Finding Meaning in the Media
Jeff Sparrow spoke to Margaret Simons, author of The Content Makers about the changes currently facing the Australian media. Margaret has been a journalist for over 20 years. This was an enlightening talk because I personally believe blogging is becoming the new face of journalism and Margaret seems to have embraced this notion having her own blog on crickey. When Margaret first started working as a journalist she felt extremely powerful. But today, anyone with an internet connection has that power.
There was talk of the situation getting worse before it gets better, although Margaret is optimistic about the future. How will journalists make money? Subscription-based journalism has started to take-off. The good news is that although our appetite for printed news is diminishing, appetite for news is increasing. Journalists need to adapt to these changes – where a journalist’s roll was once just to report news, now they also need to be in conversation with their audience. The way into the future for journalism is through social networks like twitter and facebook. It is through these mediums that blog sites are now circulated. When questioned on the quality of content and the English language in these blogs, Margaret says that quality is determined by the audience – if the blog has a wide audience then it has achieved what it has set out to do.
Murdoch’s plan to have online readers pay for news was briefly mentioned. Margaret believes that this model may work for specialist news like subscriptions but doesn’t believe it will work for mass media. Margaret is working on the foundation for public interest journalism. It involves publicly sponsored journalism. Sounds interesting.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
MWF:Finding meaning in the media
August 26, 2009 at 4:50 am (Creative commentary, Reviews) (finding meaning in the media, Jeff Sparrow, journalism, Margaret Simons, media, Melbourne Writer's Festival, The Content Makers, writer's festival)
Finding Meaning in the Media
Jeff Sparrow spoke to Margaret Simons, author of The Content Makers about the changes currently facing the Australian media. Margaret has been a journalist for over 20 years. This was an enlightening talk because I personally believe blogging is becoming the new face of journalism and Margaret seems to have embraced this notion having her own blog on crickey. When Margaret first started working as a journalist she felt extremely powerful. But today, anyone with an internet connection has that power.
There was talk of the situation getting worse before it gets better, although Margaret is optimistic about the future. How will journalists make money? Subscription-based journalism has started to take-off. The good news is that although our appetite for printed news is diminishing, appetite for news is increasing. Journalists need to adapt to these changes – where a journalist’s roll was once just to report news, now they also need to be in conversation with their audience. The way into the future for journalism is through social networks like twitter and facebook. It is through these mediums that blog sites are now circulated. When questioned on the quality of content and the English language in these blogs, Margaret says that quality is determined by the audience – if the blog has a wide audience then it has achieved what it has set out to do.
Murdoch’s plan to have online readers pay for news was briefly mentioned. Margaret believes that this model may work for specialist news like subscriptions but doesn’t believe it will work for mass media. Margaret is working on the foundation for public interest journalism. It involves publicly sponsored journalism. Sounds interesting.
Like this: