Convergence and Consolidation in Journalism

Journalism through the years has changed dramatically. From the basic print newspaper that towns used to dwell upon to receive their news each day, to now having the world wide web with news sites, newspapers, and magazines updating news every minute, one can see that time has greatly effected journalism. Two ways that the field of journalism has changed are convergence and consolidation.

Convergence in journalism is when news and information is provided in more than one format, using effective formats to serve news audience in a very fragmented public, and also combining to create a larger journalistic project. In other words, it is how journalism has adapted over the years to improve with technology, resulting with using multi media and its components. In the years past, the work of journalists was read only by print- in newspapers or magazines. Today, this is not the case. Journalists can post their articles in many different ways to reach their audience. This is due to the creation of the internet. They can post their stories on online newspapers, online magazines, blogs, and even online news sites. The whole world is able to access the journalist's reports. This convergence of journalistic technology has positive and negative effects. When looking at the positive side, the internet and all of its different sources to post news for journalists has broadened their readership. New jobs have begun to develop like blogging. On the other hand, journalists may experience a lot of repetition. With so many news sites, newspapers, and magazines, the top news is surely to be repeated on many of them. This can make it hard for a journalist's work to stand out. For example, looking at different articles about the disaster in Haiti, I compared an article from the New York Times to one from the Bangor Daily News. I liked the New York Times article better. This can trickle down badly for the Bangor Daily News, and the same thing goes for smaller newspapers. If they are losing readership because people are able to access the larger newspapers like the New York Times online, jobs will be lost. In the year 2008, 16,000 people lost their jobs at newspapers and only 3,000 people were working on the internet to compose news (1).

Now, moving on to the other topic of how journalism has changed, consolidation. Consolidation is when a large number of media outlets are owned by a small number of business owners and conglomerates. In other words, it's a unification of companies. Consolidation has ultimately hurt the field of journalism. It has made people loose many jobs and decrease the number of newspapers. For example, the popular Wall Street Journal, was sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in the year 2007 (2). This family owned newspaper lost with a 5 billion dollar agreement for Murdoch to take over. This put many journalists out of their job. This is a frequent occurrence right now in journalism. Hopefully we can still keep newspapers and not let consolidation take total control.

Improvements in technology has impacted the field of journalism and has created heated discussion throughout the world. I believe that the field of journalism needs to be up to date with the technology at this point in time, but I do not believe that jobs need to be taken away. The convergence concerning the different ways to release news from online creates a fast, up-to-date way to inform the world about about is happening. I think that just as many people need to work for these sites as a newspaper would have. This would help with getting even more news out, quicker and preserving journalism jobs.

Referecences:

1) Gayle, Damien. Media for All: Solving convergence and ownership consolidation problems. November 3, 2009. Journalism.co.uk. http://blogs.journalism.co.uk/editors/2009/11/03/media-for-all-solving-convergence-and-ownership-consolidation-problems/.

2) Ellison, Sarah. Karnitschnig, Matthew. Murdoch Wins His Bid for Dow Jones. August 1, 2007. The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118589043953483378.html?mod=special_coverage.

Critique

Image retrieved by The New York Times

http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/clijsters-knocked-out-of-australian-open/?hp

As I began to review an article written about a tennis match, in the New York Times, it appeared that many components of a well written story were missing. Right from the beginning, the journalist Joe Drape was not clear (1). Drape introduced Kim Clijsters as "The Australian Open" but he does not say that she is a tennis player (1). Now, looking at the photograph the reader would assume that Clijsters is a tennis player (if they indeed saw the photograph), but he didn't open the story up by stating that fact. When Drape wrote, "barely got to know the U.S. Open champ here Friday night," I didn't know who he meant was the U.S Open champ (1). He introduced Clijster's component as Nadia Petrova, the 19th-seeded Russian, so I did not understand if this is who he meant as the U.S Open champ (1). I think that a lot of this confusion on clarity is due to his language choice. If one did not play tennis, I believe that they would have a hard time understanding this article. I do not play tennis, and this was the case for me. I don't exactly know what the U.S Open champ is. When I read the quote by the tennis player, Clijsters, it seemed like it could have been summed up better by Drape. It dragged on and didn't get to the point very fast. In the middle of the quote, Clijsters said, "But, um, yeah, the question is of course, why?"(1) I don't think that "but, um, yeah" needed to be placed in the quote. Drape left me asking questions too. After I read the article, I was wondering what loosing meant for Clijster's career and what was the winner Nadia Petrova moving on to? Judging by my critique, Drape definitely did not write this article to its full potential. He missed the concepts of accuracy with the language, brevity, and clarity.

