Newspapers can't predict their future

This is not a required post, but I just want to share this with the rest of the class.

I picked up this story from The Editors Weblog. The headline says, "Newspaper executives can't predict future of industry." Indeed, it is also conventional wisdom now to think that the Internet is causing the "death of newspapers." But there is more to this ongoing trend. (Also read this related story from New York Times). Excerpt:

After years of endless discussions on the future of the newspaper industry, trying to figure out whether it will bounce back or is doomed, some top newspaper executives finally revealed the honest truth. They simply don’t know. These executives met at the annual media conference in New York – where The New York Times Co. explicitly refuted rumors about a change in their stock structure.

The ‘real news’ was the honesty that newspaper executives seemed to have agreed upon.

Week 5: Embracing “citizen” journalism

I recall an interview with one of Philippines’ top blogger Abe Olandres. The premise of that interview was this: Should bloggers follow ethical guidelines in journalism?

Abe is a well-read professional blogger writing about technology. He prefers to be called a "meta-journalist," a term that describes his tech punditry. But after reading Mark Glaser's article , I say Abe is a journalist.

No matter how he puts it, Abe is doing journalism. He writes based on facts -- but insists that some are based on "speculations" or better, an informed guess based on industry sources.

As Max Kalehoff, an executive at Nielsen BuzzMetrics, wrote on Jeff Jarvis’ BuzzMachine blog :

Why not just call journalism “journalism” — a word the citizens, amateurs, networks, distributors and professionals can understand? Journalism can be “practiced” in all sorts of ways, and by virtually anyone. You don’t even have to be a citizen or a professional; you could be a foreigner, or even an alien from outer space. But I do agree with your overall beat: journalism is not some exclusive club; it’s something that takes many forms, including all the ones you describe.

Citizen journalism has emerged because of the Internet and blogs. Similar to Dan Gillmor's story on Joe Nacchio, Abe and other local bloggers like J. Angelo Racoma have become sources of my stories. From time to time, they pick up juicy information, which I end up writing as a full-blown news report.

As Gillmor pointed out, citizens like Abe and Racoma are no longer consumers of news. They make the news. They are today's citizen journalists. Gillmor adds:

[T]echnology has given us a communications toolkit that allows anyone to become a journalist at little cost and, in theory, with global reach. Nothing like this has ever been remotely possible before.

Week 4: Radio Style

Slug: Morning news 12-11-06/Erwin Oliva

(Focus: Intel helps hook up poor communities to the Net to narrow the proverbial digital divide)

One hundred fifty residents of General Trias in Cavite can now surf Internet, thanks to Intel.

Leighton Phillips, Intel World Ahead program manager, says Intel is investing one billion dollars in five years to train and connect more people living in remote areas to the Internet.

Phillips says this global project also intends to develop content relevant to rural communities because many people still have difficulty understanding the Internet.

He says Intel and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation are now working closely to help poorer communities become Internet literate.

In the Philippines, Intel is working with the Commission on Information and Technology, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization National Commission of the Philippines, and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication.

Florangel Rosario Braid, UNESCO National Commission chairperson for communication in the Philippines, says Intel is helping fulfill the organization’s plans to create relevant digital content for rural communities.

Week 4: News Story # 2

Intel helps ‘marginalized’ sectors get on the Internet

By Erwin Oliva

In today’s digital society, the number of people without access to the Internet is still surprising.

Intel hopes to change that in five years.

Committing 1 billion dollars to push initiatives geared for “marginalized” communities in the world, the chipmaker has initiated various projects worldwide, including in the Philippines that intend to connect people to the Internet, educate them about information technology, and develop more relevant community-based information accessible via the Web and other digital means.

Intel’s program, dubbed Intel World Ahead, has started connecting Philippine communities to the Internet using a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax) technology, a new technology that provides wireless Internet access at great distances.

Intel worked with local telecommunications firm Innove to wirelessly connect 150 local residents in Gen. Trias, Cavite and Alabang, Muntinlupa, Intel World Ahead program manager for Asia Pacific Leighton Phillips said.

