Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

Index
1. Technological advances in media: 3.0 and social networks. 2. Interactivity in media 3. Conclusion 4. Bibliography

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

1.Technological advances in media:3.0 and social networks

The history of mass media can be traced back to the days when dramas were performed in ancient cultures. Since it was the first time when a form of media was "broadcast" to a wider audience. The next step in Occidental media came with Guttenbergs printing press, which helped books to leave monasteries and rich peoples homes to reach other audiences, such as the medium class or bourgeoisie. Newspapers started being developed from about 1612, but they took until the 19th century to reach a mass-audience directly. But it wasnt until in the early 1800s when the first high-circulation newspapers arose. The notion of "mass media" was generally restricted to print media up until the post-Second World War, when radio and television were introduced. The audio-visual facilities became very popular, because they provided both information and entertainment and because it was easier for the general public to watch TV or listen to the radio rather than to read. In recent times, the Internet has become the most popular mass media. Information has become readily available through websites, and it is easily accessible through search engines, and provides also some new tools for users that want to take active part in the news agenda or simply want to give their opinion about whats going on, as time has passed, technology has become increasingly developed and now everyone can have Internet in their mobile phone and share and receive information from all around the world through the so-called Social Networks, the term globalization has reached its peak.

2. Interactivity in Media

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

During many time, mass media were considered as a one-way communication, apart from the letters from the reader section that every single newspaper has. But since the Internet appeared in the homes from all around the world around two decades ago and the new technological devices and applications are appearing every day, mass media has been forced to get adapted to this new globalized world. As Susan Ming shows us in her study on online newspapers1, the main concern of newspaper to get into the Internet was approaching to new markets, as moving newspapers online might recapture young readers, who have fallen away from the habit of reading hard-copy papers. Other privileges Ming sees on this change are: the possibility to store a lot of archives that can be used later with the search engines and the reduction of the costs of newsprints production while increasing the benefits for the selling of advertisement packages in the web. Also noted is the increase in the coverage of the reports and its continuous actualization as new data appears, not only written, but also in other different formats such as video. This trend has also been followed by television channels and even radio ones, so competition between media has become harder, but still there are some differences between them, specially related to the format and the design. But the most important advantage Internet has given to media and its users is the possibility to interact between them and also the media even if they are in a long distance, as Castells shows in his research2 on media and its effect in society and more concretely, in globalization; it is what he called network society because we all are linked by the different social networks.

1 Ming, Susan: User & Gratifications of Online Newspapers, The Electronic Journal of Communication, vol.VII, 3, 1997.
Available at: http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/007/3/007312.HTML

2 Castells, Manuel: The Culture of Real Virtuality: The integration of Electronic Communication, the End of the Mass
Audience and the Rise of Interactive Networks, in The Rise of the Network Society, vol. I, Chapter 5, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford 2010.

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

Indeed, now users can create their own news bulletin and look at it updated when and where they want to and also share it with friends and comment it with people from all over the world, which helps the spread of news and also helps into targeting the user in a certain commercial group according to the news he/she thinks more interesting..

Example of comments and Social Network links in a Spanish newspaper webpage.

Indeed, these users can also give their vision of the news and help reporters get material impossible to get in some other way, due to the censorship or some other problems, that is the case of the called Arab Spring that shook the foundations of the Arab world then known. This coincides with the theory held by Muhtased and Frey3 that most people take advantage on the security and easy way of getting anonymity from the web fearing the repercussion of their opinions, examples of this behaviour can be found in the previously mentioned Arab Spring, but also in Cuba, Oriental countries like Korea or the anti-capitalist movement, that has grown up in different parts of the world thanks to its promotion in social networks; and in small social groups, as could be Arabs living in the U.S., which is the group showed in Muhtased and Frey project. But the Internet and the social networks are not only used as a form of social protest or complaint, but recently some politics, actors and of course, all kind of celebrities, have used these new technological tools. At first some important public characters were not very sure about how this would affect to their professional carreer, as Jennifer Stonner-Galley shows in her article for Journal of Communication4.
3 Muhtased, A. and Frey, L.: Arab Americans Motives for Using the Internet as a Functional Media Alternative and Their Perceptions of U.S. Public Opinion, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. XIII,3

4 Stonner-Galley, J.: Online interaction and Why Candidates Avoid it, Journal of Communication vol. L, 4, pages 111-132

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

Many famous people use social networks like Twitter as a way to boost their professional career

3.
But even more surprising is the way that citizens take active part in setting the news agenda by sending videos or material reporters can use, one of this pioneering projects is being developed by Spanish Antena 3, who has launched a couple of WebPages (based on ecological news, traffic ones and a channel for kids which are hospitalized) where users can denounce, give their opinion and fight for their rights by uploading videos or photos and see their denounce followed in the radio or even the newscast if it reaches a huge group of people.

4.Conclusion

Marta Imizcoz Goicoechea Journalism, 3rd Year

Module: Applied News Production Module Co-ordinator: Andrew Jones

1. Bibliography
Castells, Manuel: The Culture of Real Virtuality: The integration of Electronic Communication, the End of the Mass Audience and the Rise of Interactive Networks, in The Rise of the Network Society, vol. I, Chapter 5, Wiley Blackwell, Oxford 2010. Chung, D and Yoo, C.: Audience Motivations for Using Interactive Features: Distinguishing Use of Different Types of Interactivity, on an Online Newspaper, Mass Communication and Society, 11:4, 375-379. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15205430701791048 Ming, Susan: User & Gratifications of Online Newspapers, The Electronic Journal of Communication, vol.VII, 3, 1997. Available at: http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/007/3/007312.HTML Muhtased, A. and Frey, L.: Arab Americans Motives for Using the Internet as a Functional Media Alternative and Their Perceptions of U.S. Public Opinion, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. XIII,3. Stonner-Galley, J.: Online interaction and Why Candidates Avoid it, Journal of Communication vol. L, 4, pages 111-132