Connecting with audiences

My PSB Online: investigating patterns of news personalization and customization in Britain and Denmark.

Benedetta Brevini came to JIC last Tuesday to introduce an interesting comparison between the English and Danish model of Online News websites.

“People are more and more able to personnalise their news consumption according to their interests and preferences,” she declared.

Many news websites have introduced a system of “news recommendation” and widgets produced according to target groups so that “the users can not only get faster to the news they are interested in but also aren’t shown the news they don’t care about”.

Mit DR is the new website for Denmark’s Public Service Broadcasting. The original idea was to make Mit DR an interactive platform where people could personalize their news page.

The BBC news website, as for it, does not provide full personalization of their news page and quoting Sophie Walpole, senior staff from the BBC Online team, Benedetta Brevini added: “This certainly does not work for us. I think we will never provide a full personalization of our content. It is very important to make sure that all the content we produce is fully available to people.”

Being able to personalize your news page is a really interesting option and proves how technologies can help journalism evolving, yet it raises concerns. “The adoption of news recommendations could undermine the PSB original role, Brevini argued, and I am not sure that putting the audience “under surveillance” is a good thing.

Journalism’s crisis, journalism’s opportunity. A comparative appraisal of the state of the news business in the United States and the Middle East.

Philip Seib, from the University of South California, then delivered a speech on the crisis journalism is facing today in different countries.

Seib blamed the Western news media for not adapting to new technology faster: “Many people say that journalism is in crisis, but it really depends on where you are. In the West, we witnessed media organizations failures to keep pace with the development of new technologies. In the developing countries, they learned a lot from it.”

He then focused on the news business in the United States explaining how much it changed in the past few years. “Before it was a one way communication, then CNN introduced all-day long news bulletins.

“The newest technologies changes this relationship much more. You are not just glancing at some paper or television, you participate. If you see something that you think is newsworthy, you ‘tweet’, take pictures and share.”

Most of Seib’s students never read newspapers for news, they go online: “The rising generation will mark an even more pronounced shift to technologies.”

New technology was thought to supplement the original model and not replace it, “that is not the case for the US,” Seib argued. “It amaze me how some news organizations are slow to keep up on these new technologies.”

“There is no reason to pay $50 every month to get your favorite paper on your doorstep every morning when you can get it for free online. And the public is getting used to get things for free.”

Philip Seib believes that news organization should gather and come up with an economic model to handle this problem. They need to agree on what the viewers should pay for and what they can give for free. “Otherwise people will all go on the Washington Post’s website which is totally free instead of paying a premium fee on other websites.”

“Journalism is facing a number of issues. When you add the economic crisis on top of that, you get a real storm. Many news organizations will suffer from this.”

Seib then tackled the topic of citizen journalism, arguing that “anyone can be a journalist today” and reach millions of readers. “It is free press in its true essence.”

The academic from South California then referred to the CNN effect by introducing the “Al Jazeira effect”. Al Jazeira is a famous arabic news channel. “Its recent coverage of the Gaza war had a big political impact,” Seib revealed. “It was condemning governments of countries such as Egypt for not coming to help.”

“When a crisis breaks out, everybody is watching Al Jazeira,” he said. This proves how much political power news television channels can have.

Sunday Times writer on campus

Award-winning Sunday Times feature writer Ariel Leve came to speak to journalism students at the University of Westminster about her successful career.

The university invites a variety of guest speakers to the Harrow campus to talk to the students about their experiences in journalism and the state of the industry.

Ariel Leve has been writing features for The Sunday Times Magazine since 2003 and is based in London and New York. In 2008 she won the Feature Writer of the Year award for the Magazine Design and Journalism Awards.

Cassandra column

Originally from New York, Leve broke into writing for the British press with The Guardian and The Sunday Times.

She now writes the weekly witty column ‘Cassandra’ which she humorously considers to be “a relentless grind” as it can be a struggle to maintain a fresh and funny angle every week.

Preferring feature writing to news writing, Ariel Leve said: “I’m not a particularly good reporter – I prefer features as I’m a slow writer.”

The writer is also somewhat anti news and feature websites. She says that sites are not fact-checked in the same meticulous way as newspapers and is opposed to using Wikipedia for research.

“I won’t take facts and figures from the web because you don’t know if these are correct or not,” she said.

However, she did encourage us to apply for website production journalism as print journalism is slowly diminishing. She said many of her friends who are in the print industry have now been made redundant.

Ariel Leve’s tips

1.) Always keep to deadlines. Respecting your editor’s deadline is as important as writing the piece itself.

2.) Your voice is unique and important. Believe in what you have to say and have confidence in yourself.

3.) To be a journalist you have to have an inquisitive mind and be interested in people.

4.) Tenacity is important in journalism. Do not take editor’s rejections personally, let go and move on.

5.) When writing a feature stay detached and do not become emotionally involved with your subject.

6.) Journalism is not necessarily about contacts. None of Ariel’s contacts helped her reach where she is today.

Guest speakers

Senior lecturer Dr. Richard Wright is responsible for finding guests and says that so far it has been very beneficial for students.

“It’s both a networking thing and an insight into areas of journalism that you are thinking of going into. It is a great opportunity to get close to key people in journalism.”

Dr. Wright tries to make sure that there is a balance of journalists from different media platforms and last term we saw a variety of guest speakers from TV, radio, online and print.

After the lectures the guest speakers usually stay for tea or coffee in the garden room at the university. This gives the journalism students a chance to mingle and make contacts, a key ingredient in finding a job or work experience in the industry.

Broadcast Journalism Masters student Rachel Wood, 24, has found the guest speakers’ lectures both useful and beneficial. “Their talks have been constructive in that they give you good advice – it also gives you a way in,” she said.

Guest speakers from the previous term at Westminster have included:

· Michael Schofield from Capital FM

· Paul Brannan, the editor of Emerging Platforms at the BBC and former deputy editor of the news website

· Robin Elias, managing editor of ITV

· Andy McSmith from The Independent

· Simon Dickson, deputy head of documentaries from Channel 4

Dr. Wright says that this term we can also look forward to a lecture from the editor of The Daily Telegraph, Will Lewis; the founder of travel magazine Wanderlust, Lyn Hughes; and former head of BBC News, Roger Mosey.

On Thursday 12 March, Mischa Glenny will be visiting the Marylebone campus of University of Westminster. Glenny has worked at The Guardian and the BBC.

In the past he has won a Sony Gold award and has written the successful novel ‘McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime’.

* ‘The Cassandra Chronicles, a compilation of Ariel’s ‘Cassandra’ columns will be published on 1st August 2009.

Story by Charlotte Hanger