
Issue No 91		06 April 2001

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Technology

Online Breathing Space

Extracted from MEAA's Walkley Magazine

The global collapse of faith in new technology has given journalists a chance to prepare themselves for the real revolution, writes David Higgins

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You don't have to be a competent musician to work at The Sydney Morning Herald, but these days it can help. Fortunately my parents got me guitar lessons when I was a kid. Live musical performance wasn't on the curriculum at uni, and it didn't come up during my cadetship at News Ltd in the early '90s. (In fact, I remember Jeni Cooper, then chief-of-staff at The Australian, advising me to burn my record collection after I nervously strayed on to the topic of Mudhoney during a cadet interview in 1992).

Nonetheless, deep within the SMH web site, buried under gigabytes of text, images, animations, audio and video -- the work of SMH editorial staff over the past few years -- you will find me strumming a guitar.

It's a video interview with Rob Glaser, the founder of a US Internet company called Real Networks, on a visit to Australia in 1997. Real Networks invented software that allows audio and video to be broadcast online.

After the interview I recorded a "to-camera" intro. I played my guitar to prove a point about how the Internet was changing every aspect of our lives.

Here I was, a newspaper reporter with no broadcast experience addressing my "readers" through a video camera. Hell, why not play them a goddamn song while I was at it?

At that moment, not five years since the invention of the World Wide Web, I honestly believed the SMH would evolve into an online TV network. Watch out all you broadcast journos. I was moving into new territory.

An awful lot has happened since then. The technology industry has waxed and waned. The media industry -- along with every other sector in the global economy -- has invested millions of dollars in Internet strategies fuelled by even grander visions than my own.

Then, over the past 12 months, when those visions couldn't be communicated to consumers or shareholders, they literally pulled the plug. News Ltd and the Seven network enacted perhaps the most brutal cuts to their "new media" budgets -- in March, for example, Seven cut its Internet budget by 75 per cent over 18 months. But all media outlets have done likewise, whether they admit it or not.

You couldn't blame journalists for being confused, even cynical, about the impact of new technology on the profession.

Yet few journalists doubt that we do indeed face great change -- albeit not quite as soon as we had expected. (Today, like most SMH reporters, I still focus on the paper edition, but sometimes I'm asked to do audio and video Q&As. Likewise, photographers and artists are experimenting with animation and video).

Computer-types like to say we generally over-estimate the impact of technology within a two-year time frame and under-estimate its impact in a decade.

And although editors and producers now face a much tougher task getting Internet budgets past board members, the issue has not gone away.

The new tech buzzword is "re-integration". Around the world, media companies are closing down their interactive divisions and reuniting Web, WAP and broadband staff with the old "off-liners".

In short, journalists are being put back in charge of their Internet destiny.

This is the ultimate in "convergence", according to Bruce Dover, a former boss of News Ltd's News Interactive Internet division and now managing editor of CNN Asia.

Dover recently set up the first Australian CNN bureau, staffing it with former print journalists who are now expected to talk to TV cameras, write for web sites and edit for mobile phones.

"I don't know if there's a one-model-fits-all, but at CNN where we see everything converging, it makes more sense for journalists to work across platforms rather than be platform-specific," Dover says.

"I know there are some conservative pockets that think if we do more we should be paid more because somehow we're extracting more from people. [But] the CNN thing has been embraced by journalists because it's making us stretch our creativity."

CNN has developed a "content management system" where reporters "write" the story once, commonly as a TV script, then edit it for other media, right down to a 38-character mobile phone text message.

"Because the [profit] margins are pretty thin across all these devices at the moment, you have to be efficient. We were guilty in the past at CNN of employing people in all those areas. We even had a special team dedicated to doing WAP (Web pages designed for mobile phones). We have taken 10 per cent out of the workforce by reintroducing integration."

There was a time, not so long ago, when it was thought the Internet would not only split the profession into specialties according to technological platforms. It was thought the Web would fundamentally reshape the industry by breaking the grip of large media conglomerates. Just as desktop publishing had enabled anyone to become a printer, the Web would allow anyone to become a publisher. Finally the barriers to entry -- ownership of printing presses and distribution networks -- had disappeared.

There are three main reasons why the same media proprietors still hold the power. And they illustrate an important point for journalists still uncertain about their "online future".

Firstly, online advertising and retail markets did not eventuate, cutting off revenue before Web e-zines got going. When investors subsequently turned away, online-only publications were starved of funds. By then the venture capital or float proceeds had already been spent on advertising and promotion -- with barely a ripple of response.Hold that thought and consider the second reason.Internet start-ups grossly underestimated the cost of marketing, both online and off. Put another way, they did not understand that "brand" was a barrier as big as ownership of a printing press. For all the money spent on billboards and banner ads, there is not a single successful new online-only media brand.The thing about media brands -- luckily for journalists -- is that they can't be built through marketing alone. The one and only reason that established media outlets have valuable brands is through the skill of their journalists.

Well sure, but you can always buy journalists, as many web sites did. But there was a third problem facing the few web sites that could afford to keep good journalists after their option schemes collapsed.

Like every other e-commerce business, Web-only operations suffer from the Internet's all-encompassing reputation as a shonky place.

