuss the recent
Research Leadership Summit, which was held in Columbia, S.C. earlier this year. During the summit, academics from
across the United States explored the role of journalism and mass communication
research and scholarship in the academy.
As the
first issue of the third volume of The Convergence Newsletter, this newsletter is packed with
information. As a reminder,
our new e-mail format only gives you a bit of each of the articles—for the
complete newsletter, it is important to click through to the whole newsletter
using the link provided.
Jordan
Storm is working towards a Master's of Arts degree at the University of South
Carolina. Contact her at convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
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Feature
Articles
Lessons
for Journalists from Web Advertising
Flash
Journalism
SJMC
Hosts Research Leadership Summit at USC
Newsplex
Convergence Summer Seminar Attendees Review their Experience
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Conference
Information
Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention
Visual
Edge: Visual Reporting
Adplexing:
Cross-Media Advertising Tools & Techniques
Conference
on Media Convergence: Cooperation, Collisions and Change
Society
of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference
Association
for Women in Communications 2005 Professional Conference
Citizens
Media Summit
2005
Online News Association Conference
BEA2006:
Convergence Shockwave
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Feature
Articles
Lessons
for Journalists from Web Advertising
By
Augie Grant, executive editor of The Convergence Newsletter and associate
professor in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies,
University of South Carolina
The
integration of the Internet as a distribution medium for news in traditional
newspaper and television newsrooms offers some interesting new journalistic
opportunities. A few of these
opportunities can be gleaned from analyzing how the Internet has been
integrated into other areas of mass communication. This article will focus specifically on Web advertising,
exploring lessons that journalists can learn from studying advertising on the
Internet.
The
capability of the Internet to distribute any combination of audio, video, text,
and graphics has led many to predict that multimedia advertising would dominate
the Internet, but that prediction has not come to pass. Rather, the most lucrative forms of
advertising on the Internet are the simple text ads such as those that
accompany search results on Google and Yahoo!. Although I haven’t yet seen a systematic, authoritative
study of the reasons why, possible reasons include the simplicity of the advertising,
the subtlety of text ads (almost never drawing attention away from the content
a person has gone to the Web to find), the micro-payment process that allows
these ads to be used in very small campaigns, and the effectiveness—they only
appear when a person is doing a search on targeted keywords, with the
advertiser not paying unless a reader clicks on the ad to visit the sponsoring
site.
The
lesson from the success of text ads for converged journalists is that
information delivered via plain text may be more effective for communicating
news as well. Plain text may be
more readily absorbed by a user than a combination of visual elements with or
without audio that requires additional clicks and attention. The Internet is also used in a wide
variety of environments, including offices and public places where audio or
video might distract others or attract unwanted attention. Also, as studies of media richness have
taught us, a great deal of information can be communicated more clearly—and with
less ambiguity—using plain text than through the use of richer media. (Consider, for example, this “plain
text” newsletter…)
As
discussed above, one of the advantages that Web advertising has over most other
forms of advertising is that Web ads offer instant and comprehensive measures
of effectiveness, with advertisers being able to know exactly who saw what ads
and what action they took as a result of seeing those messages. The same technology can be used to
inform editors and reporters regarding which stories were read, how much time
was spent reading each page, and how effective headlines are, etc. By knowing the specific stories read
each day or week and how much time was spent with each one, an editor can, over
time, do a better job of targeting content to the wants and needs of the news
consumer.
This
capability offers a fundamental challenge to the manner in which editorial
judgments are made in a newsroom.
The manner in which editors exercise the power to dictate the stories
that will appear in a newspaper or newscast, along with the order in which they
appear, has been the most important issue in the editorial process. Adding systematic, daily feedback from
consumers to the editorial process will not be easy, and the manner in which
this input should be used should be studied and debated, but there is no doubt
that editors will be better served by knowing this information.
An
example of the utility of knowing exactly what content is read on a Web site is
having a report on what stories from archives are being accessed every
day. Editors tuned to consumer
interest in archival information will be better able to call for follow-up
stories and updates to important stories.
