The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery - Essay Example

The Development of Print Documents for Online Delivery: Communication Without Limitations The onset of digital communication emasculated the role of individuals that decide what pieces of information should be communicated to which group of consumers. This means a diminution in the power and influence of media on the shaping of public opinion and attitudes as evidenced by the dwindling figures on the paid circulation of newspapers and magazines. Online communication of the news and other pieces of information can also be done almost without limits such that even the public participates in determining which news to gather and disseminate, while traditional news gatherers themselves go online in search of news sources. 1. Introduction The production and distribution of news and other information materials through the traditional communication channels such as print, radio and television require a gatekeeper, a metaphor used to describe the process of selecting which information is worth delivering to consumers. This is necessary not only because of limitations on space, airtime, transmission frequencies and commercial interests but also because of equally important considerations related to reliability and trustworthiness. The era of digital media changed the concept of the gatekeeper into the gate-watcher, as the role of professional journalists or communicators has been narrowed and individuals gained more power, with ordinary citizens acquiring an increasing level of credibility as source of legitimate news. The gatekeepers keep their role and still decide what is newsworthy but ordinary citizens now provide a wider variety of news sources, which are more community-oriented. This paper discusses communication theory according to the socio-psychological perspective, which suggests that communication achieves its purpose if it considers the prevailing beliefs and attitudes of its intended audience. From the theoretical perspective, the research essay describes the methodology used in a content analysis designed to gather empirical evidence that would support or validate the theories, which finding was then analyzed for its relevance to this research. 2. Theoretical Perspective According to the socio-psychological tradition in communication theory, there is a relationship between communication stimuli, audience predisposition and opinion change. To succeed, journalists and communicators must look for the cause-and-effect relationships that could predict when a communication message will be received favorably by its audience or when it will be ignored (Vaughn, 2008). In this view, communication can be effective in influencing public attitudes and opinions if it considers the "who, what, whom and what-effect" questions of socio-psychological tradition, which are often asked when journalists and public relations practitioners want to change people's minds. The questions refer to the source and content of the message, audience characteristics, and the opinion change it has caused. On the source, the message sender must project expertise and trustworthiness while the content must be appealing and credibly argued. The "whom" phase should consider the personality and gullibility of the audience, while the what-effect question requires that communicators measure the attitude scales before and after delivery of the message. Thus, the editor who hears a reporter say that his mother loves him will tell the reporter skeptically: "Check that out - from at least two sources (Griffin, 2003)." The socio-psychological influences in communication forms the basis of this research. 3. Methodology This study uses the quantitative approach that gathers the primary and secondary data of research through the observation and direct communication methods. The observation method refers to our review of the literature, which gives special attention to such new communication platforms as gate-watcher Websites and online libraries, including the increasing number of Internet blogs. As for the direct communication method designed to generate the primary data, we conducted a Web-based survey of newspapers and magazines with online editions, whose contents were compared with their offline counterparts. This content analysis involves the internationally circulated Time International and Cosmopolitan magazines, and Woman's Day whose distribution is limited to Australia. The choices of these publications are based on the type of audiences that they intend to reach and the extent of their paid circulation. Both Time and Cosmopolitan have international editions although the former is a general-interest newsmagazine while the latter is primarily a fashion magazine. Women's Day is only a nationally circulated magazine exclusive for women. The generation of primary and secondary data through the quantitative method of research is believed the appropriate methodology for this study, since it involves a vast amount of information related to communication theory, gate-watcher sites, online libraries and traditional media outlets with their changing roles and perspectives in communication delivery. 4. Analysis As the Internet becomes the main source of news for an increasing number of people, the journalists have lost control of deciding what news to serve up to the public. Now, anyone can publish information with the role of professional journalists reduced to helping audiences make sense of the news (Cassidy, 2007). In effect, the gatekeeper function of professional journalists has shifted to gate-watching. As gatekeepers, the journalists decide whether or not to admit a particular news story to pass through the gates of a communication channel, which is made necessary by the limitations usually imposed by column space, air time, transmission frequencies and commercial interests on the production of print, radio or TV news (Quinn & Lamble, 2007). There are no such limitations in online delivery of print materials since the receiver can bypass all gates and go direct to the source through online news sites and blogs (Salcito, undated). The consumers now keep the