The Journalist's Digital Dilemma: Part Two

-Multimedia by Derek Casanovas and Jasmine Linabary

View part one of this series here: The Journalist's Digital Dilemma: Part One

The Journalist's Digital Dilemma: Part One

-Multimedia project by Derek Casanovas and Jasmine Linabary

Watch for Part Two in an upcoming post.

What newspapers can learn from the record industry

By Yong Kim

The news market isn’t the only sector in media being affected by the presence of digital technology.

It was only a few decades ago when the main medium used to listen to music was the compact disc. You know, those thin and shiny plastic looking circles that held information to play audio. Before then, Vinyl was replaced by 8-tracks, and 8-tracks replaced audiocassettes which where then replaced by CDs. People would insert CDs into their six-disc changer in their homes. Joggers used to listen to music while on their run via portable disc players.
But with the creation of electronics and a new digital age, music can now be conveniently stored onto computers, phones, mp3 players, online and any other place where digital information can be recorded.

Thousands upon thousands of audio files can be stored into a tiny iPod or laptop instead of having to carry hundreds of compact discs in a binder or in your car. Even burning discs to make music mixes has become obsolete. People can simply make a
playlist on an audio program like iTunes or windows music player and upload it to their mp3 players.

“The record industry is broken, dying and in bad shape,” said Sreenath Sreenivasan, p

rofessor of professional practice at Columbia University and new media expert.

Digital audio has become the next evolved form in the evolution chain. CDs are big, clumsy and the audio quality decreases over time due to scratching and age. You don’t have to hold digital music. And why drive to a music retailer to buy the latest Beyonce album when you can download it from iTunes for a lower price?

Think about it, when was the last time you saw someone listening to music via CDs or portable walkmans? The majority of people in the US are shifting to the new medium for listening

 music and as a result, the record industry has felt the deepest consequences of the shift in how people listen to music.

The popular Virgin Megastore in Times Square and other locations in New York City is soon to be closing, according to reuters.com. There is speculation according to several news sources as to why they are closing but I’d wager the era of the digitization of music had some impact.

Data on national record sales from Nielsen Co., a market research company, show a 20 percent decrease in physical sales of CDs since 2000 and sales have been off since then. Conversely, there has been a 32% increase of digital album sales in 2008.

The news media and record industry are going through similar circumstances. Why read the news on paper when you can get it online digitally anytime, anywhere? It seems newspapers are being sold or closed down left and right.

But the decline of print readers and CD users isn’t due to lack of information and music. It is due to the slow adaptation of the old business infrastructure to the new.
The problem is with the business model, not the music or artists, Sreenivasa said. It’s the same thing with journalists, he said.

Similar messages of figuring out a new business model that works for the new direction of news have been spoken during meetings with editors and executives in media companies like the Associated Press, Channel 13 and the Columbia Journalism Review.

“The questions is how to pay for it,” said Mike Hoyt, executive editor of the Columbia Journalism Review. “You have to pay for the reporting somehow.”

Though the consensus seems to be so, no new and effective business model has been created thus far.

And with the bad state of economy on Wall Street and Main Street, who knows where we can go to find the solution.

Columbia University: Sree Sreenivasan

Today, every journalists should have a new media skill set, but more importantly, a new media mindset, new media expert and Columbia University professor Sree Sreenivasan told students.

Columbia University's Journalism School was founded by Joseph Pulitzer, who desired to professionalize journalism. At the time, other schools rejected his offer, thinking journalism was a trade profession like plumbing.

Today, there are journalism schools across the country and now Columbia offers new media courses and has been since 1994. Change has always been a part of journalism, Sreenivasan said. Sreenivasan, who has been teaching at Columbia for 16 years, says the program focuses on teaching students how to apply new media tools and think about them, rather than just how to use them.

Sreenivasan said journalists need to develop four mindsets in thinking about new media:

1. Acknowledge that the audiences knows a lot, often more than you, and harness that energy.
2. Realize you can learn about what’s going on from anywhere, not just traditional media outlets.
3. Recognized that there are more effective ways of doing what we do.
4. Realize you only have the start of a story and think about different formats

Sreenivasan also provided a list of new media tools journalists should learn:
-How to write in 140 characters (i.e. Twitter)
-Simple video editing
-Capture really good audio
-Slideshows
-A little Flash
-Programs available on the web for editing, hosting your work, and broadcasting

To figure out which tools to use, journalists should figure out what works and is effective for them and should find someone to follow and guide them along the way, Sreenivasan said.

Journalists today who capitalize on all of these skills are “tra-digital journalists” – they have all the skills of traditional journalists but also the digital tools and know-how. Journalists who have both will be the ones with careers in the field, he said.

“Those who are successful not just work the hardest, but work the smartest,” Sreenivasan said.

Journalists need to learn how to promote their work and manage their online brand. This can be measured by “ego surfing,” or doing a Google search of your name, Sreenivasan said.

Despite his interest in new media, Sreenivasan still has a love for print.

“I think there’s something magical about print,” Sreenivasan said. “I think it will be around.”

News organizations can capitalize on new media by setting up “skunk works” – sending out a few people to incubate a project and see if it works before putting it into place. Traditional news media are not the only ones affected by the Internet age.

“If you think journalism is in trouble, compare it to the record industry,” Sreenivasan said. “The problem isn’t with the music, the problem is with the business model.”

Want more from Sreenivasan? Here are some online tools and links he shared with the group that are worth checking out:

-On Twitter: Themediaisdying
-Regret the Error
-Snipshot
-Blogtalkradio
-Mogulus
-Qik
-Sprout Builder

-Derek Casanovas and Jasmine Linabary

Want to hear more from Sreenivasan? Check out the video below: