On November 11, 2010 Mark Tremayne, assistant professor of Journalism at the University of
Texas at Austin, held a presentation about the future of Journalism and digital
media to the Journalism graduated students from DePaul University.
Tremayne,
who spent a decade in Broadcast Journalism, earned his PhD from University of
Wisconsin-Madison with a dissertation focused on web-based news and
interactivity. He is also the editor of the 2007 book Blogging, Citizenship and the Future of Media, which focus on the
role of blogs in the contemporary media landscape.
The
presentation from the DePaul University had three main areas of focus: what has
changed in the media, what is the same and hyperactivity in news gathering.
The new
trend, Tremayne started, is that a lot of newspapers are closing down, but the
number of newspapers’ blogs is rising. In Re-writing
and Editing chapter from The
Responsible Reporter book, writers Bruce Evensen and David Copeland make
the same observation “Today, it is almost impossible to find a television or
radio station, or a newspaper or magazine, that does not have a website.”
If in
the 1970s there were only two or three TV channels, couple of newspapers and
some magazines, today there are hundreds of channels and millions of blogs,
Tremayne continued. A decrease in audience sizes of each channel took place.
This is particularly better for the advertising companies which can be more
focused on a specific characterization of the audience. Also, this means that
people can watch or read what ever interest them the most.
TV
broadcasting is also in decline for some time now, Tremayne added. Nowadays, if
only 10% of the population watches a particular TV show it is considered a
successful show. This means that the media content has changed and the audience
is more specific. If people want to watch videos, they will turn to You Tube,
owned by Google, the number one place for videos on line.
One
thing that is crucially important, Tremayne continued, is that the internet
started a new trend: the direct interaction between the media and its audience.
If, before, the people were considered unworthily of contributing, today the
media can get its stories directly from the audience, who is allowed to post
comments on the stories they read or watch. Some websites even connect the
person’s comments via his Facebook account.
Evensen
and Copeland observed the same trends “As media outlets expand their online
offerings, they (editors) are requesting more interaction with their audience.
They are asking members of the audience to send in photos to be uploaded, and
they are setting up web logs and online chats.”
What
doesn’t change, Tremayne continued, is the surveillance role of the media,
which is to tell people what is going on in the world or in their country.
Another aspect of the media that will not change is the correlation role it has
in interpreting the events of the world to its audience. Entertaining,
mobilization and good writing skills will always be a priority for the mass
media, as well as breaking news coverage, Tremayne said.
When it
comes to hyperlocal reporting, Tremayne is a little skeptical “It’s hard to
break people’s habits,” he said. He gave as example the AOL Patch, which
focuses on very little neighborhoods, covering stories with little coverage in
traditional media.
The texan professor ended his presentation by saying that if the twentieth century
belonged to the ‘be objective’ era, the twenty-first century belongs to the
partisan reporting, saying that “moderate doesn’t succeed anymore.”