Democratizing Journalism Through Mobile Media

Fuelled by a distrust of big media and the development of mobile technologies, the resulting convergence of journalism praxis (professional to alternative), workflows (analogue to multipoint digital) and platforms (PC to mobile), result in a 24-hour always-on content cycle. The information revolution is a paradigm shift in the way we develop and consume information, in particular the type we call news. While many see this cultural shift as ruinous, Burum sees it as an opportunity to utilize the converging information flow to create a galvanizing and common digital language across spheres of communication: community, education and mainstream media. Embracing the digital literacies researched in this book will create an information bridge with which to traverse journalism’s commercial precarity, the marginalization of some communities, and the journalism school curricula.

Media has become the glue that holds society together. It is a form of communication, identity, power, and control. Through media narratives, we are encouraged or even coerced into living our lives in a certain way. Some people have started to reject media, portraying it as an unpleasant aspect of society that is, inherently biased towards a certain elite. This book attempts to unpack the history, current state, and future of certain specific forms of media. It specifically tackles social and mobile media as popular manifestations of the importance of media in our lives today. The book will also inevitably speculate and hypothesize about the future of media as it becomes more accessible, democratized, fragmented, and complex. The basic understanding of media is its manifestation as a transmission technology. In reality, this understanding does not fully explain the complex dimensions of media today. For example, we know that media can be a powerful political tool through the spread of propaganda. We also know that media has become a way of life, with some people choosing to carve out an alternative universe on the World Wide Web (WWW). The Internet was an important game changer in as far as it opened up the world to all sorts of potential consumers of media. As our recent history has shown, it is the Internet that is challenging the traditional forms of media. Many traditional publishing houses find that users are mainly interested in online content. The old-fashioned broadsheet newspaper is in danger of becoming obsolete. Indeed, many of these traditional outlets have decided to join the drive towards digitization in the hope that they can improve their fortunes in the process. Some have been more successful than others in terms of winning more customers and maintaining some sort of loyalty with those users that can get all the news that they want at a click of a button. Media technologies are also not always benevolent. The malevolent manifestations of modern media include cyberbullying and revenge porn. All those are social evils that are being created or even exaggerated by the presence of modern media. The profession of journalism has not gone unscathed by the changes in media. Anybody can setup a very successful website or even masquerade as a citizen journalist. That does not mean that everyone engages in this kind of activity is performing an illegal activity. There is a place for citizen journalism, not least because it helps to counter some of the excesses of the traditional media which was never accountable to its audiences. The commercialization of modern media is another theme that has preoccupied analysts and academics. Media is now a legitimate and lucrative way to make money. The internet has changed many, otherwise, closed avenues for access clients and even capital. The advent of cryptocurrencies would not have been possible without the power of media coming into play. Ultimately, this book seeks to demonstrate that medians a reflection of our lives, personalities, and multiple identities today. The book also poses a tantalizing question of how we can make media the safe and productive tool that it is often portrayed as but ends up falling short because of the way it is used and perceived. This book will help students of journalism and culture studies to navigate the dynamics of modern media today. The book has been written in an accessible format to emphasize the informality of modern media, as opposed to the traditional approach to journalism. Book jacket.

This book reviews recent studies into smartphones and the news, and argues that the greatest impact on news of the smartphone as a dominant technological artefact is to shift it away from an authoritative, fixed ‘first draft of history’ to become a fluid, flexible stream of information from which each individual constructs their own meaning. The news has taken on a new life, fragmented by five billion smartphones, disrupting not just an industry but also the significance of the news in societies worldwide. This book considers how the smartphone has changed the production of journalism through contributions from the general public, the dominance of visual over textual media, the shift towards brevity, the challenges of verification, and the possibilities offered by the multi-skilled mobile journalist, or MoJo. The book looks at the manner in which news is promoted and distributed via smartphones, specifically its place on social media. Finally, it considers how news-on-smartphones fits into consumers’ lives, and how their use of the smartphone to access news is impacting back on its production. This is an insightful research text for journalism students and scholars with an interest in digital journalism, new media, and the intersection between technology and communication.

Democratizing Global Media explores the complex relationship between globalizing media and the spread of democracy around the world. An international, interdisciplinary group of journalists and scholars discusses key_and often contentious_issues such as the power of media, the benefits of media globalization, and the political role of media. More than a critique, Democratizing Global Media offers positive alternatives, from peace journalism to popular movements toward democratizing media and public communication.

Media publishers produce news for a full range of smart devices – including smartphones, tablets and watches. Combining theory and practice, Mobile-First Journalism examines how audiences view, share and engage with journalism on internet-connected devices and through social media platforms. The book examines the interlinked relationship between mobile technology, social media and apps, covering the entire news production process – from generating ideas for visual multimedia news content, to skills in verification and newsgathering, and outputting interactive content on websites, apps and social media platforms. These skills are underpinned with a consideration of ethical and legal concerns involving fake news, online trolling and the economics of mobile journalism. Topics include: understanding how mobile devices, social media platforms and apps are interlinked; making journalistic content more engaging and interactive; advice on how successful news publishers have developed mobile and social media strategies; adopting an approach that is entrepreneurial and user-centered; expert interviews with journalists, academics and software developers; learning key skills to launch and develop news websites, apps and social media outputs. Mobile-First Journalism is essential reading for journalism students and media professionals and of interest to those studying on courses in social and new media.

The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism brings together scholars committed to the conceptual and methodological development of news and journalism studies from around the world. Across 50 chapters, organized thematically over seven sections, contributions examine a range of pressing challenges for news reporting – including digital convergence, mobile platforms, web analytics and datafication, social media polarization, and the use of drones. Journalism’s mediation of social issues is also explored, such as those pertaining to human rights, civic engagement, gender inequalities, the environmental crisis, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Each section raises important questions for academic research, generating fresh insights into journalistic forms, practices, and epistemologies. The Companion furthers our understanding of why we have ended up with the kind of news reporting we have today – its remarkable strengths, the difficulties it faces, and how we might improve upon it for tomorrow. Completely revised and updated for its second edition, this volume is ideal for advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers, and academics in the fields of news, media, and journalism studies.

Emerging Practices in the Age of Automated Digital Journalism provides detailed insight into the current state of journalism and its future challenges. The book brings together a global team of authors to review and analyse emerging practices in the automated digital scenario through which journalism is being reshaped, such as novel languages, storytelling forms, and business models. Providing a much-needed review of the field to apprehend the knowledge and experience acquired, the collection also offers an up-to-date overview of digital journalism today, outlining those trends pointing to the future of journalism practice and media in the online sphere. Through a multidisciplinary and international approach, chapters delve into the main technological changes that digital journalism has recently faced, closely related to digital native media, novel storytelling forms, social media, innovation, television broadcasting, new media management structures and procedures, content automation, fact-checking, web analytics, and social audiences. Offering new insights into this fast-developing area, this volume will be an engaging and vital resource for media professionals and researchers in journalism and communication studies, as well as those interested in contemporary journalism practice and communication technology.