One last
lesson can be drawn from the practice of sites paying for cross-linking and
referral traffic. For example,
Amazon.com enables anyone to place links to purchase relevant books on their
Web sites, with Amazon sharing revenue from each purchase with the referring
site. Web sites providing news
have the potential to engage in similar linking behavior, sharing content with
other sites and earning additional opportunities for revenue from both
advertising revenue-sharing and from link referral fees.
These
three examples illustrate a few lessons that convergent journalists can draw
from others who have integrated the Internet as a distribution medium for their
messages. Over time, these
practices will become standard operating procedure in our newsrooms. Until then, you are encouraged to send
us a note whenever you identify other similar lessons that journalists can
learn from other media practitioners so that we can share your observations
through this newsletter.
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Flash
Journalism
By
Mindy McAdams, Knight Chair for Journalism Technologies and the Democratic Process
and professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Florida
Online
media enable journalists to tell stories in new ways. Combine still photos with
audio in a slideshow (a hybrid of traditional photojournalism and radio
journalism), and you create a different, sometimes more intimate experience
than video. With an interactive map, you allow the user to explore a story
through key locations. Animated infographics explain causes and events by using
time and motion, coupled with relevant text in chunks that users read at their
own pace.
The best
tool for creating these story forms today is Flash, a software application from
Macromedia. Since 1999, journalists have used Flash to combine multiple media
and add interactivity to online stories. So far, there is no better platform
for authoring and delivering these stories. The Flash player is free, easy to
download and install, and runs well in most Web browsers on Mac and Windows.
Its installed base exceeds 90 percent of all computer users in Europe, Asia,
and North America.
Not all
Flash journalism is interactive. In some Flash story packages, the user simply
watches while the content plays. Maybe the user can select from three or four
segments; that’s slightly interactive. Maybe the user can pause the show or
adjust the audio volume; that also is somewhat interactive. It is possible to
make a Flash story package highly interactive, like a video game.
Alternatively, a Flash package can be designed to communicate with a database,
so that information entered by the user elicits a very individualized response.
One of
the more interactive examples of Flash journalism is MSNBC’s The Big Picture,
which incorporates user opinion polls and sometimes quizzes, within a slick
interface that integrates video segments with supplementary text and Web links.
While a
high level of interactivity might be incompatible with many journalistic
stories, multimedia can enhance almost any story. The media forms we have to
work with are text, audio, graphics, still photos and video. Any and all of
these can be combined in a single seamless package. Graphics encompass the
broadest variety of possibilities, from animations, maps and 3-D diagrams to
custom interfaces.
Look for
the World Cup and Tour de France packages produced by Agence France-Presse;
these examples of database-driven Flash sports journalism demonstrate
tremendous expertise in information design. For animated infographics, the
Spanish dailies El Mundo and El País lead the world; The New York Times and USA Today also have excellent graphics.
To
produce online graphics, a news organization needs top-notch artists who are
also journalists. Often these are the people within the organization who
embrace Flash journalism with the greatest enthusiasm. They may have no
background or training in computer technology or programming, but if they have
a strong desire to create animated infographics, they will plunge into learning
Flash.
The other
leaders in Flash journalism are typically photojournalists, who may even take
up an audio recorder and begin gathering sound to accompany their photos after
they catch the Flash journalism fever. You can find some of the best online
photo slideshows at The Washington Post.
BOOK
DATA:
Flash
Journalism: How to Create Multimedia News Packages
By Mindy
McAdams
Published
by Focal Press in April 2005
ISBN:
0-240-80697-2
WEB SITE:
http://flashjournalism.com/
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SJMC
Hosts Research Leadership Summit at USC
By
Shirley Staples Carter, director of the School of Journalism and Mass
Communications at the University of South Carolina and Susanna Priest, director
of research in the College of Mass Communications and Information Studies,
University of South Carolina
The most
common form of currency in a relationship between one unit or another in the
academy is research, according to a stellar panel of presidents and vice
presidents of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication (AEJMC), one of the country’s leading professional associations
for journalism and mass communications educators. The group was part of two
research summits on April 28 and May 17, 2005, on the role of journalism and
mass communication research and scholarship in the academy and its centrality
to the research mission of the university. USC’s School of Journalism and Mass
Communications hosted the summits.
