Issues And Trends In Communication Industry

Changing Trends in News Industry

Discuss About The Issues And Trends In Communication Industry?

The advent of the Internet has disrupted the old business model for newspapers. Digitalisation, convergence and audience fragmentation, fuelled by the World Wide Web, have changed the media ecosystem and challenged established journalistic practices. As a result, traditional newspapers are experimenting with ways to keep journalism alive despite the digital evolution.

Conduct research* on ONE (1) English-language online newspaper from Singapore or overseas to determine how successfully it has reinvented itself to meet the challenge posed by the digital revolution. In your research project, you must:

Analyse the changing trends in the news industry, and evaluate the opportunities for and challenges faced by the news industry. (20 marks

Propose a research question and select an appropriate research method to determine how successfully the online newspaper had reinvented itself to meet the challenge posed by the digital evolution. Appraise the suitability of the research method used and examine the research findings. (40 marks)

Use the market model or the public sphere model, or both, to evaluate the way the online newspaper in (b) serves its audience. Prepare an action plan to recommend changes the online newspaper should make in order to reach its audience more effectively in the digital age. (40 marks)

Communication Industry is a booming industry. People these days, with the advent of internet and smartphones, mostly go through online news reporting. Journalism has evolved and printing machines have become better and bigger. With the evolving technology, digital news also continues to evolve. Some of the technologies being virtual reality, automated reporting to social media experiments etc. which have only helped widen the coverage of news. About 4/10 US citizens refer to online news only (Cho, Keum & Shah, 2015). An interesting and important trend in the world of online newspapers.

Smart phones are becoming the preferred device instead of television sets. From 54% in 2013 the mobile news readers’ base had gone up to 72% in 2017. When talking about content, long form contents which are 1000 words or more attract more engaged time than short form news items. The number of readers is about the same though. Social media platforms with their uniqueness have also become a channel to read news about happenings around the globe. Pews Research has shown that that about 2/3^rds of Facebook users read their news on Facebook which is about 44% in the US alone (Anderson, 2013). Online journalism has also evolved in the sense that people read their news while doing other activities online but do not leave the chance to dig deep and seek the news out. While some users may be divided on accepting the news on social media as genuine, it still is accountable for 4% of web users who trust the news a lot and about 34% say they trust it to some extent (Paulussen & Harder, 2014).

Research and Analysis

Earlier on, media houses ‘produced’ the news and controlled its distribution channels. Nowadays platform organizations, Governments are exactly in between the readers and the reporters (Fico et al., 2013). Editors can’t control their own work which circulates on various platforms. Journalists have pressure to be at the right spot at right time-be where the people are and yet what is happening to their readers is unknown to them.

News reporting has evolved a lot over years. In the beginning, when people felt the need to share relevant information, they used to rely on pigeons, owls, messengers, royal drum beaters etc. With the inception of newspapers, news reporting took the form of story telling combined with critical views and inputs substantiated with proof of data. The tabloid form of news reporting followed the inverted pyramid style with priority top position provided to important news and not so important ones towards the bottom. This usually got chopped off in editing stage on basis of availability of space. Then, there is hourglass style. It enjoys the benefits of both narrative and inverted pyramid style of reporting (Craig, 2013). There is intense competition among different media conglomerates these days, the race to present the news first to an audience often even compels them to present news in a lucid manner but without manufactured views. Another reporting style – David Murphy’s Level-1, Level-2, and Level-3 is well practiced these days.

The research shall analyze content from 2 well-known media houses—CNN International and Al-Jazeera website. The content considered for analysis is from both the websites covering Middle-East conflicts. The news article covered was recapturing Raqqa from ISIS. Below is the analysis:

	Al-Jazeera	CNN
Linguistic aspect: Headline Lead Body Words accompanying visuals (if any)	Headline looked to the point and was self-explanatory. The headline gave an impression that Al Jazeera was concentrating on current turmoil. The news articles were as per quote by a rights group – Amnesty International. There was no mention of leads for the story except the source at the very end of the article. The news article seemed detailed and to the point. It talked about instances at various locations which were making things difficult for Syrian army to evacuate survivors The website supplied readers with a proper map showing current ISIS strongholds which make it easier to understand the position in less time. Thereafter there were 3 other pictures showing the plight of people from Raqqa. A video had been also posted on the same page for the viewers to see and decide for themselves. The word count was about 1000 words. (Gerhards & Schafer, 2014.)	The Headline was easy to understand. It gave out a feeling that CNN was focusing on ordeals of survivors in Raqqa since the time offensive had begun. The news article was as per quote by Amnesty International. There was mention of their two reporters who had written the report The news article was not properly detailed on current processes being carried out for proper evacuation. There were many quotes and sources from where they had taken information. Overall the article looked a half attempt CNN article had a video that started playing by itself. It showed their two correspondents accompanying soldiers to outskirts of Raqqa with background gunshot audible. There was another video of one of the survivors and her plight with a child in tow. It was informative but did not do much justice to the cause of the article. The word count was less than 300 words. (Hellmueller & Li, 2015)
Structure of news story	The structure of the story was that on an inverted pyramid.	The structure of the story was inverted pyramid.
Visuals (if any)	Yes, ample pictures and videos to support the story.
Location of news story	Location is Raqqa city of Syria	Raqqa city of Syria.
News story broadcasted on a TV channel, i.e. Al-Jazeera English and CNN.	Yes.	Yes.

For the purpose of the research, the question considered is — what design is the best design for an online newspaper to gain maximum viewership?

When we talk of online newspapers, it is important to note that a proper online newspaper got published only in 1994 post which there was an explosion of the same. Though earlier, publishers used to dilly and dally electronic dissemination of graphics and related texts, in 1994, Palo Alto Weekly was published. An important process of online newspapers is the constant struggle of publishers/editors on what best web technology to use to establish their online newspaper as popular as printed ones. To report the apparent requirement of information, genre theory has been used in the research (McGrath, 2015). Specifically, to develop empirical design base recommendation for an online newspaper. Genres keep on changing with time. They could be characterized by content, positioning, form etc. The genre rules for online newspapers are decided by publisher and audience unanimously reflected by consumption patterns. Genre awareness is actually a notion of how publishers and audience together reduce web complexity (Kopytowska, 2015). If a new site with the similar intention of that of an existing one is brought into existence, usually the characteristics are kept same and presentation is more or less suited. It is of extreme importance that users’ expectations are met.

Evaluation of Online Newspapers

Earlier researches conducted on newspaper designs to be published online relied heavily on experimental designs and mostly on surveys. Research on design mostly entails information location, features of content, interactive functions etc. To gain a comprehensive understanding of the same, a qualitative research was conducted. To get data, web page analysis, based on content, form, positioning, and functionality was done. This was also to study design change genres. The study brought out various genre rules evolved post analysis of the purpose of the design of the publisher, audience recognition and value add using interview techniques as well as usability tests.

To get a proper understanding of online newspaper designs, a qualitative study was done. Interviews were conducted with the editor in chiefs of nine Swedish newspapers, management and designers as well. About 153 users were also tested as part of the usability test. This was so that important information such as genre rules based on design purpose set by publishers and recognition as well as the use of audiences (Lewis, Holton & Coddington, 2014). The research also covered front pages of nine Swedish online papers from 2015-2016. First from 2015 and then again in 2016. This gave an indication towards info such as genre characteristics and design changes in the genre. The first analysis was more to collect ideas and interpret respondent statements and the later one in 2016, to check on the features which sold most and gained further importance. Typically, the three reasons to approach the publishers, customers and online newspapers(Swedish) was primarily to gain knowledge on the design and usability of online newspaper publications. a. Swedish population is the 4^th largest newspaper reading nation in the world and have 4^th largest newspaper consumption in the world. b. Sweden has almost all its publications’ online versions and c. research showed that it was the fourth popular activity online which people did. Analysis started with web page analysis of the first page of all 9 online newspapers after gaining agreement from publishers of 9 Swedish newspapers. This provided access to even the customers. This helped a lot in preparing a sample of 153 users across Sweden. Post analysis of the first page, interviews were conducted with publishers. This was more to understand the logic they used in designing the page. Semi-formal structured interviews conducted with some management members, editor in chiefs and page designers was also conducted. These types of the audience were selected as there was the need to collect data which only they could shed light on mostly on designing and creating a design page. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed as well (von Krogh & Andersson, 2016). This showed an immense trend. To conduct the usability test, newspapers were asked to float the survey on their URL itself which the audience had the option to fill and submit. Selection of answers was categorized into age, education, gender and internet usage. The sample size ultimately came down to 153. The interviews/usability test centered around customers’ interaction with the online newspaper, their level of interaction.

