Changes 3: New column | Mudanças 3: Coluna nova

And in the latest instalment for changes around here, i’d like to announce that yesterday i started my column dedicated to new media at Rascunho.IOL.pt. I am honored for the invitation they made and hope to provide a few interesting insights about the Media Revolution. The title for this weekly reflection is “Media DJ”, and the English version will be available  in my (new) blog, becoming somehow an extension of my work. Below is the first text for Media DJ.

E no mais recente capítulo dedicado a mudanças por aqui, gostaria de anunciar que ontem iniciei a minha coluna/caderno sobre  novos media no Rascunho.IOL.pt. Estou honrado pelo convite que me fizeram e espero dar algumas visões pessoais interessantes sobre a Revolução dos Media. O título para esta reflexão semanal é “Media DJ”, e a versão em inglês estará sempre disponível no meu (novo) blog, sendo uma extensão do meu trabalho . Leiam o primeiro texto, no Rascunho.

REMIX

Imagine a stage, and you’re sitting in the audience. From up there, one or several characters proclaim the news of the day, the events they chose as the most important. They do it at a certain time, in a ritualized fashion and within a specific duration.They ignore your reactions, and aren’t quite interested in you but in how many of you are watching them. This was the paradigm for the relationship between audience and media. Then came the Internet and everything changed.

Today, the stage and the audience share the same space, there are several voices for many subjects, each one with its own perspective and different origins; information flows within that space between all the elements, from media to users, to other users, to other media. The keywords for this new model are sharing, dialogue, mobility/ubiquity and real time. Contents are made of layers, a new contribution or production is built over the previous one. And everyone can participate: with text, photos, video.

The information industry and journalism are going through the biggest revolution they’ve ever  gone through. The content creation and dissemination tools evolved rapidly, and more important, they are availabe to anyone. The audience became an active element in the creation and disseminaton of information. In a matter of years we went from static versions of newspapers to multimedia rich content, real time information provided by users in social networks and on Twitter, anywhere, to everywhere, which deviated the media from the center of the news paradigm, forcing them to reconsider how to interact with their users, how to work information on the web, publish it, renew it, in a profound change of processes and views. And also how to make that profitable.

The name of this column is Media DJ, because all these changes influenced journalist’s work, demanding new skills. DJ has a double meaning, being the first, the one who, from other people’s music, mixes, remixes, aligns and generates a new dynamic, turning the whole bigger than the sum of its parts; and it also works for Digital Journalism/Journalist. Information DJs do exactly the same as music DJs, they pick up the pieces and generate a a new set, but with a totally different responsibility: they contribute to the creation of a collective conscience, and a well informed society will make better choices. In the end, nothing changed in the fundamental role of journalism, just the way you do it.

Every week i hope to bring a part of that (r)evolution, that is unfolding faster than reality can keep up. You just have to follow the music.

Poll: Generations and online media | Sondagem: Gerações e media online

How different is the relationship with online media for each generation? Are really younger people more active consumers of digital news or are they being surpassed by their parents? Paula Cordeiro, author of the NetFM blog, is doing a poll on how different generations engage with online media. The results will be presented at the “Media+Generations” conference in Milan, this September 11th and 12th. I asked Paula what was her percepetion of this reality, even before having the poll results: “Quite clear, and corresponding to the majority of the current news: young people using more than older people, though its growing. Teenagers in social networks, young adults in social networks with professional objectives or match making, on Twitter for the updating and the hype. The teenagers don’t consume news traditionally, but young adults use online media more. Older people use essentially email and the Internet for researches.“ But this trend is not, in Paula’s words “an absolute reality“. In her experience as a teacher there are students with various degrees of contact with online tools, “if there are those who present a simple oral presentation of an assignment using a web hosted presentation, most of them still use a A4 printed sheet, sometimes even, handwritten…” Their limitations don’t stop here: “Regarding (online media) consumption, they as matter of fact, consume few news under any format or platform, and they  aren’t that savvy about the tools that the web has to offer to create and disseminate contents (many don’t know how to create a blog, don’t know about newsreaders or how to make a podcast), going against the general expectations for this generation.“ The poll questions are in portuguese only and you can participate until the September 6th. As soon as Paula Cordeiro has the results, she will publish them on her blog. And we will be looking forward to see them.