Intel’s Wimax deployment is part of the Asian Broadband Campaign Wimax trials conducted in select countries like the Philippines, the Intel executives said.

Meanwhile, representatives from Intel met with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (Asean) in Manila recently to discuss projects, and best practices, Phillips said. The Asean members and Intel discussed how they could use public domain to develop web content for marginalized and rural communities.

The Intel executive said that content on the Internet remains irrelevant to most marginalized societies, while cost of access remains expensive.

Intel was committing US$ 250,000 in an Asean project to produce more relevant content, and was offering an e-learning software called SKOOOL.

The Intel World Ahead program intends to push various programs to developing regions in the form of accessibility, connectivity, education, and development of applications and content.

The US$1-billion commitment for five years intends to fund efforts to connect the "world's next billion users, while training 10 million more teachers and 1 billion students," Intel said.

Intel is now working with the Philippine Commission on Information and Technology (CICT), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization National Commission of the Philippines, and the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication for the Intel World Ahead project.

Florangel Rosario Braid, chairperson for communication of UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, said Intel’s project is consistent with its plans to develop relevant digital content for marginalized communities.

Week 4: News Story # 1

Apple at the bottom of ‘green’ product list: Greenpeace

By Erwin Oliva

In the PC industry, Apple computers represent style and innovation.

But among environmentalists, the computer company occupies the bottom of a list of manufacturers racing to make their products “greener.”

Environmental group Greenpeace’s second edition “Guide to Greener Electronics” showed Apple Computer at the bottom of the list of top 14 manufacturers, while Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia remained on top.

Greenpeace ranks these manufacturers of PCs and mobile phones in the guide. Companies earn points if they have eliminated the use of the most hazardous chemicals, and have implemented recycling policies such as financing take-back, reuse or recycling of end-of-life products.

"Despite being the world leader in innovation and design, Apple is losing the race by failing to keep up with the other companies," Greenpeace International toxics campaigner Iza Kruszewska said in a statement.

Apple currently occupies the bottom position because it made “absolutely no improvements to its policies or practices since the ranking was first released three months ago, although most of its competitors have improved environmental policies," Kruszewska added.

In the Greenpeace guide’s first edition, Apple was third from the bottom of the list.

Meanwhile, new policies on use of chemicals and the proper disposal of electronic waste kept Nokia at the top. The Finnish company, however, has yet to state clear timelines for phasing out polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in all its products. PVC is a plastic material that is deemed harmful to the environment.

Kruszewska said top-ranked brands are taking precautionary chemical policies. They have committed to eliminate the use of the most hazardous chemicals in their products, while acknowledging individual responsibility for financing the take-back and reuse or recycling of their own-brand discarded products.

Greenpeace said PC makers Acer and Lenovo have indicated plans to eliminate the use of the most hazardous chemicals from products. Lenovo's strong policy commitments elevated the company's ranking from the bottom spot to 8th place. Acer also made progress, as it moved to seventh from 12th position.

Motorola has also made improvements, moving up to the fourth position, next to Fujitsu-Siemens. It was ranked second worst in the first version of the guide, according to the Greenpeace guide.

Korean manufacturers LGE and Samsung and Japanese firm Sony's rankings have gone down because they support regulation in the US that places the responsibility for product recycling on consumers instead of the producers.

Malaysia warns of crackdown on news blogs

I feel sad whenever I read this kind of stories. Cracking down on blogs will only push more Malaysian bloggers to blog.

As this story reports:

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian officials have threatened a crackdown on divisive postings on news blogs, in what an international media watchdog calls a move to expand controls on the traditional media to the Internet.

All Malaysian news blogs may have to be registered with the Ministry of Information, local media reported earlier in the week, citing Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha as saying the laws were necessary to dissuade bloggers from promoting disorder in Malaysia's multiethnic society.

Blogs in countries like Malaysia are becoming the last bastion of freedom of speech. In this age of convergence (which I would like to define as the death of traditional media as we know it), blogs have provided an enviroment for people like Jeff Oii.

Also this week, reports indicated that Malaysia was mulling laws on blogging. Excerpt:

KUALA LUMPUR--Malaysia may introduce tough Internet laws to control bloggers and prevent them from spreading "disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies" on their websites, a report said Sunday.

Deputy Science and Technology Minister Kong Cho Ha said moves such as registering bloggers would be difficult, but accused some writers of posting controversial articles to attract readers.

Leo Magno, my editor, has written a special report (you can also read the other parts here, here) on how blogs and podcasting has changed the face of journalism. In the third part of this report, he states:

[B]bloggers and podcasters in particular -- are getting influential, if we are to define influence as being noticed and listened to by government, mainstream media and the public. We have also discussed the pitfalls of referring to this trend as a new form of journalism. We have also heard from mainstream media and from new media publishers who, they said, do not even consider themselves journalists.

Theoretically then, bloggers and podcasters should not be harassed or censored if they are seen merely as flies that refuse to go away. But why do charges of sedition and active censorship still occur? Why are blogs and podcasts being monitored by government? Why is there a seeming insecurity on the part of traditional media? Why should new media grassroots journalism be considered a threat?

Blogs and podcasts are disruptive technologies. They arrive at the party, offer something new, start playing a new song and dance to a new beat, they tear the piñata down and before you know it the tables have been overturned and the party will never be the same again. That party is traditional media -- television, radio and print. Any new addition to a set with the potential to disrupt established norms would naturally be seen as a threat. Traditional media is pushed out of its comfort zone of having the final say on matters of news and opinion. Traditional media may even feel that with grassroots journalism they may become disenfranchised.

Perhaps blogs, podcasts and new media in general are seen as threats because of changing information assimilation behaviors of the audience.

The newspaper's death explained

Slate's Jack Shafer tries to explain why newspapers are now pushing the "panic button," as readership numbers are dwindling. He writes:

A good three decades before the newspaper industry began blaming its declining fortunes on the Web, the iPod, and game machines, it knew it was in huge trouble. In the mid-1970s, two of its trade associations (which have since merged)—the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the Newspaper Advertising Bureau—sought to diagnose the causes of tumbling newspaper readership since the mid-1960s and recommend remedies.

But towards the end, he explains that the appetite for news has not really gone down. Generally, it is the behavior of readers that has changed a lot with the introduction of the Web, iPod and game machines, as he puts it. He goes on to quote Preserving the Press, which offers some solution to newspapers.

The solutions proposed by Preserving the Press and Shaw's article read like the standard prescriptions written today: Make an attempt to "reconnect" with readers, who feel alienated from newspapers. Make coverage more local. Hook kids when they're young. Let readers "sound off" about issues on special pages of the paper. Connect with and hire minorities. Expand the weather report. Introduce or expand op-ed pages. Spice up the design and print more color. Run more lifestyle, consumer, and personal-finance articles. Chase potential readers—and advertisers—into the deep suburbs.

Read more of this article here.

Essential tools for "backpack" reporters

As I was reading through Berkeley's Multimedia Reporting and Convergence online training module, I found this interesting feature by Jane Stevens that details what "backpack reporters"-- a term given to multimedia journalists -- need in the field. They include:

• Laptop computer loaded with Photoshop, Dreamweaver, iMovie or Pinnacle Studio 8 (or Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere if you're doing advanced video editing), Flash and a text editor such as Word.
• Video camera and accessories (lenses, filters, microphones, headphones, batteries, cables, tripod)
• Digital video tape (more than you think you'll need - tape's cheaper than missing the most important shot of the story)
• Lens cleaners (brush, tissues, solution -- clean your lens before every outing)
• Absorbent soft towel (for emergency lens cleaning)
• Duct tape (if some part of your camera breaks, as mine did in a Moscow subway station)
• Pocket knife (remember to put this in your checked luggage when traveling)
• Rubber bands (you never know)
• Extra batteries for microphones (replace these every few months)
• Camera and microphone manuals (unless you've memorized both)
• Plastic bags for camera (as emergency protection if you don't have a raincoat for your camera, or if you're moving between extremes of heat and cold and need the camera to adjust slowly)
• Plastic bags, small and zip-lock for used DV tapes
• Water bottle (for you)
• Power bars (for you -- you never know when you're going to skip a meal)
• Pens (if nothing else, to jot a quick ID on the tape you've just shot)
• Small notebook (of course, your camera is your reporter's notebook, but a small notebook is handy for writing down shots that you don't want to forget, especially if it's raining and you can't read what you've written on your hand)
• Backpack journalist vest with many pockets (you don't have to go the extreme of still photographers with their 87 pockets, but it's more efficient to have towel, batteries, DV tape, notebook, pen, knife and duct tape within easy reach)

WEEK 4: Multi-media journalism in the Philippines

Perhaps the closest example on how journalists in the Philippines are using “multi-media” techniques when they report is INQ7.net, the company I work for. When we started, our news website was called “shovelware,” which means content taken from the print edition is just “shoveled” into web. There was not much difference between the print and web version except the latter is online. Also the web version followed the “narrative” style of the print. There was not much interactivity.

A year after it was launched, INQ7.net covered the “People’s Revolution 2.” It was at this historic and defining moment that INQ7.net transformed into a semi-multimedia news website. We broke news as it happened – through our breaking news section. We worked like the wires. But that’s just text. Eventually, we incorporated videos taken from our partner TV station and provided links to videos related to stories. We also provided a streaming audio of a local radio station for people who wanted to hear almost real-time broadcast of the events at that time.

Special websites have also emerged at that time. We created these sub-websites within the news portal for special features. It usually contained text, audio and videos, and other information we deemed useful for our readers.

The level of “interactivity” or multimedia techniques used in INQ7.net are not as sophisticated as the examples of Touching Hearts or 360 Degrees, which are in fact, larger projects that take time and specialized skills to develop. INQ7.net is, however, evolving and will feature more of "less linear", multi-media news.

blogger video tutorial

Here's a step-by-step video tutorial provided by Chris Abraham of the Writer's Center. I found his tutorial in Google video. The video runs for close to 30 minutes. It will teach you how to start an account, add text, edit text, etc. Hope this helps.

There is also a good blog to visit. It's called "Applied Blogging Workshop." It contains more information about blogging and related stuff.

WEEK 3: The best of both worlds

The online medium provides the "best of both worlds" of broadcasting and print. With faster computers and Internet connection, it is now possible to deliver text, videos, and audio through an online media. Users can choose what they want. They may even opt to have news pushed to them via mobile phones --which extends the online medium further. The online media is at the "cutting edge" of journalism. While it won't replace journalism as we know it, it changes paradigms, mindsets, and business models. Online medium can deliver news quickly and around the clock. It provides an endless web of information through links and recently, blogs. Newspapers are now putting up video content, complimented with audio, which can be a short news clip or a streaming Internet radio program. Blogs have also provided another way to engage readers .

The biggest weakness of the online medium is accessibility and cost. Not all people have Internet access and computers. But mobile phones are becoming an alternative. Nonetheless, the online medium opens up opportunities for the news "business." It creates additional revenues (through advertising and syndication) for newspapers, television, and radio. With the online medium, they can have a bigger and younger audience born in a multimedia world. Traditional media that refuse to change remain the biggest threat to online media.

A paper titled, "Newspaper websites deliver local consumers" by the Newspaper Association of America, states a general trend in the US, which is now happening in countries like the Philippines:

The number of Web users visiting newspaper Web sites continues to grow—from 40 percent of everyone online in 2002, to 48 percent in 2004 and 51 percent in 2006.

Tag that magazine

In the "spirit" of convergence, a Philippine magazine introduced a new marketing gimmick in their magazine. It involves taking "snapshots" (using a mobile phone camera and a special software) of a bar code-like symbol placed in the cover of the magazine. The Tag Mobile System (TMS) -- as it is called -- will take the mobile phone owners to a special website (a WAP site) that will contain other information and goodies. As this blog states, TMS is:

TMS is a convenient way to download any form of multimedia into your mobile by turning your phone camera into a barcode scanner.

Just imagine the possibilities. Magazines or any publication (actually the TMS works on websites too) can now push information via mobile phones. If you're using a smart phone, you could conduct transactions (say buy a product from the magazine or view more photos on your mobile phone). I remember an old article written by my editor Leo Magno years back. With convergence, content is now portable to any device/medium. With technologies such as TMS, content will be "spiraling" up and around all these mediums/devices. Thus he writes:

This consequently is redefining the word “media" as we know it. The flow no longer comes from a broadcaster’s or publisher’s point of view down to the audience, where the old communications model of sender-message-receiver is followed. Information flow in this day and age is no longer linear. With the participation of citizens -- the audience -- as both content consumer and producer, it has become multi-dimensional, spiraling up and around several evolutionary ladders of communications.

College kids going online for campus news

I know this is beyond the 300-word requirement for this week, but I wish to highlight this study I picked up from Poynter Institute.

Baltimore Sun's Nick Madigan wrote that College campus papers are becoming popular despite the dwindling newspaper readership. However, there is a growing number of students going online for news. Excerpt:

At the same time, college students are still reading the papers' print editions. A Student Monitor study says 76 percent of college students surveyed during the spring semester this year read one out of the previous five print editions of their campus paper. That number has remained roughly consistent for almost two decades, never dropping below the high 60s, said Eric Weil, managing partner of Student Monitor, which twice a year surveys 1,200 full-time students on 100 four-year campuses.

The difference now, he said, is that 38 percent of students regularly read an online edition of their campus paper, and they spend an average of 19 minutes doing so, Weil said.

WEEK 2: Convergence is inevitable

Convergence in journalism involves the marriage of old and new mediums. "Mass media" is no longer enough to describe today's new media. The audience is growing because it is spreading virally through blogs and other social networking services such as YouTube or Flickr. Instead of the old paradigm of "one to many," the convergent media is now a medium of "many to many."

It also has gone "multimedia."

Blogs have allowed anyone to become a "journalist." Mainstream media is now embracing technologies, such as blogs, to deliver news. According to this paper from the University of Essex, titled "Blogging: personal participation in public knowledge building on the web,"

Blogs have emerged from a humble beginning to become a highly networked mass of online knowledge and communication. All kinds of research, from searching for the best price of the latest mobile phone, to more rigorous forms, are conducted through the blog medium.

Blogs or blogging have become "cheaper" and efficient means to publish information on the Internet and deliver news to a bigger audience. This is just example on how convergence has spread so quickly worldwide. Anyone with an Internet connection, a decent computer, and a good command of English can become a journalist. Thus we've seen the rise of citizen journalism, which is now gradually being embraced by MSM.

Convergence is happening in the Philippines. With a growing population of Internet users, a close to 40 million mobile phone users, it is evident that Filipinos want news pushed to them via new mediums. The company I worked with, INQ7.net, now sends breaking news to 20,000 mobile phone subscribers. Everyday, the local news website gets more than one million unique visitors -- that's about three times more than the current readership of our sister firm running the print medium.

WEEK 1: About Me

I am Erwin Lemuel G. Oliva, a Filipino journalist working for online news portal INQ7 Interactive Inc. I write about technology most of the time. But I also do politics (especially on elections), business features, science, and youth-oriented stories. I've been a journalist since 1995.

Just like some of my classmates in Ateneo Center for Journalism, I'm an "accidental journalist." I started out with the goal of becoming a musician (read rockstar). But my dreams were shattered when I flunked an audition in a local college of music. Frustrated, I moved on and found myself writing for an obscure youth magazine (I couldn't remember the name until today). But it was my first break in writing, although that job did not last long. Eventually, I found a "real" writing job in a medical magazine. Published every month, I was assigned to chase medical doctors, organizations, and health officials. I graduated subsequently to writing feature stories, including one on "Bangungot" or Sudden Unexplained Death Syndrome, which was a myterious illness killing young Asian males in their sleep.

From medical journalism, I moved to technology journalism. I wrote for a local computer publication and submitted contributions to PC Week Philippines and the defunct Newsbytes.com of Washington Post online. In 2000, I was asked to join INQ7 as tech reporter.

Briefly, I'm married with two lovely daughters. I grew up in Baguio City, the summer capital of our country. I was named after German general Erwin Rommel, also known as the "Desert Fox."