Introduction to

Digital Journalism
What is digital journalism?
 Digital journalism is a contemporary form of journalism
where editorial content is distributed via the Internet.

 Print media rarely break news stories anymore, with

most websites reporting on breaking news before the
cable news channels.

 Digital journalism allows for reports to start out vague

and generalized, and progress to a better story throughout
the day minute by minute.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

1. Immediacy
 Immediacy means that there is no lag between when
information is received or created at a news producer and
when the information is passed on to the news consumer.

 Digital sources are able to provide quick & efficient reporting of

breaking news in a matter of seconds, providing society with a
synopsis of events as they occur.

 Throughout the development of the event, journalists are able to

feed digital sources the information keeping readers up-to-date in
mere seconds.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

 Digital journalism also takes advantage of shifted time.

digital publications can publish and archive articles for
viewing now or later. The nature of internet publishing
permits vast amounts of information & articles to be stored
and easily retrieved.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

2. Unlimited Space:
 The internet overcomes the spatial & temporal limitations of other media.
 The lack of serious space limitations permits digital journalists to

develop a story more fully and to publish source documents and

background material.
E.g. In an digital story about the final verdict in a crime, the journalist can
add a link to the full text of the court decision.
It would be too expensive for a newspaper to print out the full text & A TV
news anchor does not have time to read it all out.

 Smart phones users have access to news everywhere & at any time of the
day.
 What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

3. Multimedia Capacity:
 Digital journalism opens up new ways of storytelling; through the
technical components of the new medium, journalists can provide a
variety of media, such as audio, video, graphics, animations …etc.)

 Digital journalism is a lot more than writing a story. As a

digital/multimedia journalist, you need to do it all; be an interviewer,
cameraman, editor, video-editor, producer, presenter and every necessary
job to bring a story to live.

 Live reporting became popular since 2012. (Live blogging and live
tweeting from court and council meetings).
Video #1
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

4. Interactivity
 Hyper-texts & Hyperlinks represent the primary mechanism for interactivity,
linking various elements of a lengthy, complex work, introducing multiple
points of view, and adding depth and details.

 A work of digital journalism can consist of an hyperlinked set of web pages;

these pages can themselves include hyperlinks to other web sites, databases,
sources, studies …etc., this obviously add richness and credibility to the stories.

 Traditional journalism guides the reader through a linear narrative. The digital
journalist lets readers become participants, as they click their way through a
hyperlinked set of pages. Narrative momentum and a strong editorial voice pull
a reader through a non-linear narrative.
 What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

 Digital journalism creates an opportunity for niche audiences, allowing people to

have more options as to what to view and read.

 However, with interactivity, the digital journalist can pre-determine, to a certain

extent, the reader/participant's progress through the material, but manifold
navigation pathways, branching options (hyperlinks) that encourage the
reader/participant to continue to explore various narrative threads assembled by the
reporter/writer/editor.

 Readers/participants can respond instantly to material presented by the digital

journalist; this response can take several forms (comments, e-mails to the reporter or
editor, discussions, most importantly creating their own content…etc.)

 Digital journalism creates the platform to follow up on ideas and opinions that first
emerge online.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

5. Audience Control
 Journalism is no longer a top-down process. It is more like a
conversation between the generator (journalist) and the users (readers).

 The internet affords the audience greater control over information. Two
people can log on to the same news website & choose to read entirely
different stories, or even access the same story but select different parts
to read or respond to.

 Users have the power to choose the information they want when they
want, retrieve it how they want and where they want, so they become
actively engaged in seeking & using that information.
What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

6. Story structure
 As digital media offers unlimited supporting documents for your story,
writing itself must be more compact than traditional media because you
don't need to include background information - you can simply link to it.
Reading online is typically 25% slower than print
 Write short, for readers who scan websites instead of reading thoroughly.

Vast majority of what’s written for the Internet is under 1000 words.
 Write to the point

 Use common language

 Use infographics, interactive polls, games …etc.

 The average length of video reports have recently been squeezed from

three minutes to one a half minute. Sub-titles are highly recommended.

What are the distinguishing characteristics of digital
journalism as compared to traditional journalism?

