Local newspapers connecting the networks
My new local newspaper, the Sunderland Echo, is inviting readers to write its headlines in its own ver
sion of networked journalism. Networked journalism, as I’ve writen about before, is the collaborative development of the ‘newswork’ that brings the traditional media institutions closer to the citizen journalists, or produsers, who are seeking out and taking new opportunities to participate in media, rather than just consume it. Here it’s just for fun, as reported on Holdthefrontpage.co.uk:
Every Friday morning [Magic] radio presenter and Echo columinst Steve Colman gives listeners a teaser from one of the day’s stories and challenges them to compose a witty and fitting headline. So far the scores stand at 11 to 8 in favour of the radio listeners.
The Sunderland Echo also runs an OnCampus page, where it publishes stories gleaned from the journalism programme of Sunderland University - another example or facet of networked journalism, where the content comes from citizen produsers, even if they are a little further along the spectrum than the ‘out-there blogger’.
What is also good to remember from this example is the cross-media networks that still play an important role in the marketing and audience development strategies of the mainstream news media. When I worked for the internet arm of GWR Radio back in 2000, the buzz then was of the cross-promotional benefits of radio and web working together; it was also the buzz for the BBC, particularly programmes such as Newsnight, which was benefitting from cross-promotion across BBC News 24, BBC.co.uk and the radio.
And while we don’t think so excitedly about the ‘buzz’ any more, as in the Sunderland Echo example, the intra-networks of journalism remain just as important as the extra-networks, as illustrated by this article in The Observer last week, on BBC news coming together. As newsroom chief Peter Horrocks says, the integration is meant to provide a more coherent overview for news production within the BBC to meet the demands of the digital age. It’s also, as is made clear, about cost-savings, and some people think it’s a bad move.
