New.Journalism.Review

The analysis of websites from a cultural and media studies perspective raises numerous methodological hurdles. When conducting audience research using a particular genre of newspaper or magazine there is a centrality to the text(s) being considered. In contrast, researchers of the Internet can often feel overwhelmed by the vastness and global nature of web communication, which is in constant state of flux and development.

The following observations on methodology are based on research conducted on the levels of user-interaction offered by British local newspaper websites.

1. Knowing where to start…

To conduct an analysis, one must first determine a sample of websites.

‘Given the large volume of WWW [World Wide Web] texts and that these texts are intertextually connected to each other, a critical question concerning textual analysis is deciding on what could be considered a starting point.’ (Jones,1999).

The Internet is defined as being a ‘network of networks’ and it is its inter-connected nature which has proved so troublesome for researchers.

2.It can be helpful to view websites as academic journal articles.

We can view websites as being a bit like academic journals. Whilst websites are not ‘peer-reviewed’ as such, they do share a key quality of a journal in so far as status and prominence is achieved through the number of times a website is ‘cited’ online.

The number of links in to a website reflects its trust, prestige, authority and credibility within the Internet community (Park, 2003). Similarly, a key way that exposure on search engines, such as Google, is gained is through the number of times a site is linked to by other popular sites.

In the past news sites were quite ‘insular’ in nature – obtaining status within the web community played second fiddle to the old-fashioned logic that the way to generate revenue was to keep users on a website. So you would find some news sites where the only links out were to the websites of advertisers and commercial sponsors.

Web producers have learned to be more generous with the number of hyperlinks they make. They hope that by doing so this will encourage respected sites to create links back. It should be noted that some large publishers STILL do not understand this (note the recent statements by Rupert Murdoch regarding Google News).

It is legitimate for academics to use hyperlink analysis to determine a sample of sites to study and to assess potential influence in the online community.

The benefits of hyperlink analysis are highlighted by Park (2003): ‘Patterns of hyperlinks designed or modified by individuals or organizations who own websites reflect the communicative choices, agendas, or ends of the owners. Thus, the structural pattern of hyperlinks in their websites serves a particular social or communicative function.’

It’s possible to use commercial software, such as LinkChecker Pro, to conduct analysis of website structures.

3. The accuracy of user data is forever in doubt.

Those seeking accurate newspaper and magazine readership figures may naturally drift towards the website of ABC for accurate data.

Unfortunately, no such universally agreed measurement is in place for web audience figures. To give a crude example, Google Analytics is used to monitor the traffic to this blog. But the data it produces differs to that which rival traffic monitoring systems such as SiteMeter records.

Large news sites tend to use traffic monitoring services from companies such as ABCe, ComScore or Hitwise. Peter Kirwin (Forget about ABCe; let’s have an old-fashioned fight about traffic numbers) highlights the discrepancies between figures from these rival website data monitors and asks for more transparency in their methodologies.

To put an additional spanner in the works, it’s an interesting exercise to compare ‘official’ user figures with those generated by external sites such a Compete.com. It’s almost innevitable that there will be discrepancies in traffic data based on companies various methodologies.

4. The problems of using Google.

Unless a researcher likes the idea of writing their own software, they may be reliant on Google (or other commercial providers) to seek out websites to study or to search within sampled websites.

Using a search engines in academic research presents many challenges. Witten (2007): ‘Their architecture is shrouded in mystery. The algorithms they follow are secret. They are accountable no one.’ No single search engine crawls the entire web and we have no idea what sites / pages are missing.

Synder (1999) suggests that the problems with using search engines in link analysis are market-driven, rather than anything particularly wrong with the technology itself. He urged search engine companies to become as transparent as possible in the way they operate, so that academic researchers can use them fully.

5. A website is never complete.

With most media the creative process has already taken place before an artifact is published. On a news website content changes day-by-day or perhaps hour-by-hour. Postings disappear, the headlines on news stories rewritten and features that once appeared on homepages are moved to other places on a site.

Imfeld (Salwen, 2005) highlights the issue of conducting research ‘in this period of almost constant renovation of websites’. Unlike any other type of media output, a website is forever changing and is never fully complete.

This blog post has outlined some of the the problems of conducting serious web analysis. It’s not the aim to locate or suggest solutions. From personal experience, attempts to examine techniques used to study magazines and newspapers and them simply transplant them into a web context have been far from successful and could be considered naive at best.

Jones, S. (1999). Doing internet research: Critical issues and methods for examining the net. Thousand Oaks, Calif. ; London: Sage Publications.

Salwen, M. B.(2005). Online news and the public. Mahwah, N.J. ; London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Witten, I. H. (2007). In Gori M., Numerico T. (Eds.), Web dragons: Inside the myths of search engine technology. Oxford: Morgan Kaufmann.

The Independent asks whether Google News is killing-off newspaper journalism. (http://ping.fm/9pZzp), as Rupert Murdoch has been arguing.

Murdoch sees three evils preventing him from dominating the entire world (!)  – 1) The BBC (see previous posts) 2) Freebie 'newspapers' and lastly,  Google News. 

The Independent also has concerns about Google – it states in the leader:

"Google and other websites make big money from the audiences they attract for their content, which is Hoovered up from countless news sources all around the world. The creators of that content, meanwhile, earn not a bean from such aggregators – they often do not even give their permission for it to be taken – and are unable to sell it for themselves online because it has already been made freely available."

Google, on the face of it, contribute nothing to supporting quality journalism. It employs no journalists, just a massive database which pinches headlines from newspaper websites and prioritizes them to form a news page. We have no idea what its news biases are. Editorial selections are based on some top-secret algorithm. 

But it's wrong to suggest that Google's influence on journalism is entirely negative. What Google do, rather well, is direct shed loads of traffic to news sites, at least that's the general idea. Problems arise if Google allows its users to read entire stories on its own website rather than encouraging people to click-through. 

Google's dominance of search (dare I say, 'near monopoly') which is the problem here. We live in a world where few people care to use Yahoo!, Bing (or Bling! or Blip! or Blah! – whatever it's called), Ask or AltaVista. 

Newspaper sites can easily remove their content from Google. Or they could simply put it behind a 'pay wall'. But as The Independent newspaper knows from bitter experience, 'pay walls' simply don't work for general news.

So if 'pay walls' have failed and sites need lots of traffic to generate  ad revenue -  what then? Shouldn't they be paying Google to carry news headlines? I think that probably summarises the debate as it stands today. 

In an ideal world, it would be better to see some competition in search aggregation. Perhaps we should all start to use UK-based NewsNow (http://ping.fm/ok1sE) instead.

Until then, newspapers can learn from Google in so far as audiences these days want news content which is tailored to their individual interests. That's why paying £2 for a Sunday newspaper, only to chuck half of its supplements away into the recycle bin, just seems seems a bit of an odd activity in 2009.

In an analysis of how UK websites are embedding participation and collaboration, I found the following academic texts useful.

If you are one of my students, you may well have the pleasure of reading some of these articles. 

Most of the journal articles can be found on Google Scholar or the usual databases. The ones highlighted focus on UK developments……..

22 Journal Articles:

Bardoel, J. (1996). Beyond journalism: A
profession between information society and civil society. European Journal
of Communication, 11(3), 283.

Bennett, W. (2003). Communicating global
activism. Information, Communication & Society, 6(2), 143-168.

Deuze, M. (2003). The web and its
journalisms: Considering the consequences of different types of newsmedia
online. New Media & Society, 5(2), 203.

Deuze, M. (2005). What is journalism?:
Professional identity and ideology of journalists reconsidered. Journalism,
6(4), 442.

Dutton, W. and Helpser, E. (2007). Oxford
internet survey: The internet in Britain. Oxford: OxIS.

