Paul BradshawSenior Lecturer, Online Journalism, Magazines and New Media, School of Media, Birmingham City University, UK (mediacourses.com)

Blogger, Online Journalism Blog

Blogging journalists: the writing on the wall

Blogs are mainstream

•85% UK news orgs have blogs

•70% US newspapers •44% European news orgs

200journalists

30countries

How has blogging affected…

• Ideas• Story research• News production• Post-publication• Relationship with audience

Ideas

• Disintermediation of editor role• Thinking in multimedia• Broadening of sources of ideas• Herd instinct remains?• Replacement of trade press?

Research

• Two-way process between reporter and reader

• Ongoing• Incomplete• Crowdsourcing• Gather multimedia• More reliance on rumour, and

readers as checkers

Research

“There was a vote in the Senate to oust the chairman of the house. The votes were kept in secret, and he was absolved. Interviewed, much more senators would say they had voted to oust Calheiros than the votes the proposal actually got. So, I proposed that readers contacted the senators to ask them about their reasons."

(Respondent 24, Brazil, freelance)

News production

• Less formal style• Less driven by medium• Emphasis on speed• Brevity• Blogs as space for expansion

News production

"Stories that otherwise would have been footnotes in print can be explored more fully on the blog,"

(Respondent 33, US, newspapers).

Post-publication

• "Much less file-and-forget"

• Update & correct

• Feedback and correspondence

• Relying on commenters to contribute to the editing process

• ‘Always-on’

• New angles and follow ups

Post-publication

"Well, you never finish, do you? You write something that may or may not spark a conversation and you've got to be ready for that conversation even if it happens months later. Besides, I find that more and more of what we do online is writing parts of the picture, not the whole and unvarnished truth.”

(Respondent 147, Norway, freelance)

Audience relationship

• >50% said “enormously” or “completely” changed

• More personal relationship with reader

• More accountable

• Respect for readers

• Lack of respect for readers

• Efficiencies

"I cover more than thirty countries: the reaction of people who live in a place I visit tells me a lot about the issues I am writing about. My blog seems to generate arguments which at least help me understand a story more."

(Respondent 156, Belgium, TV)

Conclusions

• Rapid adoption

• Fast changing landscape – 1/3 have been blogging less than a year

• ‘News repair’ (Robinson, 2006)

• Broadcast and magazines less affected

• Sport less affected; foreign affairs more

• Not resourced

• Relationship with users – or reliance?

Further research

• What people say vs. what they do

• How much change ‘contained’ within blogs?

• Why do certain sectors and industries report being more affected?

• How much spreads to non-bloggers?

• Who are the bloggers?

paul@onlinejournalismblog.com