It’s the
Audience Stupid:
What is the new
approach to storytelling and how is it being used to broaden audiences?
The new approach
to storytelling is taking topics and issues that affect all and comparing
situations involving them in one place in the world with what’s going on in
other areas. For example, a story in London can be told with comparison to
what’s going on in similar situations in places such as Italy, Germany, or
Poland. In the article, the author “crowdsourced,” found out that even though
the majority of people she interviewed thought that politics was boring, they
wanted to learn move about the lives of those in other European nations and how
they deal with issues that affect everyone. By telling the stories of people
and not just the situations themselves, it expands the potential audience size.
How is digital
media being used to engage audiences?
Because of
digital media, we can now connect to places one thought to be too far to reach
out to with newer technologies. We can call upon experts from around the world
to talk about issues and topics, international debates can now be triggered all
over the world based on these issues and topics and the potential audience that
can be “crowdsourced” has greatly expanded. For example, the article points out
the situation about health care reform in the United States sparked debate
involving the health care systems in other countries, such as Canada, Britain,
France and Japan. Also, doctors in America may have worked around the world and
health insurance companies are global entities; they don’t just cover
Americans.
Give three
specific examples of how you can incorporate storytelling into an article you
write.
1. When talking
about how to deal with a terrorist organization, there can be comparative
journalism to see how other countries, if they have, dealt with the
organization.
2. When talking
about minimum wage and if it should be raised, there can be comparisons to how
other areas dealt with minimum wage issues.
3. When there’s
a debate on the type of sentencing a criminal should face, such as life in
prison versus the death penalty, there can be a look at other people with
similar crimes and what happened to them.
All the
Aggregation That’s Fit to Aggregate:
What does
aggregation mean?
Aggregation, as
described in the article by Bill Keller, is taking other people’s words,
putting them on your own website and gaining the revenue and attention that the
other people deserve.
Why does the
author describe Arianna Huffington as “the queen of aggregation?” Go to the
Huffington Post and provide an example.
He describes
Huffington as such because, according to Keller, she takes things such as
gossip news, viral videos, blogs, and news reporters and puts them all on her
own website to her own liking. Keller claims that Huffington, along with other
aggregators, has realized that if everyone is aggregating, no one will be able
to find stuff to do so. Therefore, she hires other journalists to produce
original pieces.
Is aggregation a
threat to professional journalism — why or why not?
Yes, aggregation
is a serious threat to professional journalism, especially since this is a time
where every news source is rushing to be the first one to get the story out
there and people, likewise, are racing to find the first reliable thing they
have to give them all the information. If people go to a site that’s aggregated
for the story, they are stealing the attention from a news source that actually
was the one to truly break the story and a journalist who actually got first-hand
information and sources. By getting the story from a second hand source, facts
may be skewed or not as accurate. Aggregating stories take away credit from the
journalist who was actually doing his or her job.
Photojournalism
in the Age of New Media:
A professional
journalist receives a photo captured by a citizen journalist….
- ·
What
are the positives?
- ·
Why
does the professional journalist need to be careful?
- ·
Why
might the content of the photo be called into question?
- ·
How
does the citizen photojournalist impact the job of the professional journalist?
- ·
The
positives are that is that journalism organizations have more eyes on ongoing
and breaking stories than ever before. In areas where there is little
journalist access for reasons (such as communication interruptions in areas of
natural disasters [ex: Haiti earthquake in 2010]), the citizen journalist who
took the photo is giving a first-hand account of the ongoing story or its
aftermath.
- ·
The
professional journalist needs to be careful when it comes to giving correct attribution
to the photo. With social media sites today and how quickly news and photos can
spread, the same photo can be spread all over the world in just a short time.
It’s the professional journalist’s responsibility to give attribution to the
correct person — the one who actually took the photo.
- ·
If
the person who took the photo cannot be accurately and definitely be
determined, or if there is any suspicion that the person claiming to have been
may be lying, then the content of the photo comes into question. According to
Santiago Lyon, director of photography for the Associated Press, these situations are dealt with on a case-by-case
basis and questions are asked such as if the person is in a position to deal
with the content or if the content and quality of the photo is so much better
than any photo the news agency has.
- ·
With
all the technology available today, any ordinary person can become a
journalist. It gives the professional journalist more of a chance to get a
photo that is a first-hand account of the newsworthy material. Of course, the
professional journalist has to be careful and make sure he or she has got the
right person to attribute the image to.