Reference:

1) Drape, Joe. Clijsters Knocked Out of Australian Open. 22 January 2010. The New York Times. http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/clijsters-knocked-out-of-australian-open/?hp.

Photographs that are Morally Wrong

Many opinions and disagreements can be made on the topic of whether photographs of the deceased should be published. When one opens the paper on a weekend morning while sipping their coffee and intending to relax and read about what is going on in the world, they probably are not mentally prepared to see a dead body or bodies heaped on top of one another. Such an image will surely awaken them for the day. With the disaster in Haiti that recently took place, many journalists and reporters are taking action and taking pictures of disturbing images. Many of these photographs have been published, one in specifically caught my eyes. I was browsing through the New York Times online, reading about the tragic disaster, when I came upon this sickening picture of a survivor (1). He was kneeling down, crying at the sight of his 10-month daughter, dead and piled on the mound of dead bodies outside a morgue (1). This photograph was bad enough with the pile of dead bodies; but the thing that affected me the most, was seeing the baby in the picture. You can clearly see the babies figure, facial expression, and how she was positioned when she passed away. I think that this picture is morally wrong to have online. Some people may say that it is a wake up call, and that people need to know the real effects of the disaster, but the photograph doesn’t even have the ones who died names. Viewers can’t give them a proper remembrance; fore, they will be remembered only by the people in Haiti, who died and were piled in the filthy streets on top of each other. Also, the man that is kneeling before his child, will have to live with this image for the rest of his life. It may haunt him and randomly appear on a website, newspaper, or magazine when he is casually reading. Due to the distressing and mentally disturbing affects, I believe that publishing photographs such as these should be illegal, unless the consent of the ones in it is given.

Reference:

1) Winter, Damon. Death Toll Mounts After Haiti Quake. 2010. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/01/14/world/0114-HAITI_11.html

Welcome

Hi everyone! I am a freshman at the University of Maine. I am currently studying journalism and exploring different areas to minor in. With journalism, I would like to work for a magazine, specifically a fashion magazine. I enjoy journalism because I can learn something new everyday by talking with different people and being exposed to different places. I have lived in Maine for most of my life. I lived in Southern California when I was very young. I wonder every day what it would have been like if my parents hadn't moved to Maine. My life would have been so much different. Although, I would love to live in California now- I prefer to live in warmer weather and a place with a faster pace environment. Maine is nice to have a family; but while I am young, I want to be near a larger city. I grew up in the town of Brewer and participated in cheerleading for most of my childhood. Now, I enjoy working out, eating healthy, making jewelry, fashion, reading, and traveling. Nutrition is a large part of my life, and I think everyone needs to take a chance to learn more about it or try new activities, like yoga or pilates. For work, I am a hostess and food runner at Margaritas Mexican Restaurant here in Orono, and I blog for the University of Maine's undergraduate website for University Relations. I am in the process of applying for internships at local magazines and newspapers for this summer, so that I can gain some experience and see if I like working in the field of journalism. As of right now, I am starting off the semester, planning on trying my best and excelling in my classes, and trying out new winter sports. I have snow-shoeing down so far; next on my list is skiing, since I have never tried it! My friends and I are going to take a trip to Sugar Loaf and tackle the task of trying it for the first time. It will be an adventure, and I will make sure to write about it. To wrap things up, I am excited to join this blog and include myself in CMJ 236. I look forward to learning more about writing and solidifying my writing skills. Best of luck to everyone else, as well!