USC
Provost Mark Becker joined the April panel of presidents and vice presidents of
the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC), an
international organization of journalism and mass communication administrators.
The panelists included ASJMC president Russ Shain, Dean of the College of
Communications at Arkansas State University, and vice president Loren
Ghiglione, Dean of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Shain shared his thoughts about a career working with faculty to achieve
balance among research, teaching and service, while Ghiglione described
non-traditional forms of research used by faculty and the challenges of
combining the dual tracks.
Becker
discussed his vision for research and the role of professional schools. He said
he was familiar with the issues because he had a similar experience defining
the role of research in the field of public health.
The May
17 panel included AEJMC president Mary Alice Shaver, Director, Nicholson School
of Communication, University of Central Florida, president-elect Sharon
Dunwoody, Evjue-Bascom Professor,
School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and
vice president Wayne Wanta, professor, School of Journalism, University of
Missouri.
Dunwoody
said research dollars matter, as well as experiential involvement in the
research process. She said the unit should decide the value of research to the
unit, evaluate faculty members’ progress toward tenure, define professional
scholarship within the unit if it has a dual track system (academic and
professional) such as the University of South Carolina and promote internal
awards. Shaver pointed out the importance of articulating issues germane to the
professional school’s orientation, including how we differ from other
disciplines particularly in our emphasis on skills courses.
She
pointed out that the usual dichotomy between professionals and academics,
theoretical versus applied research, should not be a difficult barrier to
overcome. Shaver also mentioned
that like USC, journalism units should consider partnerships with disciplines
outside the unit. Wanta echoed that sentiment, saying units should play to
their strengths, incorporate the professionals with the researchers, ensure
that the dual tracks communicate effectively with each other, and focus on
interdisciplinary research when feasible. He also emphasized the importance of
mentoring, involvement in the overall university culture and environment, and
that journalism schools’ presence on their respective campuses should be
pervasive.
Susanna
Priest, director of research in the College of Mass Communications and
Information Studies, closed each session with remarks on how all three of
SJMC’s research themes (media and social values, health and science
communication, and new media technologies) combine theoretical with applied
dimensions.
Dean Charles
Bierbauer moderated the first session; Shirley Staples Carter, SJMC Director,
moderated the second summit. Carter inaugurated the summits in 2004, inviting
the leadership of the two organizations headquartered in Columbia to discuss
issues relevant to journalism and mass communication educators. Carter is a
past president of ASJMC.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Newsplex
Convergence Summer Seminar Attendees Review Their Experience
Editor’s
Note: Throughout the month of May, The College of Mass Communications and
Information Studies at the University of South Carolina welcomed university and
college faculty to its 2005 Newsplex Summer Seminars. Two week-long sessions were held: Teaching and Research in
Convergent Media and Web Publishing for Convergent Media.
After
meeting some of these attendees, I had the pleasure of asking them several questions. Below are their answers:
Q: How have you, or how do you
plan to utilize the skills and knowledge you gained at the seminar?
A: I will be doing a presentation
open to both students and faculty in September, sponsored by the College’s
Teaching Center. 2) I will be traveling with two other professors to Franklin
Pierce College in New Hampshire in October for a site visit. This was
recommended as a strong model by the Control Tower representative. 3) I am
already purchasing InDesign, Visual Communicator, a digital camera, camera
phones and another program called Final Draft. This is money allotted from the
grant I got for convergent media. I also have $10,000 from the student
activities budget with which to begin setting up the Convergent Media Student
Center next year.
= Laurel
Saiz, coordinator, Journalism Concentration, Onondaga Community College, Syracuse,
NY
Q: How would you define convergence
today?
A: Repurposing stories across media
platforms. Thinking of a news story as a “slice of time,” and how one can best
present it at that particular time, with the caveat that the mode will always
be changing.
= Laurel
Saiz, coordinator, Journalism Concentration, Onondaga Community College, Syracuse,
NY
Q: What was your opinion of
convergence before the seminar?
A: Not happening.
= Yvonne
Cappé, associate professor, School of Journalism and Telecommunications,
University of Kentucky
Q: What is your opinion of
convergence since the seminar?
A: Let’s go!