gates themselves and seek out what is junk and what is worthwhile. Just about anyone can also be a reporter since online publishing means more empowerment for ordinary citizens who can engage in the newsgathering process themselves. For example, BBC News in London frequently uses video clips produced by ordinary citizens on community events (Cassidy, 2007). This gives consumers the opportunity to express themselves, interact with and influence the sources of news, which fulfills the communication theory in socio-psychological tradition that communication is a form of expression, interaction and influence (Bruns, 2003). In the gatekeeper concept, social control such as agenda setting, semantics and language use as well as organizational influences like deadlines and the need for uniformity prevent some events from ending up as news (Parker, 2005). There are no such considerations in gate-watching where anyone can create his own website and publish information that he deems newsworthy (Quinns & Lamble, 2007). Among the models of gate-watcher sites are: Closed Collaborative Sites - where gate-watchers rely on the contributions of an in-house team that searches the Web for news sources, then summarizes the stories and point to the original source as link that views can access for more detailed information. Open News Sites - these rely on collaborative contributors too but their sources are users suggesting links for stories. Communal Blogs - users are composed of many bloggers that discuss common issues and provide commentaries. Personal Blogs - where users comment on each other's blogs. Resource Center Sites - closed sites that keep news online for an indefinite period as resource center for their users. Automated Gate-watching Sites - these are news sites that provide stories in machine-readable format, among which is Google News. In terms of trustworthiness and reliability, there are no gates that verify stories before they get featured so the possibility exists that false and tasteless reports may come out of gate-watcher sites. For this reason, Internet users are advised to question the news accessed online even as journalists who source their ideas for news on the Internet must not be lazy as to accept the information at its face value (Bruns, 2003). 5. Assessment Past and present editions of magazines and newspapers are now available through online libraries, which enable journalists to appraise the work of colleagues around the world, thus greatly simplifying the task of newsgathering (Koch, 1991). However, Quinn & Lamble (2007) emphasize the need to use the Internet wisely, efficiently and comprehensively to get the facts straight and fast. On the part of journalists and communicators, they are obliged to project an image of expertness and character for their message to be credible. According to Kent (2007), there is a high-credibility source and low-credibility source of news. For example, an article on a cure for common cold will carry more weight if the source is a doctor writing in the New England Journal of Medicine than if it was written by a reporter from Life. Research on the online content of Time, Cosmopolitan and Woman's Day showed that publications generally follow the editorial formula that made their print editions successful. At the Time, however, unformatted text is used for online publishing such that errors are sometimes found in text as a result of the conversion into text. Cosmopolitan provides services online that are not available offline, such as the actual selling of condoms and fashion wear. As for Woman's Day, the online edition sells services for a budget wedding and enables readers to chat with each other. All three publications endeavor to establish rapport and credibility with readers, both online and offline, obviously because of the knowledge that advertisers are going to the Internet. The study by Kent (2007) shows that more and more public relations professionals are promoting their products and services through the Internet, where the impact on business communication is greater than if the message is conveyed through mainstream media. 5. Conclusion The research essay found that digital communication has changed the very essence of newsgathering and dissemination. Computers and online libraries have created a radically new technology that altered the relations between writer and news subjects and between communication channels and the public. User-generated content is seen as the wave of the future, with increasing amounts of credibility being given to ordinary citizens as source of legitimate news. In the process, ordinary citizens have been elevated from mere receivers to participants in communication. This means that today's consumers are more discriminating and would not be spoon-fed with information. They create their own Websites and publish what they believe as legitimate information. 6. Bibliography 1) Bruns, A. (2003). "Gate-watching, not Gatekeeping: Collaborative Online News." Media International Australia, University of Queensland. 2) Cassidy, N.P. (2007). "Online News Credibility: An Examination of the Perceptions of Newspaper Journalists." Department of Communications, Northern Illinois University. 3) Griffin, E. (2000). "A First Look at Communication Theory." In Mapping the Territory, 4th ed., McGraw-Hill, Boston. 4) Kent, M. (2007). "Critical Analysis of Blogging in Public Relations." Public Relations Review, Vol. 34. 5) Koch, T. (1991). "Journalism for the 21st Century: Online Information, Electronic Databases and the News." Greenwich Publishing Group Inc., New York. 6) Parker, E. (2005). "Gatekeeping Theory: An Evolution." Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Conference, 1-9 Aug. 2005. 7) Quinn, S. & Lamble, S. (2007). "Online News Gathering: Research and Reporting for Journalism." Focal Press, Australia. 8) Salcito, K. (undated). "Gatekeeping: Online Journalism Ethics for the Global Citizen." Webpage design (online) retrieved 5 October 2008 at: http://www.journalismethics.ca/online_journalism_ethics/gatekeeping.htm 9) Vaughn, H. (2008). "Introduction to Social Psychology." 5th ed., Pearson/Prentice Hall, Australia. Read More