Senior Fellow John Bolton discusses the United States fight against ISIS on Fox News' 'Justice with Judge Jeanine'
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6/1/15
The Coral Project wants to turn comment sections into communities
You might have heard: Comment section can sometimes do more harm than good, leading some publishers to kill their comment sections
But did you know: The Coral Project, a collaboration between The Washington Post, New York Times and Mozilla, is looking to transform interactive spaces on news sites through a series of open-source apps. The apps will be designed to work together to help publishers manage its online communities, as well as giving publishers more flexibility to use the parts they need and forgo the ones they don’t. Among the problems the Coral Project wants to solve is the amount of time and effort publishers have to put into monitoring online comment sections by giving publishers the ability to reward good commenters rather than police bad ones.
The post The Coral Project wants to turn comment sections into communities appeared first on American Press Institute.
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5 challenges publishers need to overcome for better mobile-first websites
To deliver a first-rate mobile site, Mark Challinor says publishers start by making sure stakeholders including the CEO are on board with investing resources to create an excellent experience for users. To create that experience, Challinor outlines the biggest challenges publishers need to overcome, including personalizing the experience to each reader and maximizing the conversion to subscriptions.
The post 5 challenges publishers need to overcome for better mobile-first websites appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Global print newspaper readership falls by more than 25 percent in four years
According to a new report by ZenithOptimedia on media consumption, the average amount of time spent reading print newspapers fell by more than 25 percent from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, the average amount of time spent reading a newspaper each day was 16.3 minutes, compared to 21.9 minutes in 2010. By 2017, ZenithOptimedia expects that number to fall to 14.1 minutes per day.
The post Global print newspaper readership falls by more than 25 percent in four years appeared first on American Press Institute.
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How to turn a business plan into a concise statement
To distill an extensive business plan into a shareable statement, Peter Baskerville recommends starting by describing what you do, which will likely convey the overarching direction of your business plan. From there, Baskerville says you may need to develop an “elevator pitch” that combines a few concepts from your business plan into a few sentences.
The post How to turn a business plan into a concise statement appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Media research needs faster academic publishing methods
Many media scholars have long been frustrated with the delays in the academic publishing system, but Jeff Pooley says the system is a problem because it makes it impossible for media scholars to keep up with change in the industry. Delays that were once just a bit annoying can now be crippling, rendering research outdated as soon as it’s published. Pooley proposes that instead of publishing more work, scholars should publish more often in “editions” with iterative updates.
The post Media research needs faster academic publishing methods appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Why publishers are failing to monetize digital subscription data
The customer data publishers get from launching paywalls is potentially valuable to advertisers, but that’s something many publishers haven’t taken advantage of. Digital subscription data could be used to pinpoint select audiences within users, something Time Inc. is experimenting with in its new digital subscription strategy. However, The Washington Post has replaced user registration data with interest profiles, which chief revenue officer Jed Hartman says provides greater scale and allows the Post to target based on intent.
The post Why publishers are failing to monetize digital subscription data appeared first on American Press Institute.
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Need to Know: June 1, 2015
Fresh useful insights for people advancing quality, innovative and sustainable journalism
You might have heard: Comment section can sometimes do more harm than good, leading some publishers to kill their comment sections
But did you know: The Coral Project wants to turn comment sections into communities (Poynter)
The Coral Project, a collaboration between The Washington Post, New York Times and Mozilla, is looking to transform interactive spaces on news sites through a series of open-source apps. The apps will be designed to work together to help publishers manage its online communities, as well as giving publishers more flexibility to use the parts they need and forgo the ones they don’t. Among the problems the Coral Project wants to solve is the amount of time and effort publishers have to put into monitoring online comment sections by giving publishers the ability to reward good commenters rather than police bad ones.
Each morning we scour the web for fresh useful insights in our Need to Know newsletter. Sign up below.