Até que ponto varia a relação de cada geração com os media online? Serão os mais jovens maiores consumidores de notícias digitais,ou estão a ser ultrapassados pelos seus pais? Paula Cordeiro, autora do blog NetFM, está a fazer uma sondagem sobre como cada geração interage com os media online. Os resultados serão apresentados na conferência “Media+Generations”, a decorrer nos próximos dias 11 e 12 de Setembro, em Milão. Perguntei à Paula qual era percepção que tinha desta realidade, mesmo ainda antes de ter os resultados da sondagem: “Muito clara e corresponde à maior parte das notícias que circulam: jovens com grande consumo, mais velhos com menor consumo, embora a crescer. Adolescentes nas redes sociais, jovens adultos nas redes sociais com intuitos profissionais ou match making, no twitter pela actualização e porque é hype. Adolescentes não consomem notícias na forma tradicional, jovens adultos consomem mais notícias através dos media online. Mais velhos usam essencialmente e-mail e Internet para pesquisas.” Mas esta tendência não é, nas palavras de Paula, “uma realidade absoluta“. Na sua experiência como professora, há estudantes com diferentes graus de contacto com as ferramentas online, “Se há os que preparam uma mera apresentação oral de um projecto de trabalho usando uma apresentação alojada na web, a maioria continua a apresentar uma folha A4 impressa, algumas vezes mesmo, escrita à mão…“ Mas as suas limitações não se ficam por aqui: “Relativamente ao consumo, de facto consomem poucas notícias sob que forma ou plataforma for e não assim tão conhecedores das ferramentas que a rede coloca ao nosso dispor para criação e divulgação de conteúdos (muitos não sabem criar um blog, não conhecem newsreaders ou sabem fazer um podcast), contrariamente aquilo que são as pexpectativas gerais para esta geração.” Podem responder a esta sondagem até dia 6 de Setembro. Assim que a Paula Cordeiro tiver resultados, eles serão publicados no seu blog. E nós estaremos atentos.

Answer Poll | Participem na Sondagem

Portuguese Journalists on Twitter and @JayRosen_nyu’s List | Jornalistas Portugueses no Twitter e a Lista de Rosen

Who are the top portuguese journalists on Twitter? Who is more popular, chatty or has a better following/follower relation? Tireless João Simão, teacher at UTAD (by the way, check his new project of live video interviews using Twitter) did an analisys on who are the journalists on Twitter, using data from TwitterPortugal, and came up with a top 25 list. It’s a nice crowd, and you should be following  at least some of them.

Quem são os jornalistas portugueses que estão no Twitter? quem é mais popular, falador ou tem uma melhor relação seguidores/seguidor? O incansável João Simão da UTAD (já agora, vejam o seu novo projecto de entrevistas video em directo usando o Twitter) fez uma análise dos jornalistas no Twitter usando dados do TwitterPortugal, e criou um top 25. É um grupo porreiro e deviam seguir pelo menos alguns deles.

Know anyone? | Conhecem alguém?

After this analisys was published  i got a whole new batch of followers (thank you all), but my major source of tweeple lately has been  Jay Rosen’s “600” list. I recommend it to everyone who is looking for media related tweets. (shameless self promotion moment, so sorry for that…)

Depois desta análise ter sido publicada ganhei um monte de followers (obrigado  a todos), mas a minha maior fonte de seguidores nos últimos tempos tem sido a lista dos “600” de Jay Rosen. Recomendo-a a quem quer tweets relacionados com media. (momento desavergonhado de auto-promoção, as minhas desculpas…)

The "600"...well, some... | Os "600"...bem, alguns...

Deloitte’s 09 Media Predictions | Previsões para 2009 da Deloitte

A tough year for media | Um ano duro para os media

The latest report on media by Deloitte is available. No far out predictions yet, but i’m  just starting to read it.

Já está disponível o último relatório sobre média da Deloitte. Nada de previsões fantásticas, mas ainda agora comecei a lê-lo

Putting print out of peril may require stopping the presses

The newspaper and consumer magazine industry is set for continued challenges in 2009, with developed country markets likely to be most affected.

The developing world market should grow along with increasing literacy, improving distribution  infrastructure and rising incomes, but the spread of the economic downturn itno developing economies in 2009 could slow or reverse print’s growth even in these markets.

The challenged state of the print industry in developd world markets does not signal the demise of the sector. Rather, 2009 is likely to mark the emergency of a range of new business models, including shared backroom infrastructure and online-only delivery.

