NewsRooms & Chartbeat The Effect of Real-time Analytics on media journalism
This presentation will explore some of the changes taking place in modern newsrooms and to the profession of journalism as a result of the formation of new web analytics program like 'Chartroom' and the present state of affairs in the media environment.
This report will begin by outlining the state of newsrooms in the past, present and future before introducing the business 'Chartbeat', with reference to its methods, findings and significance to journalism. Then the trends in modern journalism will be explored before concluding with an outline of 'Chartbeat ' as a disrupter and the various future implications for the profession of journalism and newsrooms.
Newsrooms of the Past 1950's photo of the newsroom of the New York Journal-American (Lester, 2015). The men here are creating the city’s most widely read ‘afternoon’ paper. Obviously differences from today include the furniture and equipment used, the production resembling that of a factory floor and the notable absence of a woman. Similarities include the open space in which all members of the production process are working, devoid of walls, as well as the need for speed.
1990's CNN's coverage of the Gulf Warin signalled a watershed moment for television news, as viewers began to turn to CNN's 24-hour news coverage over the traditional network evening newscasts (Lester, 2015). Falling ratings also indicated the beginning of the end of the iconic news anchor, as well cementing the legitimacy and popularity of cable channels in general.
The media consolidations and the emphasis on "profit over product" journalism of the 1980's continued into the 1990's and the dawning of the Internet Age introduced unprecedented freedom in the sharing of information (Lester, 2015).
The modern newsroom: There are three basic newsroom models coexisting, in the Newsroom 1.0, online and paper are managed separately with dedicated editorial for each platform. In the 2.0 there is a cross-media newsroom which exploits some advantages of gathering content for different media. The 3.0 version aims to provide content on multiple channels by integrating the complete news flow across print and digital media from planning to production. Company newrooms today aim to successfully progress from 1.0 to 3.0 by educating staff, building their team and providing top of the line technologies.
The internet has not only changed the methods and purpose of journalism, but also people’s perceptions of news media. Professors Bardoel and Deuze note that, “the shifting balance of power between journalism and its [audience], and the rise of a more self-conscious and better educated audience (both as producers and consumers of content)” has indelibly altered the landscape of journalism (Bardoel cited in Barnhurst, 2014).
The two largest changes in modern journalism have directly resulted from the internet. Firstly the definition of journalism has been altered with the rise of the blogger and user based journalists. Secondly what is considered news and how it is gathered and constructed has been transformed. The linked nature of the internet has given rise to content aggregators like Google news or The Huffington Post that no longer rely on individual journalists to provide news, but instead depend on their ability to gather and collect information into a single location where users can access it (Revers, 2014).
Newsrooms of the future: these are the core components suggested by professionals in the industry, to create a successful newsroom for years to come. Ultimately newsrooms need the right combination of people and technology to quickly and efficiently accomplish each task within each step. Leader of BuzzFeed; Jonah Perretti stated “You need to think about how people are engaging with media, and then make your advertising and marketing match those behaviors" (Perretti cited in Mintz, 2014) The brand newsroom of the future is one that does just that.
How can journalists now find their own voice and keep the profession alive and well amongst the shouting of millions of people due to the rise of the digital age? This is a major concern today more so then any other time in history. Additionally, although the news can be updated quicker than ever before, the sheer speed with which interactions are allowed to take place can ultimately damage credibility: often there simply isn’t time to fact-check or proof-read properly, which can lead to a severe dip in journalistic quality.
With such an environment it is hard to see how journalists will be able to differentiate themselves above the 'self appointed journalists' of todays age. The integrity of the text, the way in which it engages with its audience and exhibiting rigour in journalists personal style are the key methods for competing in the future of journalism. Technological advances will and are currently allowing an unprecedented surge of creativity in the industry, where journalists are finding ever more diverse and fascinating ways to tell their stories (Mintz, 2014). Ultimately, transparency, creativity and inclusivity encapsulate the idealistic future of journalism.
Video comparison of journalistic practices past and present
Chartbeat and the modern newsroom
The increased competitiveness in the media industry for consumer attention has derived largely from the rise of the internet as well as other technologies. The web analytics program 'Chartbeat' has been born to arm publishers with the tools to compete in this environment as business pursue 'profit over product' in the digital age (NYT, 2015).
Chartbeat is headquartered in New York City. Founded in 2009, Chartbeat aids news websites and blogs in their pursuit of market share online. By providing actionable insights, the news websites and blogs are able to make real -time decisions about the content published and promoted on their sites (NYT, 2015).
Not only is Chartbeat producing valuable insights to news sites but it is dispelling some of the most commonly held beliefs online that have served to hinder the progress of newsrooms in their pursuit of attracting and maintaining audiences.
Chartbeats pioneering works
Chartbeat provides modern oganisations with the knowledge needed to create methods of engaging audiences. Its existence is indicative of just how competitive the journalistic environment has become. Significantly Chartbeat has dispelled some of the misconceptions present in the journalistic production of online content.
Myth 1: We read what we’ve clicked on
For the past two decades, publishers have pursued pageviews; the metric that counts the number of times people load a web page. common beliefs were that the more pageviews a site has, the more people reading and the greater the success of the site. However Chartbeat has dispelled this myth. By monitoring 2 billion visits over the course of a month, the organisation found that most people who click dont read. stunningly, 55% of viewers spent less than 15 seconds actively on a page. Further research conducted by Chartbeat found that a visitors attention that is held for three minutes, is twice as likely to return than if they were attentive for one minute (NYT, 2015).
