Digital Journalism - All You Need To Know: Introduction

Summary

Digital journalism is the creation and distribution of news online in various formats, offering interactivity and multiple formats like podcasts, long-form articles, and videos. It allows audiences to actively participate and share content, impacting breaking news speed but also raising disinformation concerns. Journalists must be accountable for online publications, and the internet serves as a source for stories, with social media updates and audience submissions shaping news coverage.

Takeaways

• 🌐 Digital journalism involves producing and publishing news on the internet in various formats.
• 📈 It offers the best of all mediums, providing flexibility in how stories are presented, from long-form articles to tweets.
• 🎙️ Podcasts and live streams have replaced radio, while photographs and videos have become more versatile, replacing traditional print and TV.
• 🔄 Digital journalism allows for multi-format storytelling, enabling stories to appear in different formats simultaneously.
• 🤝 Interactivity is a key feature, where audiences can participate in the story, not just consume it.
• 🔗 Digital stories can include embedded links, interactive charts, maps, and even 3D virtual experiences.
• 📢 Digital content is highly shareable, impacting the speed of breaking news and the spread of information.
• ⚠️ The shareability of digital journalism has also led to the spread of disinformation and misinformation.
• 💬 Digital journalism encourages audience participation through comments, giving users a sense of ownership over the news.
• 🔍 The internet serves as a primary or secondary source for journalists, providing access to a wealth of research and information.
• 🌟 Digital journalism is dynamic and will continue to evolve as the internet itself evolves.

Q & A

What is digital journalism?

Digital journalism is the act of producing and publishing news on the internet in a variety of formats.

How does digital journalism differ from print, TV, and radio?

Digital journalism offers interactivity, the ability to present stories in multiple formats simultaneously, and the capacity for audiences to become interactive participants.

What are some examples of how digital journalism can present stories in different formats?

Digital journalism can present stories as podcasts, voice notes, live streams, varying lengths of text, photographs, gifs, short video clips, or long videos on platforms like YouTube.

What is the significance of interactivity in digital journalism?

Interactivity allows journalists to present stories in a way that the audience can become a part of what is being presented, transforming them from passive consumers to active participants.

Can you provide an example of interactivity in digital journalism?

An example is embeddable links in stories that allow users to click and go to primary sources or related content.

How does digital journalism's shareability impact news dissemination?

Digital journalism's shareability allows audiences to share content across communities and individuals, making it faster than print or TV for breaking news but also leading to disinformation and misinformation.

What role do comments play in digital journalism?

Comments in digital journalism give users greater ownership of the news, allowing them to comment on stories and make their opinions a part of the narrative.

How does digital journalism use the internet as a source?

The internet serves as a primary or secondary source for journalists, providing access to a vast amount of research and information that defines the story.

Can you give an example of how digital journalism uses social media updates?

CNN used social media updates to keep users informed about the earthquake in Haiti, curating content from audience submissions.

What is the final major quality that defines digital journalism according to the script?

The final major quality that defines digital journalism is its ability to evolve with the internet, being defined in many new ways as the internet continues to change.

How does the role of a digital journalist differ from that of a traditional journalist?

A digital journalist must be adept at producing content in various formats and engaging with an interactive audience, whereas a traditional journalist typically focuses on one medium and a passive audience.

Outlines

00:00

🌐 Digital Journalism: An Overview

Digital journalism is defined as the production and publication of news on the internet in various formats. It combines the best aspects of print, TV, and radio, offering a wide range of choices for storytelling. Podcasts and live streams have replaced radio, while the internet's flexibility allows for stories of any length, from a tweet to a 50,000-word PDF. Photography can also be presented in various sizes and scales. The interactivity of digital journalism allows audiences to engage with the content, making them active participants rather than passive consumers. This interactivity can range from simple embeddable links to complex 3D virtual experiences, as demonstrated by a New York Times project on the spread of the coronavirus in an aircraft cabin.

Keywords

💡Digital Journalism

Digital journalism refers to the practice of producing and publishing news on the internet, utilizing a variety of formats. It is central to the video's theme as it sets the stage for discussing the evolution of journalism in the digital age. The script mentions that digital journalism offers the best of all mediums, allowing for a wide range of formats and interactivity, which is a significant departure from traditional print, TV, and radio journalism.

💡Interactivity

Interactivity in digital journalism is the feature that allows the audience to participate and engage with the news content. It is highlighted in the script as a defining characteristic of digital journalism. The video gives examples such as embeddable links, interactive charts, and 3D virtual experiences, like the New York Times project on coronavirus spread, where users can interact and explore the content in a dynamic way.

💡Multimedia

Multimedia in the context of the video refers to the use of various forms of media content, such as text, audio, images, and video, to tell a story. It is integral to digital journalism as it allows for a richer storytelling experience. The script contrasts this with traditional media, like radio and TV, which are replaced by podcasts, live streams, and video clips, offering journalists the flexibility to present stories in multiple formats simultaneously.

💡Sharability

Sharability is the ability to easily share digital content across different platforms and communities. The script emphasizes that digital journalism's sharability has a significant impact on how news spreads, making it faster than traditional print or TV. It also touches on the downside of this feature, which is the potential for the spread of disinformation and misinformation.

💡Disinformation

Disinformation, as mentioned in the script, refers to false information that is intended to mislead. It is a challenge that arises with the ease of sharing in digital journalism. The video points out that while digital platforms have accelerated the speed of news dissemination, they have also made it easier for false or misleading information to spread, which is a critical issue for journalists and news consumers alike.

💡Misinformation

Misinformation is similar to disinformation but typically refers to information that is false but not intentionally misleading. The script discusses how the speed and ease of sharing in digital journalism can contribute to the spread of misinformation, which can have serious consequences for public understanding and decision-making.