Helsper, E.
(2008). Digital inclusion: An analysis of social disadvantage and the
information society. London: Department for Communities and Local
Government,

Hermida, A., & Thurman, N. (2007).
Comments please: How the british news media are struggling with user-generated
content. 8th International Symposium on Online Journalism. Austin:
University of Texas.

Hermida, A., & Thurman, N. (2008). A
Clash of Cultures. Journalism Practice, 2(3), 343-356.

Marchi, R. M. (2005). Reframing the runway: A
case study of the impact of community organizing on news and politics.
Journalism, 6(4), 465.

Lasica, J. D. (2003). Blogs and journalism
need each other. Nieman Reports, 57(3), 70-74.

Lasica, J. D. (2003). What is participatory
journalism. Online Journalism Review, 7, 2003.

Nguyen, A. (2006). Journalism in the wake of
participatory publishing. Australian Journalism Review, 28(1), 143–155.

NUJ Commission on Multi-Media Working.
(2007). Shaping the future. London: NUJ. 

Park, H. W. (2003). Hyperlink network
analysis: A new method for the study of social structure on the web.
Connections, 25(1), 49-61. Petersen, S. M. (2008). Loser generated
content: From participation to exploitation. First Monday, 13(3)

Pavlik, J., Morgan, G., & Henderson, B.
(2000). Information technology: Implications for the future of journalism and
mass communication education. Report of the Subcommittee on Educational
Technology Prepared for AEJMC Taskforce on Journalism and Mass Communication
Educator at the Millennium,

Quiggin, J. (2006). Blogs, wikis and creative
innovation. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(4), 481.

Schultz, T. (2000). Mass media and the
concept of interactivity: An exploratory study of online forums and reader
email. Media, Culture & Society, 22(2), 205.

Singer, J. B. (1997). Still guarding the
gate?: The newspaper journalist's role in an on-line world. Convergence, 3(1),
72.

Singer, J. B. (2003). Who are these guys?:
The online challenge to the notion of journalistic professionalism.
Journalism, 4(2), 139.

Snyder, H., & Rosenbaum, H. (1999). Can
search engines be used as tools for web-link analysis? A critical view.
Journal of Documentation, 55, 375-384.

Thurman, N. (2008). Forums for citizen
journalists? adoption of user generated content initiatives by online news
media. New Media and Society, 10(1), 139.

Wallsten, K. (2005). Political blogs and the
bloggers who blog them: Is the political blogosphere and echo chamber. American
Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting. Washington, DC September, 1-4.

20 Books:

Allan, S.
(2006). Online news: Journalism and the internet. Maidenhead: Open
University Press.

Axford, B.,(2001), New media and politics.
London: SAGE.

Bauer, M. W., & Gaskell, G. (2000), Qualitative
researching with text, image and sound : A practical handbook. London:
SAGE. 

Benkler, Y. (2006). The wealth of networks
: How social production transforms markets and freedom. New Haven, Conn. ;
London: Yale University Press.

Burnett, R. (2003) Web theory : An
introduction. London: Routledge.

Castells, M. (2000). The rise of the
network society Blackwell Pub.

Castells, M. (2001). The internet galaxy :
Reflections on internet, business, and society. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.

Curran J., Morley D. (2006.), Media &
cultural theory. London: Routledge.

Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the
oppressed (New rev. 20th-Anniversary ed.). New York: Continuum.

Friend, C. (2007), Online journalism
ethics : Traditions and transitions. Armonk, N.Y. ; London: M.E. Sharpe.

Gillmor, D. (2004). We the media :
Grassroots journalism by the people, for the people. Beijing ; Farnham:
O'Reilly

Jones, S. (1999). Doing internet research:
Critical issues and methods for examining the net. Thousand Oaks, Calif. ;
London: Sage Publications.

Keeble, R. (2005). Print journalism : A
critical introduction. London: Routledge.

Kline, D. (2005), Blog! : How the newest
media revolution is changing politics, business, and culture. New York: CDS
Books.