Recommendations for Better Audience Reach

The sessions usually started with a standard usability test adopting the think-aloud technique for approximately 15 minutes where the audience would analyze their own interaction level with the online paper. The interview followed a structured guide to get the answers for same questions from all respondents across Sweden. Sections from interview guide were created to match the collection of elements from the page itself. Respondents were in front of their own computers. This was so that they could ‘show’ how they did certain tasks on the website and so that they could relate to the activity itself. Almost 53 interview questions which had been grouped into 5 different categories were used; (1) Steering and construction, (2) Reading favorites, (3) Layout, (4) Trademark and dependability and (5) Others. For the sake of research data collected was from 1^st 3 categories only and every interview lasted for about 40 minutes. The analysis was replicated with what was done above for publishers. The results were:

Content Elements – There were a lot of navigation errors which customers put up like for navigating they needed to go back to home page and click on other articles always (Karlsson, Clerwall & Ornebring, 2015). This was rectified, navigation was made clearer and user-friendly (Vu, 2014). Categories of news items are rather much detailed now to cater to specific choices of varied interests of customers instead of generalizing it under concise categories. More and better visual aids in form of pictures and even videos are provided.

Design purpose – Earlier, the purpose of the design was mostly to replicate the printed editions. Respondents said that there were never more than two clicks on a page. This was why they had to go back to the main page to browse. This changed in later editions where customers had options to go to other materials using drop down options.

Audience usability review – Most of the news websites were not user-friendly. Some which excelled had a good layout and customers responded that they had a good overview reading captions under different categories however for other pages it was unclear. There was a search and navigation bar right at the bottom of the page which made things difficult for them.

1. c) When analyzing using the market model to see how the newspapers’ online edition is serving the customers, it is seen that:
2. these are private companies each presenting a product (Franklin, 2014)
3. All audiences are consumers
4. Present news that is popular
5. Success is measured through popularity which helps milk profit (Ferrucci, 2015)
6. all newspapers which are online are ultimately products, bundled with advertisements or items of interest
7. All online newspaper agencies are answerable to stakeholders/owners (Waisbord, 2013)

Recommendations which could be provided regarding the design are mostly around the same features which were taken for study, in terms of functionality/purpose, form, and layout. Certain recommendations which could be easily implemented so that the e-papers reached their audiences with better efficiency are:

1. To use the front-page length to provide a layout of the website itself – as most audiences pointed out that they returned to the home page to restart navigating to other articles. Many users usually relied on their experience of going through the printed paper while going through the front page of the online paper. Publishers do keep it longer as scrolling down gives an impression of the experience of going through an actual paper. That is also the reason why publishers also relied on the categories from printed editions when zeroing in on design-another relevance for opting for ‘broadsheet’ allegory for selecting layouts
2. A broadsheet metaphor to be used – In terms of categories and divisions, the online e-paper resembled the printed versions. Even the readers loved referring to the online version of the newspaper. On an average, the general opinion is always that the online version is different than the printed version. Producers are almost always in a fix when presenting new services, unlike audiences who have no issues. It is hereby recommended to opt for broadsheet metaphor for layouts for the sake of familiarity
3. Providing alternate options to navigate on site – Since both, the publishers are audiences suffered due to this same reason, additional efforts need to be made to improve navigation on site. Good content is also characterized by proper navigation, the length of the front page needs to be utilized
4. Ads could be made a part of the navigation banners itself – To gain maximum effect advertisements are always either on top or right of the page. The navigation banner serves the purpose of navigation and nothing else.
5. Recent news should be positioned on top – recent news if placed on top shall provide audiences with an update and it would be also easier to pick for reading (Sjovaag, 2016)
6. Providing time stamps for recent new articles – by providing time stamps, again it would indicate that the news is recent and customers would be drawn to it
7. A single search facility for finding archived and current articles – Some people are not even aware of such a button but there are few audience members who use the search facility and the remaining find it problematic. Confusion around this was this that certain newspapers did not place the current articles under archive till the next day. The search mostly yielded no results in case the new belonged to the same day. If mostly, newspapers followed the policy of keeping even current articles under archive then a lot of confusion could be avoided. Also, it must be placed in a position where it could be seen easily

Post adoption of a genre perspective on the design aspect of online newspapers, a set of design recommendations could be arrived at. This sort of perspective on design exposed the consumers’ outlooks of the genre.  It also facilitated the designers of online newspapers to work upon the awareness of genre by refining its characteristics.  The outcomes should be essentially viewed as a phase in the development of the online newspapers stages to becoming popular and familiar to customers.

As part of the research, the usability test and the interviews that were conducted revealed a lot about the features of the sites which were being used but meant for a separate purpose. Example – the headers, navigation items etc. The research helped reveal the features which were problematic as per audience and exactly the problem with it. Example – search bar, also the fact that the search bar did not yield current news under archive.