💡Commenting

Commenting in digital journalism allows users to respond to news stories, adding their opinions and becoming part of the narrative. The script explains that this feature gives users greater ownership of the news and increases accountability for journalists, as their work is subject to public scrutiny and feedback.

💡Primary Source

A primary source in journalism refers to direct evidence or an eyewitness account of an event or issue. The script notes that the internet has become a primary source for journalists, providing access to a wealth of information and enabling real-time updates, as exemplified by CNN's use of social media during the Haiti earthquake coverage.

💡Curation

Curation in digital journalism involves selecting, organizing, and presenting content from various sources to create a cohesive narrative. The video script illustrates this concept with the example of CNN asking the audience to submit photos, videos, and information about the Haiti earthquake, effectively curating a story from user-generated content.

💡Accountability

Accountability in the context of digital journalism implies the responsibility of journalists to ensure the accuracy and integrity of their reporting. The script discusses how the interactive nature of digital platforms, where users can comment and share their views, increases the accountability of journalists, as their work is more openly scrutinized and critiqued.

💡Evolution

Evolution in digital journalism refers to the ongoing changes and developments in how news is produced and consumed. The script concludes by stating that as the internet continues to evolve, so will digital journalism, suggesting that new formats and methods of storytelling will continue to emerge.

Highlights

Digital journalism is the act of producing and publishing news on the internet in various formats.

Digital journalism offers the best of all mediums, giving audiences and journalists a ton of choice in terms of how to present a story.

Radio is replaced by podcasts, voice notes, and live streams in digital journalism.

Print journalism can be as long or as short as the internet allows, from a tweet to a 50,000-word PDF.

TV journalism is replaced by gifs, short video clips, or long videos on platforms like YouTube.

Journalists' stories can appear in multiple formats simultaneously in digital journalism.

Interactivity is the greatest defining characteristic of digital journalism, allowing the audience to become part of the story.

Digital journalism enables stories to have interactivity, such as embeddable links, interactive charts, and 3D virtual experiences.

Digital content is completely sharable, impacting breaking news and leading to faster dissemination than print or TV.

The shareability of digital journalism has led to the problem of disinformation and misinformation.

Users can comment on digital journalism, giving them greater ownership of the news and making their opinions matter.

Digital journalism holds journalists accountable for their online publications.

The internet serves as a primary or secondary source for journalists, providing access to vast amounts of research.

Digital journalism can be entirely curated from the audience by raising a call to action for information sharing.

CNN uses social media updates to keep users informed about events like the earthquake in Haiti.

Digital journalism is defined by the nature of the internet and will continue to evolve as the internet does.

Transcripts

[Music]

what is digital journalism how is it

different from Print TV and radio and

can it help journalism

[Music]

Thrive hi my name is John HCK and I'm

the chief digital strategist and editor

at dawn.com I've been a digital

journalist for 10 years so let's see

what I actually do at its most basic

digital journalism is the act of

producing and Publishing news on the

internet in a wide variet of formats in

some ways digital journalism offers the

best of all the mediums giving the

audience and journalists a ton of choice

in terms of how to present a story radio

is replaced by podcasts voice notes live

streams print can be as long or as short

as the internet allows which means you

could do an entire PDF of 50,000 words

or a tweet which is just a few

characters similarly photographs can be

very very small or infinitely large in

scale and completely zoomable similarly

TV is now replaced by gifs it's replaced

by short short video clips or it can be

long videos which can go on uh platforms

like YouTube so for a journalist this

means their story can appear in multiple

formats at the very same time this is

great for a multi-dimensional

multitasking journalist or a huge huge

challenge for journalists who are stuck

in one medium and the mindset of a

single medium keep in mind the

differences don't just end here the

greatest defining characteristic of

digital journalism perhaps is

interactivity this is where journalists

can present their stories in a way where

the audience itself can become a part of

what is being presented you see each

user is no longer a passive consumer of

news in fact they can be an interactive

participant so for example a story can

have the simplest of interactivity in

the form of embeddable links where you

could click and go to a primary source

or other item related to the content and

if you continue to look at it stories

can get as complex as you like in the

digital space this can include

interactive charts it can include Maps

which you can zoom into and interact

with and at its highest level you can

have full 3D virtual experiences which

an audience can jump right into take a

look at this New York Times project

which looks at the Corona virus and how

it spreads inside the cockpit of an

aircraft The Experience itself lets you

go straight in and assume the position

of the actual passenger so you can see

how the disease spreads across the cabin

secondly digital content is completely

sharable what this means is that

audiences can take what they like or

dislike and share it across the

communities and individuals that they

are constantly in touch with this has

had a major impact on breaking news

where digital journalism is now far

faster than print or TV however at the

same time it has led to the problem of

disinformation and misinformation

finally digital journalism can be

commented on both on the platforms of

the Publishers as well as across the

entire internet and social media what

this has done is given users far greater

ownership of the news itself they can

comment on it and their opinion matters

because it becomes a part of the story

itself however at the same time what

this means is there is greater

accountability for journalists who

publish online this leads us to the

final major quality which defines

digital journalism which is sources the

internet is no longer just a place for

publishing it can actually be your

primary source or your secondary source

or give you access to a vast amount of

research which defines your story itself

take a look at this example of CNN

covering the earthquake in Haiti if you

take a look every little while they are

using social media updates to keep users

AB breast with what's happening on

ground at its best a story can be

entirely curated from the audience

Itself by raising a call to action

asking them to share information around

a particular topic or event from the

earlier example we can see how CNN calls

upon its audience to submit photos

videos and information about the

earthquake directly to them to conclude

digital journalism is defined by the

very nature of the internet itself and

unlike some of the other mediums as the

internet continues to evolve we can

expect digital journalism to be defined

in many new ways as well

[Music]