Evan Milberg: Comm 361

This chapter focuses on the interactivity of news that has been touched upon in previous chapters. The challenge in making journalism interactive is balancing objectivity and journalistic credibility with informality of conversation. There are also legal and ethical issues that come with people publishing anything they want and ignoring copyright laws. Finally, how do you attract an audience that is too apathetic to participate?

News as a Conversation

Most journalists would rather speak AT their audience as opposed to WITH their audience. However, due to the growth of journalism in accordance with Web 2.0 technology, stories must come in the form of conversations so the audience feels actively involved. It is no longer enough to simply make comments on blog postings anymore. Journalist must also communicate through social networking sites such as Facebook and microblogs like Twitter. The benefits of news as a conversation are:

• The stories become transparent
• You can manage feedback and communicate in real time
• You can spread awareness through word-of-mouth advertising

As mentioned in a previous chapter, beatblogging sites like NowPublic are already doing this.

Building an Online Community

In order to get an audience involved, journalists themselves must be committed to interactive media. Among things journalists can do to maximize the effects of their interactive web sites are:

• Asking for content from the audience, allowing them to become a part of the journalistic process
• Moderating feedback on stories and other types of user submissions
• Assisting your audience with the Web 2.0 technology
• Create contests which give the audience an incentive to participate
• ADVERSTISE!!

Some of your audience members can also prove to be valueable sources when creating content for the Web. Many of these sources can come through social networks like MySpace or LinkedIn. Journalists can also create their own niche social network and use pro-am journalism to collaborate with their community.

Maintain Accuracy and Ethics within the Web

There are some potential risks to collaborative journalism. The Web is anonymous, and anyone can post an offensive post that could do more harm than benefit. The journalist is responsible for monitoring all content that is published and making sure it isn’t offensive. The journalist also has legal responsibilities to make sure he or she is not breaking any copyright laws.

It is also important to note when errors have been made and to correct them as soon as you can. Journalism, regardless of its medium, is obligated to be accurate.