Kovach, B. (2003), The elements of
journalism : Bill kovach & tom rosenstiel. London: Atlantic Books.

McLuhan, M. (1964). Understanding media :
The extensions of man. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Rheingold, H,
(1994)
The virtual community: finding connection in a computerized world, Secker &
Warburg, London

Salwen, M. B.(2005). Online news and the
public. Mahwah, N.J. ; London: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody :
The power of organizing without organizations. New York: Penguin Press.

Tapscott, D. (2007). In W (Ed.), Wikinomics
: How mass collaboration changes everything. London: Atlantic Books.

Six LINKS
 

Anon. (2005). Bill gates: Free culture
advocates = commies. Retrieved 18 Aug, 2009, from http://boingboing.net/2005/01/05/bill_gates_free_cult.html

Bowman, S., & Willis, C. (2004). We
media: How audiences are shaping the future of news and information. At Http://www.Hypergene.net/wemedia/, Accessed, 1

Bruns, A. (2007). Habermas and/against the
internet. Retrieved Aug, 2009, from http://snurb.info/node/621

Economist,The (2006), Among The Audience, Retrieved 1 Sept 2009, from
http://www.economist.com/surveys/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=6794156

. Johnson, S. (2009). Are we on track for a
golden age of serious journalism? Retrieved 15 Aug, 2009, from http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/05/areweontrackforagoldenageofseriousjournalism/

Kelly, K. (2009). The new socialism:
Global collectivist society is coming online. Retrieved 15 August, 2009,
from http://www.wired.com/culture/culturereviews/magazine/17-06/nep_newsocialism

I've spent a lot of time looking at  journalism degree course structures. The following information will hopefully prove useful for those choosing a university journalism degree course. It may also prove relevant to any academics looking at revalidation, as it contains some journal articles that I have found personally very useful.

My bias is looking at the  kind of technology we should be teaching, as this is my background.

Teaching the technology

McKean states that modern journalism is collaborative and students need to be open to 'constant change'.

On the technology front, he states:

There is a lot of technology to learn and it obviously needs to be contextualised. As discussed at a recent AJE conference at City University, the 'widget cutter'- to- 'thinking journalist' ratio needs careful consideration.

Journalism as joint-hons only?

I particularly enjoy this quote from Mencher:

This is starting to sound like an argument for only allowing journalism to be taught as a part of a joint-honours degree.

It helps for students to have a subject specialism (i.e. 'context', 'framework', whatever you want to call it!), so why not study politics, economics, science or business etc with journalism? But in UK universities, unlike in the US, journalism is often offered only as single hons.

Mencher continues…

The 'jack of all trades' challenge

McKean states:

McKean seems to be referring to a specialism in a media platform. This needs to be untangled. I’m finding that students should be operating  ‘platform neutral’ these days (and I didn't come to that conclusion lightly.) They must be as equally skilled editing a podcast, as they are in banging out 500 words for the print edition by 4.30pm. But is this deskilling?

There is a different view -  you could focus on  a pathway approach – i.e. students choose their 'mother media' (e.g. magazine production) and become highly specialised in this area. Students will have teaching in a 'secondary media' (such as web or broadcast), but not very much. But the industry surely demands more flexibility than this?

Journalism degrees need a clear USP

Journalism degree courses seem to lean in one of the following directions:

a) Platform specific:
Degrees with names that include a platform (print journalism, broadcast journalism etc) worry me. Let’s not judge ‘books’ solely by their ‘covers’, but are these degrees really converged?

b) Genre specific (news/features/documentary degrees)
These are probably based around writing and technical skills. So prospective students must think about how transferable these skills are to new media platforms. In some cases, the answer is "very".

