Maybe!

News is changing.

Reporting is changing.

Newsroom and news outlet management is changing.

Yet the fundamentals and models that we are measuring against are not changing.

Are we looking at a problem?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism said in a 2008 report:

In today’s newspapers, stories tend to be gathered faster and under greater pressure by a smaller, less experienced staff of reporters, then are passed more quickly through fewer, less experienced, editing hands on their way to publication.

So what do we do?

We need to rethink what we are doing.

One place to start is by reading the FCC’s report The Information Needs of Communities.

As technology offered consumers new choices, it upended traditional news industry business models, resulting in massive job losses—including roughly 13,400 newspaper newsroom positions in just the past four years. This has created gaps in coverage that even the fast-growing digital world has yet to fill. It is difficult to know what positive changes might be just around the corner, but at this moment the media deficits in many communities are consequential. Newspapers are innovating rapidly and reaching new audiences through digital platforms but most are operating with smaller reporting staffs, and as a result are often offering less in-depth coverage of critical topics such as health, education and local government. Many local TV news broadcasts remain excellent, and, on average, they actually produce more hours of news than a few years ago—but too few are investing in more reporting on critical local issues and some have cut back staff. Beyond that, a minority are exhibiting alarming tendencies to allow advertisers to dictate content. In most communities, commercial radio, cable, and satellite play a small role in reporting local news. Public TV does little local programming; public radio makes an effort to contribute but has limited resources. Most important, too few Internet-native local news operations have so far gained sufficient traction financially to make enough of an impact. 6On close inspection, some aspects of the modern media landscape may seem surprising:

> An abundance of media outlets does not translate into an abundance of reporting. In many communities, there are now more outlets, but less local accountability reporting.

> While digital technology has empowered people in many ways, the concurrent decline in local reporting has, in other cases, shifted power away from citizens to government and other powerful institutions, which can more often set the news agenda.

> Far from being nearly-extinct dinosaurs, the traditional media players—TV stations and newspapers—have emerged as the largest providers of local news online.

> The nonprofit media sector has become far more varied, and important, than ever before. It now includes state public affairs networks, wikis, local news websites, organizations producing investigative reporting, and journalism schools as well as low-power FM stations, traditional public radio and TV, educational shows on satellite TV, and public access channels. Most of the players neither receive, nor seek, government funds.

> Rather than seeing themselves only as competitors, commercial and nonprofit media are now finding it increasingly useful to collaborate.

As the report says in the end it all comes down to accountability when we look at the ideas of convergent content and distribution systems.

We face not a broad crisis of “the news” or “content”—but something much more specific: a shortage of local, professional accountability reporting.

So, what are we doing about this real issue?

What is convergent journalism and is anyone really teaching it?

Sure there is a lot of talk but is there a lot of actual application?

And then there is the whole issue of whether convergent journalism simply further blurs the PR/journalism line altogether.

Here is a good place to start the conversation, a definition.

Criado and Kraeplin (2009) give a very functional definition. They define convergence journalism as, “print, broadcast, and online news staffs forging partnerships in which journalists work and distribute content across several news platforms” (p. 19).

So is convergent journalism the media, the message or a bit of both?

I opt for the second and then wonder, out loud, if we professors are actually teaching convergence or building our own media silos to protect our fields of interest!

I suspect the later.

The only thing getting in the way of students being taught how to be convergent storytellers is academia!

For instance check out this converged story.

You have not heard of Storify?

You need to watch this interview with the creators.

One of the guys was an AP reporter for close to 12 years.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Convergent journalism is about tools and how we use them.

There has never been a better time than now to start talking about the media and the message being combined to tell the full and continuing story.

Journalism isn’t just telling anymore it is curating content.

Is today’s academia ready for convergence of the storytelling process?

Maybe the better question is does it really matter if academia is ready or not for the convergence process?

Do you actually care?

I do!

And like many professors I often wonder if anything I am doing is actually having an impact on the future.

By the future I mean are my students taking any of the lessons, internalizing them in some way and making use of the aggregate in the future.

Well last night I had a conversation with  2002 Zayed University graduate, one of the 1st students I taught int he UAE.

Sure this is not a statistical sample!

But there is no question that the education WE provided at Zayed University had an impact on this student, even if it was tiny, it was an impact.

Farah is doing some very clever things and has a hunger to engage in social experiments!

Listen to our conversation to hear what I am talking about!

It made me feel pretty good to know that this person thought that there was some value to the education I helped deliver.

I think we need to see and hear the product of what we do in the ivory tower a little more often!

Thanks Farah!

I suspect all too often we miss the signs that what we are doing is having an impact.

Today I was working with a class on an end of term project and gave the all clear to leave 20 minutes early.

The usual reaction of students is to run!

Today as I sat at a desk after giving the all clear command I was in shock!

For 25 minutes 2 groups of students were planning, debating and organizing the work they had to do for the project.

And best of all they were working as if I was not there! The bonus for me was that I got a chance to listen in on the thinking process.

My verdict?

Something got through, I am doing something right.