Writing techniques
• Consider the inverted pyramid for breaking or serious news.
• List format, break up the text and help readers scan Web stories quickly.
(CNN tops its Web stories with a bulleted list of the main points).
• Question/Answer format, good alternative but need an introduction.
• Storytelling format, narrative writing can be compelling, especially if it is
split into several pages with cliff-hanger ending that entice readers to
continue.

Digital writing has such different sourcing standards than print

because it’s much easier to hyperlink to source material instead of
explicitly attributing and fact-checking information.
Multimedia stories take advantage of the strengths of each medium

 Video to show action (teens skateboarding, high school wrestling, a chef

cooking), capture strong quotes (witnesses at an accident site, a cancer
survivor talking about her ordeal) or take viewers somewhere they wouldn’t
have access to (behind the scenes at a concert) or places they would want to
visit (a Disneyland ride, the World Cup).
 Photos to capture strong emotion or a key moment in time (a mother reunites
with a long lost child, someone talks about losing their home). Pictures still
are often worth a thousand words.
 Audio to capture compelling quotes (a veteran talking about the battlefield, a
mother talking about a child) or telling “ambient” sound (the din in a crowded
restaurant, music, stadium cheers, construction noise, gunfire).
 Graphics to show complicated processes (how a bill moves through Congress,
how a new surgery works) or complex data (employment figures, violence
rates, population percentages in cities) in an easy-to-understand format.
Social Media mainly impacted Newsrooms
 Twitter (speed- capsulized), Facebook (users engagement) and

recently instagram (unfiltered photography) are the social

media platforms that have impacted journalism the most.
Citizen Journalism

The concept of citizen

journalism is basically
journalism in the hands of
citizens other than professional
journalists.

It is based upon public citizens

"playing an active role in the
process of collecting, reporting,
analysing, and disseminating
news and information.
 Citizen Journalism
 Internet allows anyone who wants to share something they deem important
that has happened in their community.

 Individuals who are not professional journalists who present news through
their blogs or websites are often referred to as citizen journalists.

 Citizen journalists are able to publish information that may not be reported
otherwise, and the public has a greater opportunity to be informed. Some
organizations need citizen journalists when they themselves can access
certain places or situations, for example, in countries where freedom of the
press is limited.

 Journalists are now adding tweets or videos from eyewitnesses to news

stories.
 Advantages of Citizen Journalism
 Provides instant/ real time coverage of events.
 Ability to reach areas/ situations where traditional journalists are
prohibited or simply unavailable.
Reporters cannot know about all the newsworthy events that are occurring.
This is where citizen journalists can help; they can report on the events that
the traditional journalists may miss. Natural disasters or freak accidents are
good examples of when its an advantage to have citizen journalists reporting
as they are right there when it happens.

 The Internet gave average people the ability to transmit information

globally. That was a power once reserved for only the very largest media
corporations and news agencies.

 Citizen journalism can report facts and news that is largely ignored by
large media.
Advantages of Citizen Journalism

 News can be told without being swayed by political views or

other agendas. As traditional media is usually controlled by board
of directors and advertisers.

 Helps to get local citizens more engaged in the issues affecting

their lives.

 Professional journalists tend to omit the underlying, not

interesting facts of an event (from their point of view or due to
professional reasons). On the other hand, citizen journalists give
the readers full versions of the stories.

 Some types of citizen journalism also act as a check on the

reporting of larger news outlets by providing alternative analysis.
Disadvantages of Citizen Journalism

 Lack of Professionalism
Critics of the citizen journalism, including professional
journalists, claim that citizen journalism is unregulated,
amateur, and haphazard in quality and coverage.

 Reduced Reliability
 It is human nature to edit an event to their own likeness.
Therefore citizen’s news can easily be false or partially
inaccurate.
o On the other hand, professional journalists are aware, consequently
careful to separate facts from opinions, many citizen journalists
have a weaker sense and knowledge of what constitutes a reliable
story.
 Disadvantages of Citizen Journalism

 Reduced quality of content- Amidst the diverse

array of information and sources, discerning
between important and trivial content becomes
difficult and time consuming.

 Citizen journalists could compromise security,

and add to risks of putting themselves or others
at harm.

 Citizen reporters don’t have any ethics training in

how to handle certain situations that may arise.