Pavlik, John, Gary Morgan and Bruce Henderson (2001) ‘Information Technology:Implications for the Future of Journalism and Mass Communication Education’, Journalism and Mass Communication Education: 2001 and Beyond. Columbia state:

c) Subject specific – BA  Sports Journalism,  motoring journalism, fashion journalism, political journalism etc
These probably have the strongest future. Students on these courses can worry that they are too niche. But too niche does not exist! It is about having the expertise in a  specialist subject, but taking a 'platform neutral' approach to output. As someone who teachers on one such degree, it provides the course some much needed focus. Students build up contacts and obtain a deep understanding of  the industry they write about.

These students are just as likely to get PR work in their chosen industry, as they are traditional jobs in journalism. This rejects the old idea  that students are trained as 'subject generalists' and output content exclusively to a 'single media' platform (e.g. newspapers). This came from the idea that entry-level jobs in journalism were mostly based in local newspapers, where a core requirement is often to be able to write about 'anything' on the patch.

D) Mainly theoretical (no practise)
Nothing wrong with these degrees as such, but they are often mis-sold to unwitting students.

In reality, the categories are not mutually exclusive. But there are so many issues to consider and we have not even started on whether journalism is actually a  'profession' or not.

See also A New Journalism Degree is born

A minor-storm erupted last week regarding the launch of the MA in Social Media by Birmingham City University.

Described inaccurately by the  Daily Mail as
a  "Masters degree in Facebook" this was a cue for references to
"Mickey Mouse degrees", "ex-Poly students" and "tax payers money +
drains" etc etc……[Feel free to complete].

My favourite comment on the Daily Mail site was from "Paul", who (apparently) lives in Los Angeles. So incensed by the launch of an MA (not even from a university in his own country), that "Paul"  forgot how to spell…

"Paul from Los Angeles" is clearly an idiot (where are those moderators when you need them?). And whilst the Daily Mail's reporting could easily be dismissed as "lazy journalism", sadly, it reflects a wider misunderstanding of the role of higher education in the mainstream media which dates back to the 70s when universities were attacked for teaching sociology.  

The reality is that  an MA in Social Media is relevant to anyone who communicates with audiences online or needs an understanding of the importance of online communities. So that could include people who work in the: computer games industry, PR, marketing and just about any business with a website. 

I'm no expert, but there has been a lot of interesting academic material on the rise of online communities, crowd-sourcing and the formation of social relationships coming out of the US and Australia in the past year. It is early days, but this is a subject that has a proper academic underpinning.

Whilst the volume of academic material and research is astonishing, one of the most common errors that students tend to make when discussing  the Internet is to assume its impact is the same in all countries. In reality, whilst the Internet is (obviously) global in nature, its impact is not homogeneous. That's to say, for example, a young person in the UK does not always have the same experience of Internet communities as someone in the US, Singapore, Germany or perhaps China. We interpret online actions differently.

Some more comments from Daily Mail contributors…

.

In short, we desperately need a UK (or perhaps European) perspective on things. This is where the academics at Birmingham City University are leading the way.

I teach on a journalism degree course and often have friends in the industry ask me whether there is "enough" to say about journalism to fill a three year course.

The reality is that we're not short of things to teach. We obviously teach the basic writing skills, as we have always done. But there is also more technology to understand, ethics, law and business skills to learn. This is a sector that is changing beyond all recognition and we need to equip our students to understand this.

The same will be true for an MA in Social Media which lasts just one year. There will be a lot of academic theory to assimilate, as well as the practical development of new and, hopefully, groundbreaking online applications.I would be really excited to be a student on such a course.

I do have some criticisms. Birmingham City University says that the course comes from the angle of cultural
studies, but I doubt if this will be enough. Running courses
cross-faculty is always very difficult, but from my experience students want to know how things work from a technical stance. It can be tricky to decide where the cut-off point is, but it would be wise to make links with the computing department  (as
they have done on the excellent MA in Electronic Publishin  at City University in
London, which is run by two faculties). 

But  social media is a) important to the UK economy and b)  something worthy of academic study. So let's drop references to "Yak excremnet" (whatever that is?) and the rather tiresome discussion of "Mickey Mouse degrees" (much loved by tabloid journalists) and lets have a serious debate about the impact of social media.