The internet is about participation, sharing and collaboration. Consumers love it, the media needs to embrace it, advises Jackie Chowns. Artwork by Greg Bakes.
Central control has been dissolved as individuals make new connections among dispersed media content; and create, appropriate and circulate ideas on the world wide web. As such, the dissemination of information is no longer in the hands of the privileged few.
Where once media was produced and distributed in a one-to-many relationship, whereby dominant industries created and delivered content to its audiences in a costly and strictly regulated manner, the internet, or web 2.0, has forever altered this hierarchy. Now, on the internet at least, mainstream media is just one voice among many voices in a vast and complex network.
Some may think the online world is a load of amateur detritus, and while this is sometimes true, it is worth remembering that before their stories became legends, the creators of Google, YouTube and eBay were ordinary folk sitting at home with a computer. Yet these internet phenomena continue to provide frameworks for us – users – and our input. And let’s not forget Wikipedia, podcasts, Facebook, Flickr, peer-to-peer networks, Amazon userreviews, email and, of course, all those blogs, from academics and dog lovers to politicians and film buffs.
As all forms of media go digital and is distributed globally via the net, and as user-generated content proliferates, mainstream media groups and journalists must come to terms with the fact that users, or readers, now expect to participate and throw ideas into the public arena.
They are doing that anyway, and it’s no surprise, given that the founding blocks of the internet are participation, sharing and collaboration.
But how is mainstream media dealing with the challenge to enable audience participation? It is used to holding a powerful position in society and, up until now, it has been going down a one-way street fast. Dan Gillmor, journalist and author of We The Media (O’Reilly, RRP$32.99) says where once big media treated the news as a lecture, in the future it will be more of a conversation.
Certainly, the mainstream has taken the idea of audience participation on board in varying degrees. For example, The Sydney Morning Herald online tells readers on its main page: “Got a news tip? SMS to …” This often turns up dramatic photos from eyewitnesses who experience extreme weather conditions or events, such as the grounding of the Pasha Bulker in Newcastle, and is a powerful harnessing of audience involvement.
But not so long ago the letters-to-the-editor page was the only avenue for readers to communicate with newspapers. Now, there is a growing collection of staff bloggers on news websites and in these forums readers can post comments.
Pippa Leary, Fairfax Digital’s marketing and product director, said at panel discussion on blogging at the Museum of Sydney last September: “When we opened blogs up in 2005 it was like a tsunami. And what it has revealed is that there has been this pent-up demand to interact with our brands.”
Such pent-up demand has been experienced by Peter Hoystead, who blogs at The Australian under the name Jack the Insider. He says: “I did a blog on The Indian cricket furore and I was amazed. I had no idea it would be picked up in India and I was just bombarded, for the most part, with courteous but disagreeing Indian people. And that was a real eye-opener for me. I got about 1000 comments over three days.”
Hoystead’s experience has shown him that audience feedback has the capacity to inform and educate journalists on certain topics. Often a debate breaks out among respondents which continues for a day or more. “I think this heightens people’s ability to think through issues,” he says. And on certain issues, such as the release of David Hicks, he says such debates have changed his mind.
While some reader debates – or conversations, as Gillmor might say – have the capacity to alter journalists’ perceptions of the world, others are able to utilitse reader feedback as a powerful research tool. The Sydney Morning Herald print journalist Sacha Molitorisz also blogs on smh.com.au. It was his intention when he began the blog to gather reader insights and anecdotes for a book.
“My experience with the blog has been overwhelmingly positive,” he says. “The interactivity it has allowed me has been extremely worthwhile and it’s given me many ideas for other posts, as well as opening up new topics and giving me contacts for future stories. I think on certain subjects it has the ability to change the whole nature of reporting.”
Yet mainstream media often derides such interaction. A Sydney Morning Herald article last year equated the online comments in blogs as anonymous and incoherent scribbling on a toilet wall. With this in mind, the fact that mainstream news websites have created a space for readers’ comments does not necessarily mean it has a true understanding of the participatory nature of web 2.0 and what the term “engagement” really means. Many bloggers on mainstream sites, for example, do not respond or engage in debates with readers themselves.
Hoystead, who admits he does not respond, says: “I think that is a bit of a cop out.”
However, given the time-consuming nature of this kind of two-way engagement, it is understandable. Certainly, the rise of user-generated content on mainstream websites raises many managerial, editorial, legal and resourcebased implications.
Instead of considering these implications, however, public debate seems to focus on the rising panic over the possibility that bloggers or citizen journalists might take over from mainstream journalists. Given that these citizen writers often rely on traditional media as the source of their commentary and analysis it seems unlikely.
Perhaps what underpins this panic is the perception of the altered hierarchical relationship with consumers and the drop in status that has resulted. Now that the general population has access to the tools to comment, create and distribute content across the globe, it is inevitable there is a destabilisation of the dominant authorities. But instead of worrying that citizen bloggers will take over, perhaps all the mainstream media has to do is work out how to better relate to them.
Jackie Chowns is a freelance journalist and has worked at The Australian and was previously a journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald. Greg Bakes is an artist with The Sydney Morning Herald.
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