It is findings like these that have propelled Chartbeat into the worlds most competitive and useful mediums online for monitoring and interpreting consumer behaviour on the internet. As such, newsrooms have adopted its methods in its construction of news which in turn has caused roles and responsibilities of journalists and news-teams towards analytics and desk bound reporting.
Trends in Modern Journalism
Ed Walker, Head of Digital Publishing at Trinity Mirror in the UK predicts a trend for media organisations "really exploring analytics". "If there's one thing that had the biggest impact on our regional digital teams over the last 12 months it is probably the introduction of Chartbeat," he said. Trinity Mirrors newsrooms are now able to see what the most popular stories are at any given moment and react to that in real time. "We're starting to really learn what our online audience likes to consume and really starting to focus content around them rather than repackaging content from our existing print titles," he explained. (Walker cited in NYT, 2015)
According to Chartbeat's website, the company handles -1 billion Javascript downloads a day -manages 300 thousand requests per second and -tracks 30 million pages this year alone
Like Twitter, Chartbeat has contributed to an open journalistic culture whereby the proliferation of online technologies and the rise of digital culture has set off another push for transparency. Journalists looking to distinguish themselves from other content producers online must be truthful about there methods in order to be respected and deemed reliable by audiences (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2007). Transparency is now what objectivity was in the first half of the 20th century (Schudson, 1978), namely a means of maintaining professional autonomy in journalism. As a recent newsroom ethnography demonstrates, transparency has helped the BBC reconstitute its reputation of impartiality in a social media saturated news environment. By newsrooms employing the aid of Chartbeats statistics, not only are journalists at these newsrooms able to construct stories that are in demand but they are able to act transparently because of the accuracy of the quantified data provided.
However it has been suggested the effects of such analytic programs are not all beneficial to the profession (skip to 30seconds)
The impacts of the competitiveness of the modern journalistic environment on journalists as a result of sites like Chartbeat
As we have just seen, the profession of journalism is involving a lot more time constructing stories based on what people want to see as opposed to finding stories based on what people need to hear (Schulte et al Duncan, 2012). Couple this phenomenon with the demanding time constraints of the present environment and it becomes clear to see that the key factors behind journalists remaining competitive are: -increasing the integrity of their work based on statistics derived from web analysts and content aggregators like Chartbeat. -operating in real time through the use of online platforms like twitter to enhance their public figure stature and -transforming newsrooms so that they are better able to react to immediate demands of news consumers
Public figure status of journalists: journalist Sue Wood stated that 'loss of privacy is one of the prices all of us pay who choose to be journalists'. She wrote this in 1989 and her words hold greater weight today then they ever have. Contemporary journalists not only have multiple avenues of communicating with audiences but hold individual accounts connected to their names which serve to turn their name into a brand that needs to be meticulously calculated and controlled, as the public light is shone on their actions, deeds and works (Barnhurst, 2011).
Conclusion
Chartbeat has had both a positive and negative impact on the practice of journalism. Ultimately it is an impact that cannot be ignored but one that needs to be embraced in order for journalists to be successful in the digital age.
Legal journalist, Howard Mintz stated that 'No amount of technological innovation will diminish the need to retain that irreplaceable human contact with the movers and shakers in the legal world. The best legal journalists have never been tethered to their desks.' His claim that factual reporting derived from first hand research is still of paramount importance to journalism is undeniably true. However the vast advances in technology, as exemplified by Chartbeats outputs, have created a kill or be killed competitive environment of competition for our attention. As such job duties and responsibilities of journalists will continue to move away from fieldwork research and more towards a production team of individuals who are assigned 'stories' based on subject areas the public is currently interested in.
Furthermore the public figure status of journalists will continue to rise as online mediums expand the avenues of communication between journalists and their audiences. Finally time constraints will continue to harm the integrity of news pierces until journalists develop expertise in the use of these new technologies and transparency in their work. The answers to the problems facing journalists today can be found in the causes of the problems; new technologies.
Do you think journalists have a bad reputation, if so is it worse now then it was before the internet?
Does greater emphasis need to be placed, in Australian media, on topics that educate the public?
Chartbeats efforts provide real time information on what people are clicking searching and reading. Is this based on what people are actually interested in or are they interested in it because it is in the news? If Chartbeat is having a negative effect on the content being provided to the public then what are the ramifications for the profession and societies?
How do journalists and the audiences come together to create pieces?
Is the journalistic profession heading for extinction or is it merely adapting and evolving towards greater heights of distinction.
Bibliography
Schulte, W., Greenwald, Marilyn S., Ammarell, Gene, Bernt, Joseph, & Brown, Duncan. (2012). Social Construction, Control, and News Work: A Study of Newsworkers as Agents of Civic Function and Resistance in the Changing Media World, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/15/what-is-the-future-of-journalism
http://history.journalism.ku.edu/
Mintz, Howard. (2014). Legal journalism today: Change or die. Missouri Law Review,79(4), 977.
Revers, M. (2014). The Twitterization of News Making: Transparency and Journalistic Professionalism. Journal of Communication, 64(5), 806-826.
Barnhurst, K. (2011). The Problem of Modern Time in American Journalism 1.Kronoscope, 11(1-2), 98-123.
New York Times T Brand Studio and Chartbeat Study: Branded Content Can Generate Significant Audience Engagement. (2015). Entertainment Close-up, Entertainment Close-up, March 13, 2015.
Lester, P. (n.d.). Commentary. Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs,17(1), 3-4.