Citizen Journalism in 2007 Steve Lacey, Dan Riffe, Esther Thorson, Margaret Duffy Thanks to the generosity of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, the Knight Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust

Goals of the project How are consumers seeking and receiving news about their government, their communities and their fellow citizens? What is the nature of news and information produced by these digital sites? How extensive is the amount of public news and information coming from these community sites? Who is the source of the efforts? From where is the financial support coming?

Methodology and approach Create a census of news forms and offerings Develop a taxonomy of news categories, news sites, news formats, and business models Sample and analyze news in large, medium, and small cities across the U.S. Build a social network allowing seekers, experts, and interested parties to communicate, develop solutions

The content analysis process Phase I: Explore online citizen journalism activities to generate a reliable and valid content analysis protocol for use in a larger Phase II study (15 markets, large, medium and small) Phase II: Coding the sampled sites for presentation, linkage, financial support, and citizen participation, expanding total numbers of sites found and reviewed

Defining citizen journalism Site must identify some specific geographic area Site must indicate that a significant portion of content is provided by volunteers or community members, not professional journalists Journalism content will mostly focus on the local geographic area At least some of the material on the site must be originally produced or aggregated by citizens who participate

Neighborhood CitJ

A blogger with an agenda

Legacy news site

Richmond, VA rife with CitJ

Not so participatory? CapabilityBlogsNews Site Upload community activities 8%28% Upload news/features10%40% Upload letters to editor 8%20% Upload audio0%16% Upload photos5%20% Upload video5%12%

What we found Online citizen journalism belongs to the citizens who build the web sites: strong gatekeepers News sites more welcoming than blogs User content not the norm Increased linking to outside sites Considerable variation in the structures of both legacy and citizen journalism sites, adding complexity to the coding Most citizen journalism sites are blogs or primarily blogs Many citizen journalism sites are trying to sell advertising, but success varies widely; advertising much more common on news sites than blogs Technology of sites varies, though most limited to RSS feeds Opportunities for neighborhood level journalism as this is an area not usually covered by legacy news sites

Beta testing the social network

Algorithms match seekers and resources

The Media Choice Model (Duffy, Thorson) offers guidance An abundance of research and opinion about the new media landscape but little in the way of an organizing framework The framework we created: 1. Explains why and how changes are occurring in the new media landscape 2. Poses a new set of research questions to ask 3. Suggests a needs- and features- based segmented audience strategy with multiple news products

Home Media Capacity Product Route to home Display Local storage TV stations phone TVCassette/ 8-track broadcast TV radio broadcast radio stereoVinyl album Local news mail Advertising newspaper deliveryphone Radio Stations non-electronic Tom Wolzein, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co

Home Media Capacity – Today Product Route to home Display Local storage cableVCR TV stations phone/DSLTV Info wirelessradioDVD “Daily me” broadcast TVPCWeb-based storage contentServer/ TiVo (PVR) Cable Nets broadcast radiostereoPC Web sites satellitemonitor Local news mailheadphonesCD/CD-ROM Content from express deliverypager individuals iPod / storageMP3 player / iPod Peer-to-peer subcarriers / WIFIcell phonepagers - PDAs Advertising newspaper deliveryphonecable box Radio stationsPDA/Palmgame console game console Satellite radionon-electronicStorage sticks/disks Tom Wolzein, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co

Desire to Create Media Content “When news happens it’s common for the first photographs not to be sent via news wire, but posted to a Flickr site.” -- Newsweek, April 3, 2006 Growth of MySpace and Facebook Flickr, YouTube 30 million blogs with over 2 billion links Blogosphere size doubles every 5.5 months MSNBC site where people report on hurricanes, bombings, other major events More and more frequently, citizen journalists will be there first

Decreased Perception of Need for Traditional News Mean agreement with the statement: “I need to get the news (national, international, local) every day.” Across all ages, agreement down 6% from 1995 to 2005 Agreement among Baby Boomers down 5% from Agreement among those 60+ down 8% from The mean of youngest group’s expressed need for news is 29% lower than oldest group’s