+ Noted: WNYC is breaking distribution ties with NPR to self-distribute Radiolab and On the Media (Current); Los Angeles Times revamps business section to expand coverage of real estate and adds a daily newsletter and weekly report on economy (LA Times); Quartz Africa launches and Quartz rolls out updates to its website including moving navigation on mobile to the bottom of the screen (Quartz), moving away from the top navigation many mobile sites have, which Adam Tinworth says is likely a good move to improve usability as phones get larger (One Man & His Blog); The rapid growth of ad blocking suggests it’s here to stay (Digiday); Charlotte-area community news sites DavidsonNews.net and CorneliusNews.net shut down due to an inability to sell enough advertising (Davidson News)
API UPDATE
Readers have mixed feelings about journalists interacting on Facebook
When journalists have Facebook pages, their interactions can influence what their audience thinks of them and their journalism, according to new research by Dr. Jayeon Lee, assistant professor in journalism and communication at Lehigh University. Lee’s research found that self-disclosure and interacting with commenters can lead people to view journalists more positively as a person, but their professional reputation can also be negatively affected by responding to comments. Natalie Jomini Stroud breaks down the findings as part of our regular Research Review series.
5 challenges publishers need to overcome for better mobile-first websites (INMA)
To deliver a first-rate mobile site, Mark Challinor says publishers start by making sure stakeholders including the CEO are on board with investing resources to create an excellent experience for users. To create that experience, Challinor outlines the biggest challenges publishers need to overcome, including personalizing the experience to each reader and maximizing the conversion to subscriptions.
+ A guide on how to assess demand for a hyperlocal platform: Think like a consumer and conduct competitive research (Street Fight)
Global print newspaper readership falls by more than 25 percent in four years (Guardian)
According to a new report by ZenithOptimedia on media consumption, the average amount of time spent reading print newspapers fell by more than 25 percent from 2010 to 2014. In 2014, the average amount of time spent reading a newspaper each day was 16.3 minutes, compared to 21.9 minutes in 2010. By 2017, ZenithOptimedia expects that number to fall to 14.1 minutes per day.
How to turn a business plan into a concise statement (Inc.)
To distill an extensive business plan into a shareable statement, Peter Baskerville recommends starting by describing what you do, which will likely convey the overarching direction of your business plan. From there, Baskerville says you may need to develop an “elevator pitch” that combines a few concepts from your business plan into a few sentences.
Media research needs faster academic publishing methods (Culture Digitally)
Many media scholars have long been frustrated with the delays in the academic publishing system, but Jeff Pooley says the system is a problem because it makes it impossible for media scholars to keep up with change in the industry. Delays that were once just a bit annoying can now be crippling, rendering research outdated as soon as it’s published. Pooley proposes that instead of publishing more work, scholars should publish more often in “editions” with iterative updates.
+ No one cares about your scoop more than you do: “The only people that care about such arbitrary designations are the reporters and editors that get them and the reporters and editors that do not” (Gawker)
Why publishers are failing to monetize digital subscription data (Digiday)
The customer data publishers get from launching paywalls is potentially valuable to advertisers, but that’s something many publishers haven’t taken advantage of. Digital subscription data could be used to pinpoint select audiences within users, something Time Inc. is experimenting with in its new digital subscription strategy. However, The Washington Post has replaced user registration data with interest profiles, which chief revenue officer Jed Hartman says provides greater scale and allows the Post to target based on intent.
+ A response to a graduating high school senior who wants to be a journalist but has been discouraged by people in the industry: “By the time you graduate college in four years, we will already be on the other side of the current insanity in the industry and into a new flurry of insanity … Whatever weird landscape you have to face then will be just as surreal as this one” (The Awl)
Each morning we scour the web for fresh useful insights in our Need to Know newsletter. Sign up below.
The post Need to Know: June 1, 2015 appeared first on American Press Institute.
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The Public Pension Funding Trap
State and local government pensions were national news during the recession, as unfunded liabilities rose into the trillions of dollars and overheated commentators predicted that rising pension costs could push governments into bankruptcy. Today attention has faded and the public-pension industry claims that plans are back on track. Don’t be too sure.
This piece was originally published by The Wall Street Journal on June 1. The full text will be published here on June 8. Click here to read the original publication.
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Readers have mixed feelings about journalists interacting on Facebook
On Facebook, personal storytelling and interaction abound. For journalists, however, these practices seem to breach traditional norms that they should avoid entering the fray.