= Yvonne
Cappé, associate professor, School of Journalism and Telecommunications,
University of Kentucky
Q: What is your opinion of
convergence since the seminar?
A: The process is complex, but that
it is quite possible to accomplish an important piece of the process in our
educational environment at Marquette.
= Karen
Slattery, associate professor, Marquette University
Q: How would you define
convergence today?
A: I would define convergence as a
multi-faceted process that requires a good deal of flexibility. It involves the use of various media to
create messages in ways that makes use of the medias’ strengths. The focus on the nature of the message
to be communicated leads one to ask which medium or media to use in what
circumstances. The audiences and
how they use the media must also be considered. When the message becomes the focus, the organizational
changes (convergence) and curricular changes (to support the message-making)
follows.
= Karen
Slattery, associate professor, Marquette University
Q: What were/are some of the
challenges you have faced working with media convergence since the seminar?
A: The biggest challenge is
communicating to fellow faculty and staff exactly how it is that our college
might proceed and what their roles might be.
= Karen
Slattery, associate professor, Marquette University
Q: Other comments?
A: I’ll be back next year!
= Yvonne
Cappé, associate professor, School of Journalism and Telecommunications,
University of Kentucky
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---------------Conferences
Association
for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention
Aug.
10-13, 2005
San
Antonio, Texas, USA
http://www.aejmc.org/convention/index.html
The AEJMC
keynote session will feature Alejandro Junco de la Vega, who heads the
newspaper group Reforma in Mexico. It publishes
three papers: Reforma in Mexico City, Mural in Guadalajara, and El Norte in Monterrey. The AEJMC plenary will focus on media
literacy and whether it has a place in journalism/mass communication
education. Special speaker will be
Dr. James Potter of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Several pre-convention workshops will
take place on Tuesday, Aug. 9.
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Visual
Edge: Visual Reporting
The
Poynter Institute
September
10-16, 2005
St.
Petersburg, FL, USA
http://www.poynter.org/seminar/seminar_view.asp?int_seminarID=3331
Photographers,
as well as print and broadcast journalists will benefit from this training
session. Participants will learn how convergence is affecting print, electronic
media, and video storytelling by exploring the latest improvements in
multimedia photographic reporting and technology and grappling with issues
related to ethical decision-making, leadership, and quality control in news
coverage. All workshop participants will report a story in the Tampa Bay area
using the latest equipment and software. The focus will be on reporting using
still photography and audio and video tools. Work will be posted at VisualEdge.org.
Application
materials: Please include five samples of appropriate work with your
application materials when applying for any Visual Journalism seminar. Digital
samples are preferred.
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Adplexing:
Cross-Media Advertising Tools & Techniques
IfraNewsplex
September
19-22, 2005
Columbia,
South Carolina, USA
http://newsplex.org/program/training_adplexing05.shtml
The IfraNewsplex’s
4-day Adplexing seminar is in its third year. It is reflective of the explosive
growth of the cross-media advertising phenomenon that has been taking the media
world by story. Millions of dollars, euros and pounds are being made building a
cross-media advertising enterprise, and this workshop will show you how to
build one and maximize its revenue-making potential.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Conference
on Media Convergence: Cooperation, Collisions and Change
Co-sponsored
by Brigham Young University and the University of South Carolina
October
13-15, 2005, Provo, Utah, USA
Now in
its fourth year, the purpose of this annual conference is to provide a
scholarly forum for the presentation of theory, research and practice related
to media convergence. A showcase of convergent media practices
will run concurrent with the academic conference. For registration and further information about this academic
conference or the showcase, visit the conference Web site at http://convergence.byu.edu.
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Society
of Professional Journalists Convention & National Journalism Conference
Oct.
16-18, 2005
Las
Vegas, USA
The
Society of Professional Journalists’ National Convention offers members and the
journalism community an opportunity to reflect on the industry and to engage in
thought-provoking, stimulating and hands-on training. Reporters, editors, educators, and students from across the
U.S. and several foreign nations will make this event a top priority.
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The Association
for Women in Communications 2005 Professional Conference
October
20-22, 2005
Lubbock,
Texas, USA
The
Association for Women in Communications is a professional organization that
champions the advancement of women across all communication disciplines by
recognizing excellence, promoting leadership and positioning its members at the
forefront of the evolving communications era.
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Citizens
Media Summit
October
24, 2005
University
of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA
http://www.j-newvoices.org/index.php/site/story/citizens_media_summit/
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2005
Online News Association Conference
October
28-29, 2005-October 29, 2005
New York,
New York, USA
http://www.onlinenewsassociation.org/news/archives/000144.php
The
conference will explore topics such as Defining Online Journalism, What’s Still New in New Media, Participatory Journalism – What’s That all About?, Web Analystics, Working Without a Net, and a Blogging ‘how-to.’
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Broadcast
Education Association
Convergence
Shockwave: Change, Challenge and
Opportunity
April
27-29, 2006
Las
Vegas, USA
The
BEA2006 Conference aims to create a forum for discussion and research on the
issues that face media convergence today.
The deadline for panel proposals is August 5, 2005, and the deadline for
research papers is December 2, 2005.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Announcements/News
New
Textbooks Focus on Convergence
= Dr. Vic
Costello’s book, The Multimedia Boot Camp: Getting Started in Digital Media
Production
(working title), will be published by Focal Press in Spring/Summer, 2006. Dr. Vic Costello is an associate
professor of communication at Elon University, in Elon, North Carolina.
The digital convergence stresses the commonality of previously discreet
technologies and the degree to which converging media are becoming increasingly
unified. Today, digital images, text and audio rarely have a singular function
and are often repurposed for multiple audiences and channels of distribution
(e.g. - DVD or the Web). Media
production students need a solid foundation that prepares them for the realities
of working in today’s job market where they may be required to be a
jack-of-all-trades and perhaps a master of only one. This is an introductory
textbook designed for entry-level media production courses. The book should
appeal to undergraduate students majoring in mass communication, journalism and
related areas of study (digital art, multimedia production, film production,
and instructional technology and design).
Readers of this book will:
Understand
the basic principles of visual perception, audio processing, and graphic
design.
Understand
the basic legal and ethical implications of working with digital media and
related forms of intellectual property.
Understand
the importance of project planning and organization, collaboration, production
workflow, and file management of media assets associated with digital media
creation.
Understand
how to acquire and manipulate digital still images, sound and full-motion video
for inclusion in a variety of multimedia applications.
Understand
how to repurpose digital media content for the world-wide-web and other
channels of electronic distribution.
= Dr. Stephen
Quinn, the author of Convergent Journalism, has just finished Conversations on Convergence and is presently working on a
third book, which has the working title, An Introduction to Convergence. Dr. Stephen Quinn is a professor of communication studies at
the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
In An
Introduction to Convergence (Boston: Focal Press) Quinn and Dr. Vince Filak, at Ball State, are
assembling a collection of contributions by Ball State faculty to describe the
practical aspects of convergence. The chapters will cover such topics as: the
multimedia assignment editor and producer, broadcast writing and speaking,
writing for the Web, digital video photography, multimedia advertising, and
multimedia public relations.
For more
information on these books, contact Dr. Stephen Quinn at squinn@usc.edu.au.
Publishing
a Book About Convergence? The Convergence
Newsletter
regularly publishes information about new and upcoming books on convergent
journalism. Send your submissions
to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Copyright
and Redistribution
The
Convergence Newsletter is Copyright © 2005 by the University of South Carolina, College of
Mass Communications and Information Studies. All rights reserved.
The
Convergence Newsletter is free and published by The Center for Mass Communications Research
at the University of South Carolina, College of Mass Communications and
Information Studies. It may be redistributed in any form - print or electronic
- without edits or deletion of any
content.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Submission
Guidelines/Deadline Schedule
The
Convergence Newsletter provides an editorially neutral forum for discussion of the
theoretical and professional meaning of media convergence. We welcome articles
of all sorts addressing the subject of convergence in journalism and media. We
also accept news briefs, calls for papers and conference announcements. Our
audience is both academics and professionals, and the publication style is APA
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The
Convergence Newsletter is published the first week of each month (except January). Articles
should be submitted at least 10 days prior to the publication date. Any
questions should be sent to convergence-editor@mailbox.sc.edu.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
---------------Subscribe/Unsubscribe
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