Media Blog

Today’s youth are the first generation who have never known a world without the internet. Therefore, realizing they are not necessarily more web savvy than others can be surprising. According to a new study released by Northwestern University, this is indeed the case: many young adults rely on the prominence of web search rankings to determine whether they should access content, rather than evaluating the actual website’s features. Overall, web search and brand recognition play a prominent role when young adults evaluate online news and information.

The quantitative and qualitative study examined the behaviours of 1,600 first-year U.S. university students, most ranging from 18 to 19 years of age. It looked at the factors involved when web users decide whether they should trust what they are reading online.

For many young adults, searching online is just as important as verifying websites when assessing the credibility of online information.

“To complete many of the assigned tasks, students often turned to a particular search engine as their first step. When using a search engine, many students clicked on the first search result. Over a quarter of respondents mentioned that they chose a Web site because the search engine had returned that site as the first result suggesting considerable trust in these services. In some cases, the respondent regarded the search engine as the relevant entity for which to evaluate trustworthiness, rather than the Web site that contained the information.”

What is more, when asked where they look for current events and information, young adults often rely on offline and online brands to assess the quality of news and information they are consuming.

“We found that mentions of corporate brands dominated students’ reported habits, with 63% of all respondents mentioning a corporate brand as part of their routine search behavior. Nineteen percent of participants mentioned the Google brand as part of a routine.”

More: Trust Online: Young Adults’ Evaluation of Web Content

Flickr photo: decembercrimson

Tags: Education, New Media, Trends

Tracking page views, churning out an abundance of content, joining the business side of operations, the challenges of online media have required journalists to reconsider their roles within news organizations, and take on new responsibilities.

Recently, many in the media have looked at the difficulties that writers face when producing online news and information. From large and successful news websites to emerging ‘content farms,’ many are realizing that online work can come with added pressures.

Here are some highlights of recent media coverage:

The New York Times examines how burnout is affecting young online journalists. Especially in online news organizations, journalist are increasingly expected to partake in the business side of operations.

The Globe and Mail’s Lisan Jutras looks at how the immediate accessibility of new media tools can sometimes land journalists in hot water for sharing their personal opinions.

In an excellent series on ‘content farms,’ PBS MediaShift examines media organizations that focus on large-scale content production to maximize profitability. It looks at their editorial approach; what life can be like for the journalists who produce mass content; how content farms prepare writers to write for the web; and how hyper-local sites compensate their writers.

Finally, AdAge inspects the culture of pro-bono news websites and what drives writers to provide them with free content.

Flickr image: Andrew Stawarz

Tags: New Media, New Models, Trends

Ten students from the UBC Graduate School of Journalism were nominated for two Emmy Awards for their news documentary Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground. Led by UBC Assistant Professor Peter Klein, the documentary, which was aired on PBS Frontline World, garnered nominations in two categories: Outstanding Investigative Journalism and Outstanding Research. It is the first time that Canadian university students have been nominated for an Emmy in a news category.

For Digital Dumping Ground, students traced the path of electronic waste around the globe, to Ghana, China and India, and discovered public health, human rights and national security concerns.  The documentary also received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for best documentary of the year from the Society for Professional Journalists earlier this year, and it was nominated for another US prize, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists.

“People work their entire careers to get any of these awards,” said Prof. Klein, “so it’s pretty special that our students achieved this recognition for the great work they’ve done so early in their careers.”

The UBC Graduate School of Journalism is a partner institution of the CMRC. More »

Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground »

Tags: Awards, Education, New Media, UBC

The CMRC is pleased to announce the release of The New Journalist: Roles, Skills, and Critical Thinking, a new book from Emond Montgomery Publications that looks at a wide range of topics in media, including new journalism skills, the state of journalism, and news models. It features a chapter co-authored by CMRC President Donna Logan and Research Manager Darryl Korell entitled Sustainable News Models for a Digital Age. It looks at the current state of the media in Canada, and which news business models will thrive in the future. The chapter is part of the CMRC’s State of the Media in Canada project.

The revolutionary changes under way in the world of journalism require a new kind of student resource. The New Journalist offers a broad overview for introductory-level students in journalism and multimedia courses. With a critical thinking approach taken throughout, it covers everything from an introduction to the essential practical skills that today’s journalists require, to “think pieces” on the state of journalism today, to an overview of emerging business models.

While emphasizing the changing technology at the heart of journalism’s reinvention, the book does not overlook the need to address the perennially important elements that excellent journalism requires, such as solid interviewing and research skills, ethical considerations, proper story structure, and more.

[Emond Montgomery Publications]

Tags: Future of News, Job losses, New Media, New Models, Research, Trends

Here is a video of media expert Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, providing the keynote speech at the CMRC-sponsored Reinventing Canadian Media conference, which was held on May 18 and 19. The conference explored the changing digital world and its effects on media production and distribution models.

Video: Jeff Jarvis: Reinventing Canadian Media

Flickr photo: Public Policy Forum

Tags: Events, Future of News, New Media, New Models, Trends