The rules of the genre hence were revealed were mostly drawn from expressions and/or engagements illuminating how publishers and audience, each relied on the same feature to fulfill their own purposes (Andersson & Wadbring, 2015). For e.g. to give and get a familiar frame of reference. The analysis also revealed how the features were different from their previous versions. Since each of the sites differed in features, the research helped shed light on what audiences thought. This was analyzed considering their responses (Nilsson & Wadbring, 2015). The process turned out to be beneficial. For case, the research revealed that the audiences of the online newspapers could easily differentiate the value of a particular news item by simply observing the headings, puffs etc. They also noticed that on a single page itself, there seemed to be many items of same ranked value. The 2015 analysis indicated towards the features which were crucial and later on, the same features had gained a lot of dominance, for example – positioning of recent news articles on top owing to factors such as, e.g. news appraisal. Research conducted later indicated that the position importance was directly proportional to the length of the front page.

To rethink about taking a genre viewpoint of the design so as to, drive recommendations on design, succeed at making more of a universal guideline when designing sections of genres of online newspapers. Several studies have pointed out that user-friendly and language of users themselves should be used. Some of the recommendations provided above such as navigation pointers, broadsheet metaphor etc. to be used are the same concept.  The limitation is that the recommendations only apply to the genre of online newspapers, hence; they have a narrow applicability. For further efficacy, more research could be conducted which could elaborate on proposed design commendations. This could be genre specific in collective collaboration with audiences and publishers. Such a study would also explicate the development story which could be genre based. Keeping the genre based perspectives stable, further designs could be developed over time so as to, present the articles in the best possible presentation format for audience consumption.

References

Anderson, C. W. (2013). Rebuilding the news: Metropolitan journalism in the digital age. Temple University.

Waisbord, S. (2013). Reinventing professionalism: Journalism and news in global perspective. John Wiley & Sons.

Journals

Craig, R. (2013). News writing and reporting: The complete guide for today’s journalist. Oxford University Press.

Cho, J., Keum, H., & Shah, D. V. (2015). News consumers, opinion leaders, and citizen consumers: Moderators of the consumption–participation link. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(1), 161-178.

Gerhards, J., & Schäfer, M. S. (2014). International terrorism, domestic coverage? How terrorist attacks are presented in the news of CNN, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and ARD. International Communication Gazette, 76(1), 3-26.

Hellmueller, L., & Li, Y. (2015). Contest over content: A longitudinal study of the CNN iReport effect on the journalistic field. Journalism Practice, 9(5), 617-633.

Fico, F., Lacy, S., Wildman, S. S., Baldwin, T., Bergan, D., & Zube, P. (2013). Citizen journalism sites as information substitutes and complements for United States newspaper coverage of local governments. Digital Journalism, 1(1), 152-168

Paulussen, S., & Harder, R. A. (2014). Social media references in newspapers: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as sources in newspaper journalism. Journalism Practice, 8(5), 542-551.

Lewis, S. C., Holton, A. E., & Coddington, M. (2014). Reciprocal journalism: A concept of mutual exchange between journalists and audiences. Journalism Practice, 8(2), 229-241.

Kopytowska, M. (2015). Covering conflict: between universality and cultural specificity in news discourse, genre and journalistic style. International Review of Pragmatics, 7(2), 308-339.

Franklin, B. (2014). The Future of Journalism: In an age of digital media and economic uncertainty.

Andersson, U., & Wadbring, I. (2015). Public interest or self-interest? How journalism attracts future journalists. Journal of Media Practice, 16(2), 126-138.

Ferrucci, P. (2015). Public journalism no more: The digitally native news nonprofit and public service journalism. Journalism, 16(7), 904-919.

Vu, H. T. (2014). The online audience as gatekeeper: The influence of reader metrics on news editorial selection. Journalism, 15(8), 1094-1110.

von Krogh, T., & Andersson, U. (2016). Reading Patterns in Print and Online Newspapers: The case of the Swedish local morning paper VLT and online news site vlt. se. Digital Journalism, 4(8), 1058-1072.

Karlsson, M., Clerwall, C., & Örnebring, H. (2015). Hyperlinking practices in Swedish online news 2007–2013: the rise, fall, and stagnation of hyperlinking as a journalistic tool. Information, Communication & Society, 18(7), 847-863.

Sjøvaag, H. (2016). Introducing the Paywall: A case study of content changes in three online newspapers. Journalism Practice, 10(3), 304-322.

Nilsson, M., & Wadbring, I. (2015). Not Good Enough. Journalism Practice, 1-18.