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122 laid off in portuguese media cuts | 122 despedidos em cortes da Controlinveste

50 % are journalists from four newspapers | 50% são jornalistas de quatro jornais

These cuts will affect four dailies of the Controlinveste media group: DN (22 journalists), JN (27), 24 Horas and O Jogo (17). The reasons presented in an internal announcement today relate to the “acute negative evolution of the media market, especially in the traditional press, and the profound losses in revenue of the sector impose to Global Notícias Publicações and to Jornalinveste Comunicação a difficult but undelayable option: to iniciate acollective  lay off process, that includes 122 workers, in different areas of these two companies”. The reference dailies Diário de Notícias and Jornal de Notícias will suffer the most, and 24 Horas will go under some changes (Agência Financeira). This is the biggest media job cut in Portugal of the last years. According to the Union,  there were 70 journalists fired in 2007, and almost 100 in 2008. Controlinveste controls a number of newspapers and magazines, and also TSF, a national news radio, and SportTV, a cable sports TV channel (Wikipedia.pt). It employs more than 1000 workers. There is no official announcement available at Controlinveste website(.pdf in portuguese)

Estes cortes vão afectar quatro jornais diários do grupo Controlinveste: DN (22 jornalistas), JN (27), 24 Horas e O Jogo (17). As razões apresentadas em comunicado interno referem “a evolução acentuadamente negativa do mercado dos media, em particular na área da imprensa tradicional, e a profunda quebra de receitas do sector impõem à Global Notícias Publicações e à Jornalinveste Comunicação uma opção difícil mas inadiável: iniciar um processo de despedimento colectivo que abrange 122 colaboradores, em diferentes áreas das duas empresas”. Os diários de referência Diário de Notícias e Jornal de Notícias vão sofrer maiores cortes, e o 24 Horas vai sofrer uma alteração de formato (Agência Financeira). Este é o maior despedimento na área dos media em Portugal nos últimos anos. De  acordo com o Sindicato houve 70 jornalistas despedidos em 2007, e quase 100 em 2008. A Controlinveste controla jornais e revistas e também é dona da TSF, e do canal de televisão por cabo SportTv(Wikipedia). Emprega mais de 1000 pessoas. Ainda não se pode encontrar nenhum comunicado oficial no site da Controlinveste (.pdf)

Vodpod videos no longer available.

RTP video

BBC: Media on demand Poster

large poster

A BBC fez um poster a mostrar os consumos de media existentes. Via Alfred Hermida.

BBC created a poster representing how people are consuming media. Via Alfred Hermida.

The aim of the project was to understand how people are using media. Among the things that emerged was that a lot of people feel overwhelmed at the amount of choice there is and how  people mixed and matched old and new technologies to fit in with their lives.

BBC graphic shows how people use on-demand media

Ética, direitos e liberdades na web | Web ethics, rights and freedoms

O texto de Edward Wasserman no Miami Herald levanta questões pertinentes sobre ética nos novos media. Deixem-me reformular: sobre ética. O facto de ser nos novos (actuais) media não tem diferença nenhuma, em relação aos “antigos” media. O que se nota nos dois casos que ele refere é uma falta de respeito não só aos intervenientes como aos métodos de trabalho que norteiam e credibilizam a actividade jornalística, seja ela exercida por cidadãos ou profissionais. Porque o valor corrente de qualquer jornalista é a sua credibilidade. Na alteração do paradigma comunicacional, e com a transformação do público em produtor de conteúdos, o papel das organizações de informação também se alterou, passando de produtoras a gestoras, moderadoras e agregadoras de informação. A ética está presente em qualquer uma das situações, e no caso da notícia sobre o Steve Jobs o que se nota é uma falta enorme de profissionalismo, já que uma das partes mais importantes no processo é a verificação de factos. A culpa, que tem forçosamente de ser atribuída a alguém já que a distribuição de informação errada pode ter consequências muito graves, é dos editores que, ou confiaram demais na ânsia de terem um “furo”, ou então não souberam aplicar os valores básicos que se aplicam quando se trabalha na indústria de informação noticiosa. Os “bons velhos valores” de que Wasserman fala não são velhos,mas parecem andar esquecidos e moldados a interesse de cada um. Mas numa sociedade de informação omnipresente,quase omnisciente e de alta velocidade, qualquer imprecisão ou erro grosseiro é rapidamente exposto, com consequências graves na confiança dos utilizadores, que têm muito por onde escolher como fonte de informação. A solução? Passa pela formação pessoal, logo, este é um problema social moderno, já que todos podemos participar e influenciar o processo informativo, e vê-se muita gente mal formada por aí . Não é só uma questão profissional, trata-se de algo intrínseco nas pessoas, que podem usar este novo poder para o bem comum ou não. Às organizações compete fiscalizar os processos de obtenção e distribuição de informação, em vez de virar costas às suas responsabilidades para dar um ar de modernidade.  É a sua imagem que está em risco. PS: Não falo do caso de Alana Taylor porque já se falou demais e de forma exagerada. Ela não pediu autorização para blogar sobre a aula, mas o que ela diz não é contraproducente, pelo contrário, é uma crítica correcta e equilibrada às aulas que lhe custam a pagar. Havia de haver estudantes em Portugal a blogar o que se passa nas aulas das suas Faculdades para vermos como o ensino funciona no nosso país, e os professores também haviam de ter os seus, para percebermos como as novas gerações estão mal preparadas. Como extra, sigam esta recomendação dada no para “o número relativo ao Outono de 2008 (vol.7, n. 13) da revista Global Media Journal quase todo ele dedicado ao direito à comunicação, uma matéria pouco conhecida e trabalhada entre nós”. Para  ler aqui.