But what about when journalists have Facebook pages? Should journalists engage, as Facebook norms suggest? Or avoid interaction, as traditional journalism norms dictate?
New research by Dr. Jayeon Lee, assistant professor in journalism and communication at Lehigh University, shows the benefits and drawbacks of journalists engaging online. Journalists’ online behavior can influence what audiences think of them and their journalism.
Lee’s findings show that self-disclosure and interacting with commenters can lead audiences to evaluate a journalist more positively as a person. However, one’s professional reputation can be negatively affected by responding to comments.
“Self-disclosure and interacting with commenters can lead audiences to evaluate a journalist more positively as a person.
”
To reach these conclusions, Lee conducted an experiment where 267 college students saw one of four different Facebook profiles, all attributed to a fictional journalist named David Miller.
- In the first profile, David posted links to two news articles, one about a movie and a second about a hard news topic such as the economy. Several comments appeared beneath each post.
- The second version of David’s profile was identical, with one exception: David shared a personal experience when he posted each story. He wrote about his dad’s movie preferences and his own bout with unemployment.
- The third profile version was the same as the first, but again with one change. David had written back to each commenter, tagging them in his response.
- The fourth and final mock profile included both additions – David self-disclosed and interacted with the commenters.
After reading the profile, study participants answered questions about what they thought of David as a person and as a professional.
Evaluations of David as a person – for example, how friendly, honest, and sincere he seemed – increased when participants saw him self-disclosing or interacting with the commenters.
Evaluations of David as a professional, however, took a hit when he interacted with the commenters. When David engaged the commenters on his Facebook page – responding to each comment and tagging the commenter – the study participants rated him as less professional than when David did not interact with the commenters.
Self-disclosure did not affect participants’ ratings of David’s professionalism.
David’s actions on Facebook also affected impressions of his reporting. After study participants registered their opinions of David Miller, they were asked to read a piece of journalism attributed to David Miller in the byline. They then rated the article. Study participants’ ratings of David were reflected in their ratings of his work. If they found David to be personable, they also tended to rate the journalism as more approachable. If they found David unprofessional, the journalism also seemed subpar.
Lee’s research shows both the promise and pitfalls of engaging audiences online. Caution is warranted in over-generalizing these findings — this study used particular forms of interaction and self-disclosure. Whether other forms of engagement yield different results is an open question.
“A journalist’s online behavior has an impact, and not always in positive ways.
”
Building on her work, scholars can examine what journalists can do on social media to preserve their professional reputation while still forging a personal connection to audiences.
For example, we need to know more about whether the amount of interaction matters. In the experiment, the mock Facebook page made it seem as though the journalist responded to every comment. It’s possible that this level of interaction tanked the journalist’s professional reputation in the minds of the study participants because it seemed like the journalist was spending a lot of time on Facebook.
In addition, the tone of the journalist’s responses may matter for how audiences evaluate the journalist. In Lee’s study, David Miller wrote back to one commenter by saying “I agree that it’s important.” Language like “I agree,” even when it is used only to highlight the importance of an issue, may harm journalists’ professional reputation.
Additional experimentation that reveals precisely what activities help and hinder a journalist’s reputation online will provide even more guidance and will build upon Lee’s important research. Lee’s study provides an invaluable starting point. A journalist’s online behavior has an impact, and not always in positive ways.
Next steps
Scholars and news organizations interested in continuing this line of research could collaborate to analyze:
- What sorts of self-disclosures and interactions are evaluated positively and what sorts are evaluated negatively?
- Should journalists post only about topics that they cover for their news organization? Does posting about other topics affect impressions of the journalist?
- Do audiences respond differently to journalists posting on their personal Facebook page versus journalists posting on the news organization’s page?
Citation
Jayeon Lee. (2015). The Double-Edged Sword: The Effects of Journalists’ Social Media Activities on Audience Perceptions of Journalists and Their News Products. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12113
Research Review is a monthly series highlighting useful news-related findings from scholarly research papers. It is written by Natalie Jomini Stroud, associate professor of communication studies, assistant director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Life, and director of the Engaging News Project at the University of Texas at Austin. We hope this series will bring new insights to working journalists, as well as spark ideas among academics with an interest in researching the news.
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