Growing Demand for Self-Relevant Input “Consumers want their media when they want it, how they want it and in whatever quantities they want it.” -- Price-Waterhouse, 2006 RSS feeds iPod personalized playlists TiVo Personalized ringtones Growing preference for “news with a viewpoint”

So How Can We Understand What’s Going On? First, begin with four basic communication needs that forms the basis of the Media Choice Model ◦Connectivity ◦Information ◦Entertainment ◦Shopping/consuming

Every Instance of Media Use is Motivated by a Communication Need Logging into Facebook, having special ring tones for your friends, and belonging to an online affinity group are connectivity behaviors Searching for a map online is informational behavior Listening to your iPod is entertainment behavior Going to Amazon for books is shopping behavior

Second, Understand the Features of the New Media that Make Communication… ◦Immediate ◦Participatory ◦Mobile (AND Immediate) ◦Searchable ◦Customizable ◦Rich in sight, sound and movement ◦On demand (time shifting)

Usability Features of Each News Medium

Know Your Customers’ Apertures Aperture is a window of time in which people are most likely to be responsive to a persuasive media message. For example, we only advertise cake mix on Thursday and Friday because cakes are only baked on the weekend.

News Consumption Is Aperture- Controlled For example: In 2005, three lifestage segments (high income/kids; high and medium income/no kids) were more likely to spend time Sunday mornings with the Internet than with a newspaper (Kannon, 2006) Newspaper use for information on Sunday mornings has plummeted for these lifestage groups (Kannon, 2006) On weekday mornings young people’s aperture is open for entertainment; older people’s aperture is open for information (DDB 2005)

News Types Authoritative: Created and produced by news professionals Created: News and information produced by audiences Opinionated: News and information with attitude and voice (personality) Collaborative: News and information co- produced by audiences and journalists

What’s a journalist to do? How can one use the model to leverage online resources and expertise to grow audience in this new media landscape?

Do Research and Pay Attention to It Focus on needs, media features, lifestyles, aperture and preferences for news format and Do your own content audit ◦What are the tones and voices of your paper, blog, or CitJ site?? ◦What does your site say is important and why? ◦How are women and ethnic minorities represented?

Measure Need States In Readers and Non-Readers How important are each of the following in your choice to get news from one form of media over another? News related to connectivity needs: Getting news I can share with my friends Getting news that makes me feel smarter Knowing who wrote or compiled the news Being able to see who is reporting the news News related to information needs: Alerting me to damaging or harmful situations Makes me think News related to entertainment: Entertains me, makes me feel relaxed, is supportive of my point of view

Measure Preference for Media Features How important are each of the following in your choice to get news from one form of media over another? Getting news when I want it Getting only the news I want Getting news as soon as it happens Getting news that’s easy to understand Getting news that’s rich with images Getting news that I can share with my friends

Measure Aperture for Different Lifestyles/Demographics What media do you use in the ___ time of day to get information, stay connected, be entertained?

Measure Preferences for News Format News that comes from a long-established source is most credible (authoritative) News from other people like me is something I can really trust (opinionated) I like seeing a major news event from the perspective of people who are experiencing it (created)

Consider How the Online and Print Versions Combine to Fill Needs Many online experiments bring need satisfaction and media features together in new ways

Communication Needs Connectivity, Information Entertainment, Shopping INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES Age, Income, Gender, Education, Culture, Race APERTURE Task to be done Time of day TRADITIONAL MEDIA FEATURES (Authoritative Content) Print Sound Moving Images Portability Scanability MEDIA CHOICES GRATIFICATION and COMPLETENESS NEW and TRADITIONAL MEDIA FEATURES (Authoritative and Created Content) Print Sound Moving Images Portability Scanability Participation Easy Immediacy Customizability Interactivity Search Mobility New Technologies NEWS APPROACHES Authoritative Created Opinionated

Things to discuss What should CitJ gatekeeping role be? How can CitJ generate support? Volunteers, donations, grant support, help from colleges & universities What evolving systems of distribution such as cell phones might work? How might CitJ expand use of links on home pages and within stories? How can citizen journalism sites and blogs become more interactive? Is there an expanding role of professionals and legacy media? How can CitJ and new journalism advocates better understand citizens and how to serve them?