Edward Wasserman’s text in the Miami Herald raises proper questions about ethics in new media. Let me rephrase that: about ethics. The fact of happening in the new (current) media makas absolutely no difference, regardind  the “old” media. What we can notice in both cases he mentions is a lack of respect not only to the participants but also to the work methods that guide and give credit to the journalistic activity, wether it be carried out by citizens or professionals. Because the value of any journalist lies in his credibility. With the change in the communication paradigm, and with the transformation of the audience in content generators, the role of the news organizations has also changed, turning from producers to news managers, moderators and aggregators. Ethics is present in any of this situations, and in the Steve Jobs affair, what we see is a huge lack of professionalism, since one of the basic steps of the process is fact checking. The blame, that must be appointed to someone since the distribution of mischievous information can have serious consequences, belongs to the editors that, or trusted too much in the eager desire for a scoop, or didn’t know how to apply those basic values that are to be applied when oyu work in the news business. The  “good old values” Wasserman talks about are not old, but seem to have been forgotten and shaped to each one’s interest. But in a ubiquitous almost omniscient and   high velocity information society, any imprecision or gross mistake is quickly exposed, with grave consequences in the users trust, that have a lot of information  sources to choose from. The solution? Goes through personal formation, so, this is a modern social problem, since we can all participate and influence the news process, and we can see a bunch of ill prepared people around. It’s not just a professional matter, it’s something inherent to people, that may or may not use this new power for the common good. It’s up to the organizations to verify the processes of gathering and distribution of information, instead of turning their back to their responsibilities just for the sake of looking modern. It’s their image that is at stake. PS:I won’t be talking  about the Alana Taylor situation, because it has already been discussed too much. She didn’t asked to blog about the class, but what she wrote is not counterproductive, au contraire, it’s a fair and well balanced critic to the school she has to pay. There should be more students blogging about their classes to show what is going on in their expensive courses, and how university teaching works, and  teachers would have blogs too, so we could understand how badly prepared these new generations are. As an extra , follow this recommendation from Jornalismo&Comunicação to “the Fall 08 edition(vol7, n.13) of the global Media Journal, almost entirely dedicated to communication law.” Read it here.

Twice in recent weeks big news outfits embarrassed themselves when affiliated Internet operations ignored basic principles of journalistic practice. What’s apparent is that although legacy media may regard their Web sites as domesticated showcases for traditional work, heeding the same rules, the Internet is no petting zoo. It’s a wilderness, and the wildlife has free-ranging ideas of their own about what they should be doing.

The first case involved CNN’s iReport.com, a citizen journalism site that encourages the public to offer information and commentary, unfiltered by pesky editors. A posting Oct. 3 from someone called ”johntw” reported that Steve Jobs, chief executive of technology giant Apple Inc., had suffered ”a major heart attack.” He hadn’t, but in a jittery market Apple’s share price dropped to its lowest point since May 2007 during the 12 minutes it took for another blogger to phone Apple and quash the report.

Plainly, false rumors have been moving markets since long before the Internet. The information was corrected quickly, and company shares bounced almost back. But harm was done. One contributor to Silicon Valley Insider calculated that with three million shares traded at $7 under the closing price, buying at the bottom — if you knew the Jobs report was false — netted $21 million.

Boring old values and the New Media

via Opinion: Ethics of New Media- Editor’s Weblog

Ebook: “Democracy, Journalism and Technology: New Developments in an Enlarged Europe”

A ECREA-European Communication Research and Education Association, publicou o resultado da sua terceira edição da Summer School, um ebook gratuito criado pelos alunos e professores que estiveram na Universidade de Tarpu, na Estónia. O tema deste ano é “Democracia, Jornalismo e Tecnologia: Novos Desenvolvimentos numa Europa Alargada”. No site podem descarregar este e os ebooks das edições anteriores. Dica de @pnvicente.

ECREA-European Communication Research and Education Association, published the final work of the third edition of the Summer School, a free ebook created by the doctorates and lecturers present at the University of Tarpu, in Estonia. This years theme is “Democracy, Journalism and Technology: New Developments in an Enlarged Europe”. At the website you can dowload this and other years ebooks. Tip by @pnvicente.

It is our pleasure to announce the publication of our third Summer School Book, entitled “Democracy, Journalism and Technology: New Developments in an Enlarged Europe. The intellectual work of the 2008 European media and communication doctoral summer school,” edited by Nico Carpentier, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Kaarle Nordenstreng, Maren Hartmann, Peeter Vihalemm, Bart Cammaerts, Hannu Nieminen and Tobias Olsson.

You can download a PDF-version of this book – free of charge – from the Summer School website, or the Researching and Teaching Communication Series website. The direct link to the book is: http://www.researchingcommunication.eu/reco_book4.pdf. A print version can be ordered by sending an email to pille.vengerfeldt @ ut.ee.

This book includes a series of papers that were presented by lecturers and PhD-students at the European Communication and Media Doctoral Summer School, in July/August 2008 in Tartu (Estonia) (supported by a European Commission Socrates Erasmus IP Project (contract number: 69935-IC-1-2007-EE-ERASMUS-EUC-1), the University of Tartu and the Danish National Research School for Media, Communication and Journalism).

Mapa interactivo dos media da Catalunha | Catalunya’s media interactive map

Mapa | Laboratori de Comunicació Pública | Map

O Laboratori de Comunicació Pública da Catalunha criou um mapa interactivo onde mostra a distribuição dos vários orgãos de comunicação por comarca. Os números são interessantes: para uma região de pouco mais de sete milhões de habitantes existem 900 sites de informação, 700 publicações em papel, 250 rádios e 77 canais de televisão. Via LolacomoMola.

The Laboratori de Comunicació Pública of Catlunya, Spain, created an interactive map displaying the distribution of media by district. The numbers are quite interesting: for a region with a bit more than seven million inhabitants there are 900 news websites, 700 print publications, 250 radio stations and 77 television channels. Via LolacomoMola.

Los datos incluyen también el número de ayuntamientos que hay en dicho territorio, dato que ayuda a percibir, aunque sea de forma orientativa, el peso de lo público en cada uno de ellos.

El mapa permite ver también el histórico peso de las publicaciones de papel, los desequilibrios de cobertura informativa que hay entre las distintas comarcas, y cómo los datos de webs parecen tener una relación bastante directa con la existencia de ayuntamientos, aun con excepciones como es en la comarca del Barcelonès.

Mapa interactivo de medios en Catalunya

Vera Alves – “A new definition of media”

The young generations grew up in a world where media is totally different to what it was for our parents and the generations before them. Like any social change, it takes some time to adjust to a new reality and there is always a culture and generational clash. It’s going to take some years (decades, I’d say) until everything is going full-speed.

Computers, cell phones, internet… they’ve all been present for the vast majority of my twenty-something years. I grew up with them and, in doing so, adapting myself to their presence was a natural and unconscious process. Not so for our parents.

Many older journalists seem to be refusing to adjust to this shift in the cultural paradigm. It’s not our job to tell them they’re wrong – they’ll figure it out by themselves. In many cases, they adjust ever so slightly, by using the web as an archive for material published in the past. The web is still the print’s poor cousin for these journalists and they can’t quite see its potential.

A new definition of media

(Vera Alves works as a journalist in New Zealand and has been blogging for quite some time. She recently started a new “journalism only” blog at http://verahasawebsite.com/blog.)

A minha querida e muito portuguesa Vera Alves, que recentemente se mudou para a Nova Zelândia, escreveu este interessantíssimo artigo para o Journalism.co.uk,  inserido no August Debate . Mais uma mente portuguesa a brilhar por aí, sem esperar por medalhas. Parabéns Vera, e boa sorte na terra dos kiwis.

My dear and very portuguese Vera Alves that recently moved to New Zealand, wrote this most interesting article for Journalism.co.uk, within the August Debate. Another portuguese mind shining out there, without expecting any medals. Congratulations Vera, and good luck in kiwi land.