There are plenty of high-quality e-zines out there. But how can you tell?

More often than not, readers have stuck to established sources they trust.

If the prospect of writing for a mobile phone leaves you cold, at least take comfort in this: Every day the ever-expanding Internet is deepening the demand for quality journalism.

The basic skills of journalists have become even more valued since the advent of the Web, says Julian Sher, who operates an online resource called Journalism.com.

"The Web has dramatically increased the noise factor -- the amount of junk info -- making it all the more important that journalists do what they were always supposed to do -- sift through the garbage and sort out the truth. The job of journalists remains the same as always, only more so."

What about its effect on how we do our jobs? The majority of this story was researched on the Internet. In fact, Hugh Stephenson, professor of journalism at London's City University, offered his comments by e-mail: "The Internet is just part of the whole 'new technology' revolution that has undoubtedly changed the nature of the reporter's trade," he said. "The volume of information available electronically and the cutting of editorial budgets have together put pressure on reporters to do their job sitting at a keyboard and not spending time getting facts by getting out and about."

Stephenson says the "out and about" aspect of journalism is "suffering badly" because of the Internet.

But others such as Dr Stephen Quinn, a senior lecturer in journalism studies at Victoria's Deakin University, says Internet research has improved the quality of journalism and it is vital that young journalists gain skills in online data collection.

"The core segment of a journalism curriculum needs to be information skills. Students should learn to be information workers first before they become broadcast or print reporters."

Editorial staff at some outlets, such as The Australian newspaper, have been offered Internet training. The Australian's deputy editor, Peter Wilson, says it has, ironically, been the "more mature" journalists who have been keenest to adopt Internet research and to see their stories on the web site. However, Professor Mark Pearson, editor of the Australian Journalism Review and the head of journalism at Queensland's Bond University, says "most mainstream media staff are still locked into classic roles" and cadets are still mostly headed for familiar rounds.

"Traditional media have been slow to shift towards multi-media roles for their staff, although there are pockets of experimentation with reporters collecting a range of content. An example is the trend towards some television reporters carrying handycams to collect actuality, particularly in regional stations which cannot afford many crews.

"Few news web sites are investing in multi-media coverage of breaking news stories and are under-utilising the potentials of the Internet. It is hard to determine whether most will ultimately opt for multi-skilled generalist reporters or highly skilled specialists. That depends on whether their emphasis is on quality, polished productions or faster, more economical delivery."

For all the debate, the current direction of journalism has probably never been less certain. The tech wreck has undoubtedly slowed any online evolution in journalism. It has given us breathing space -- a chance to catch up with technology before the evolution resumes.

Journalists must believe, however, that the "transition period" is real -- and will affect ourselves and our employers, says CNN's Bruce Dover.

Both parties must learn important lessons from the Internet-inspired events of the past few years, he says.

"Let's remember a lot of media companies like Fairfax and others moved well beyond their core competencies into areas from retailing to recruitment placement."

A "return to core competencies, (to) what media companies do best is probably pretty central to what has to happen".

At the same time, while protecting and enhancing our core skills, journalists must understand that the medium we work for -- if not the way we work -- may be unrecognisable in years to come.

David Higgins is The Internet and Technology Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.

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  Issue 91 contents

Interview: Costa on Compo
Labor Council�s secretary gives his take on the Big Stink over Della�s workers compensation package.

Politics: Della's List
All Labor members of Parliament were this week asked to indicate whether they would support injured workers. More than half said 'yes'. Here they are.

Unions: Picketing Joy
Rowan Cahill chronicled the definitive dispute of 2000 for Workers Online. He looks back on the battle and the lessons to be drawn from the workers at Joy.

History: Vale Tony Mulvihill
The environment, migrant workers and the hairy nosed wombat have reason to be thankful for the active citizenship of Tony Mulvihill.

Economics: Stopping the Rot
A national campaign is underway to persuade politicians from both the major parties that they need to be addressing the issue of poverty within Australia.

International: East Timor � Beyond the Headlines
It�s now more than 18 months since the violence and bloodshed following the popular consultation on the future of East Timor was front page news in Australia.

Technology: Online Breathing Space
The global collapse of faith in new technology has given journalists a chance to prepare themselves for the real revolution, writes David Higgins

Satire: Howard Cuts Beer Price to Get Voters Drunk
Prime Minister John Howard has agreed to cut the excise on beer, in the hope cheaper drinks will help get the country drunk enough to vote for him.

Review: The Battle for 96.9Fm is Over
What would you get if you crossed 2DAY FM, 2MMM, JJJ and MIX 106.5 FM? A fairly commercial radio station that wouldn�t know the difference between throwing up, stuffing up, growing up or breaking up.

» Compo Wars: Week Two to the Workers!

» Doctors Don�t Want to be Judges

» Cops Eye Ball Compo Changes

» Armoured Car Drivers To Consider Stop Work

» IT Workers � We Need You!

» Banks Workers Show They�re No Bunnies

» English Teachers Ripped Off

» Beazley Gives Boost To Bakery Workers

» Employment, Environment Vital to US-Australia Trade Deal

» Extra $1.37 Billion Needed for Unis

» Campaigning Workshop Establishes Local Campaign Initiative

» Activist Notebook