Facing the Challenges of Convergence : Media Professionals' Concerns of Working Across Media Platforms
Edgar Huang, Karen Davison, Stephanie Shreve, Twila Davis, Elizabeth Bettendorf and Anita Nair
Convergence 2006 12: 83 DOI: 10.1177/1354856506061557
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Abstract
This article examines some top concerns in the media industry brought up by media convergence including the need to update news staff, production quality, compensation for multi-platform productions and the legitimacy of media convergence. An online national survey was conducted both among merged and non-merged daily newspapers and commercial TV stations to find out to what extent such concerns were shared by editors/news directors and news professionals and what their answers were.
Discussion and Conclusions
As an experimental industrial trend, media convergence in the sense of media mergers is still in its formative stage. Whether it will sustain its momentum to some kind of maturity is yet to be seen. Media convergence, however, initiated and made possible by digital technology, is more than media mergers propelled largely by financial considerations. More pervasive is the media convergence in the senses of content convergence, technological convergence, and especially role convergence, which have occurred not only in merged media companies but also in non-merged ones. No matter whether corporate media mergers continue or not, the other three forms of media convergence are likely to continue. Multiplatform news reporting will be the way tomorrow’s news is presented.
Most editors and news professionals in this survey are not from merged media companies. Many editors and news professionals do not yet see media mergers as beneficial to the general public and news professionals. But their backgrounds and political views do not prevent them from sharing with other respondents with different backgrounds and political views many opinions regarding practicing news across platforms. Such common understanding is shaping a force that intensifies the media convergence in the USA. Media practitioners need to think more about how the general public can benefit from convergence so that the convergence endeavors can be better justified. Media managements also need to think about how news practitioners can benefit from convergence and how their efforts in repurposing stories can be recognized apart from adding their names to bylines in another platform.
The fact that most news professionals wished to learn skills on the job, to some extent reflected their need for a technological update, so that they can better produce multimedia reporting. It is important that media management provide resources and time for mid-career professionals to learn multiplatform reporting skills. The finding also implies that future journalists need multiplatform reporting training while in school. Learning critical thinking is important for students, but multimedia writing and production skills are equally important when it comes to delivering a thoroughly reasoned, well-told and balanced story to the public in the multitude of ways readers want to access news today.
As more news companies are practicing multiplatform reporting with or without their companies being merged, it is important that editors with multiplatform experience are chosen to direct newsroom businesses. Editors need multiplatform training more urgently than news professionals do if the news company they work for produces news contents for multiple media platforms on a daily basis. Many opportunities exist for news companies and universities to work together to explore the issue of media convergence and provide mid-career professionals and editors with multiplatform technological training. It seems sensible that opportunities for learning multimedia skills should be made available both on campus and through off-site continuing education programs.
The study shows that convergence should not become an excuse for poor quality production. Both editors and news professionals do care about quality, but they are not prevalently concerned about the quality of work currently re-purposed for multiple media platforms. Therefore, there is no reason to be concerned that future journalists who are being trained on multiple media platforms and better prepared for convergence will be jacks of all trades but masters of none or will produce worse reporting. Training students to practice news in multiple media platforms will help bridge newsroom cultures from different media and eventually erase such differences.
The study also shows that, to conduct high-quality reporting, knowing how to write is still the expected top priority for news professionals with any specializations. Therefore, when mid-career professionals update their multimedia knowledge and learn new technology, they should continue to learn to write for different platforms. News professionals working in converged media need to learn to show their critical thinking both in texts and in images.
More studies need to be done to further evaluate the legitimacy of media convergence including how this phenomenon is affecting democracy in the USA, the quality of the news presentations produced under convergence pressure, the wellbeing of news professionals in a convergence environment, and the audience/readers/web surfers.
Convergence 2006 12: 83 DOI: 10.1177/1354856506061557
Abstract
This article examines some top concerns in the media industry brought up by media convergence including the need to update news staff, production quality, compensation for multi-platform productions and the legitimacy of media convergence. An online national survey was conducted both among merged and non-merged daily newspapers and commercial TV stations to find out to what extent such concerns were shared by editors/news directors and news professionals and what their answers were.
Discussion and Conclusions
As an experimental industrial trend, media convergence in the sense of media mergers is still in its formative stage. Whether it will sustain its momentum to some kind of maturity is yet to be seen. Media convergence, however, initiated and made possible by digital technology, is more than media mergers propelled largely by financial considerations. More pervasive is the media convergence in the senses of content convergence, technological convergence, and especially role convergence, which have occurred not only in merged media companies but also in non-merged ones. No matter whether corporate media mergers continue or not, the other three forms of media convergence are likely to continue. Multiplatform news reporting will be the way tomorrow’s news is presented.
Most editors and news professionals in this survey are not from merged media companies. Many editors and news professionals do not yet see media mergers as beneficial to the general public and news professionals. But their backgrounds and political views do not prevent them from sharing with other respondents with different backgrounds and political views many opinions regarding practicing news across platforms. Such common understanding is shaping a force that intensifies the media convergence in the USA. Media practitioners need to think more about how the general public can benefit from convergence so that the convergence endeavors can be better justified. Media managements also need to think about how news practitioners can benefit from convergence and how their efforts in repurposing stories can be recognized apart from adding their names to bylines in another platform.
The fact that most news professionals wished to learn skills on the job, to some extent reflected their need for a technological update, so that they can better produce multimedia reporting. It is important that media management provide resources and time for mid-career professionals to learn multiplatform reporting skills. The finding also implies that future journalists need multiplatform reporting training while in school. Learning critical thinking is important for students, but multimedia writing and production skills are equally important when it comes to delivering a thoroughly reasoned, well-told and balanced story to the public in the multitude of ways readers want to access news today.
As more news companies are practicing multiplatform reporting with or without their companies being merged, it is important that editors with multiplatform experience are chosen to direct newsroom businesses. Editors need multiplatform training more urgently than news professionals do if the news company they work for produces news contents for multiple media platforms on a daily basis. Many opportunities exist for news companies and universities to work together to explore the issue of media convergence and provide mid-career professionals and editors with multiplatform technological training. It seems sensible that opportunities for learning multimedia skills should be made available both on campus and through off-site continuing education programs.
The study shows that convergence should not become an excuse for poor quality production. Both editors and news professionals do care about quality, but they are not prevalently concerned about the quality of work currently re-purposed for multiple media platforms. Therefore, there is no reason to be concerned that future journalists who are being trained on multiple media platforms and better prepared for convergence will be jacks of all trades but masters of none or will produce worse reporting. Training students to practice news in multiple media platforms will help bridge newsroom cultures from different media and eventually erase such differences.
The study also shows that, to conduct high-quality reporting, knowing how to write is still the expected top priority for news professionals with any specializations. Therefore, when mid-career professionals update their multimedia knowledge and learn new technology, they should continue to learn to write for different platforms. News professionals working in converged media need to learn to show their critical thinking both in texts and in images.
More studies need to be done to further evaluate the legitimacy of media convergence including how this phenomenon is affecting democracy in the USA, the quality of the news presentations produced under convergence pressure, the wellbeing of news professionals in a convergence environment, and the audience/readers/web surfers.
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