March 2004
The Newsplex Trends Report is a periodic summary of
activities, developments, research results and insights
from the staff of the Ifra Newsplex at the University of
South Carolina. The Newsplex is a prototype convergent
micro-newsroom developed by Ifra for demonstration,
training and research in next-generation multiple-media
newshandling tools and techniques.
TREND
Mobile Publishing
Diana Harris voted in the U.S. Democratic presidential
primary in South Carolina at about 8 a.m. on Feb. 3 and
walked out of the Quail Valley polling place in northwest
Columbia to be greeted by two reporters with a Nokia
camera phone. She was about to help Ifra Newsplex set
new standards in journalism and news technology.
The reporters from the University of South Carolina's
school of journalism scribbled notes as Harris commented
briefly about how the election could affect
African-Americans and the economy. Then they snapped
her picture with the Nokia 3600's integrated full-color
VGA-resolution camera.
The journalists were part of the Newsplex Mobile Media
Project designed to explore and evaluate cutting-edge
tools and techniques in convergent newshandling by
combining the latest advancements in mobile phone
and wireless Internet technologies with the well-refined
skills of newspaper and television reporting.
As Harris walked away, the reporters used the phone's
keypad to input a text message summarizing the
encounter, attached the photo, and emailed it directly
from the mobile handset to a special type of Web site
called a moblog, short for mobile web log.
In all, seven teams of print and broadcast journalists
enveloped the Columbia area to report Primary Day in
all its varied nuances using first- and second-generation
mobile imaging phones and advanced GMS/GPRS networks
provided by Cingular Wireless. From before the polls
opened in the morning until after the corks and tissues
came out that night, these multiple-media journalists
continuously captured and upload hundreds of digital
pictures, video-audio shorts and text summaries to the
site called the Newsplex/Cingular Wireless Election
Connection, hosted by TextAmerica
(
upload was automatically formatted by TextAmerica's
underlying technology and posted as a new entry on the
web site, where it was instantly available for public
viewing, comment and download.
The entry about Harris posted at 8:15 a.m.
At the year-old $2 million Newsplex prototype convergent
newsroom, a uniquely constituted editorial team supported
the field journalists and oversaw assembly of the Wireless
Election Connection moblog.
- A newsflow editor with 10 years experience as a
television news director managed the overall process,
directing the reporting teams toward the ultimate goal
of providing a distinctively comprehensive and engaging
presentation of the Primary Day story.
- Storybuilders, one with background as an Associated
Press wire service editor, another with decades reporting
and editing for major metros, edited and categorized
the constant flow of submissions from the mobile journalists
all the while taking additional information from them over
the same phones being used for newsgathering and delivery.
- And a new type of hybrid informatics journalist called a
newsresourcer, experienced in news judgment and skilled
in information management augmented the moblog
submissions with research and online links adding even
greater depth and breadth to the presentation. For the
item about Harris, the lead newsresourcer inserted a link
to an online profile of the Quail Valley community showing
its ethnic and economic diversity.
Individually, each entry in the Wireless Election
Connection documented a single action, statement or
scene of the primary process – a voter's comment, a
supporter's placard, a candidate's claim, a detractor's
sneer, lines at polling stations, empty voting booths,
people energized, tired, involved, disengaged, satisfied
or angry. Each entry stands alone as a piece of
micro-journalism. Collectively, however, the entries
accumulated through the day to form an intricate mosaic
revealing the larger trends and tones of a massively
complicated community news event.
In this way, the process melded some of the best
attributes of in-depth, wide-ranging, detail-oriented
newspaper reporting and real-time, putting-you-at-the-scene,
visually engaging television coverage. It produced
content of potential value to both of those traditional
media, yet also resulted in a news presentation with a
weight of its own for news consumers. It took its cues
from the marketplace by tapping into the increasingly
popular web log format and using the increasingly
popular camera phones, yet notched both up to a higher
level of news and information resource by applying
professional editorial standards and workflows.
The results were overwhelming to those involved in
the project. Media attention to the new type of election
coverage was considerable. Cingular Wireless put out
a single press release about the event, and the
company later found out that this would be its third
most read release in the past year. By the time the
Wireless Election Connection shut down coverage at
11 p.m., after N.C. Sen. John Edwards was declared
the winner of the primary in his home state, TextAmerica
statistics show that 379 other Web sites around the
world were taking content from the Newsplex site.
The hit counter for the 24-hour period was over 8500.
The Wireless Election Connection is exactly the kind of
effort for which the Newsplex was conceived. The
results of this project will factor directly back into
Ifra's training and support for converging media companies.
An expanded version of this article is published in
Ifra's "newspaper techniques" magazine and is available
online at
- Kerry J. Northrup, Director, IfraNewsplex,
CONTEXT
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http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story820.shtml
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http://ojr.org/ojr/glaser/1076465317.php
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http://www.ojr.org/ojr/kramer/1076550248.php
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http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=61103
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http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/3313471
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http://www.business20.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,575603,00.html
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http://www.business20.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,573497,00.html
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1147813,00.html
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http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story815.shtml
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3451055.stm
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to this report
http://www.ils.unc.edu/ils/releases/RELEASE04_barreau.html
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Newsroom on the Affect of Convergence on their Role as
Primary Gatekeeper
http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/issue7.html#conversations
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Broadcast News Convergence Programs
http://www.jour.sc.edu/news/convergence/issue7.html#what
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http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040203b3.htm
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34553-2004Feb11.html (subscription required)
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http://ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1075928349.php
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auch Jean Frey, Basler Zeitung Medien und Espace Media
Groupe den Ausstieg aus der Apple-Welt
http://www.persoenlich.com/news/show_news.cfm?newsid=37881
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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/02/05/2003097557
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0205/p02s02-ussc.html
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1143719,00.html
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http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2499832
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http://www.cyberjournalist.net/news/000902.php
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http://www.agencyfaqs.com/news/stories/2004/01/25/8216.html
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http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story802.shtml
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http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1074813008687&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/newmedia/story/0,7496,1122349,00.html
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1123988,00.html
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generation of mobile information services
http://www.presseportal.de/story.htx?nr=515395
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http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2066198
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1119733,00.html
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http://www.thestandard.com.hk/thestandard/news_detail_frame.cfm?articleid=44517&intcatid=2
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1117212,00.html
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http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA359497
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http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2004/01/05/push_technology_gets_a_nudge/
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media has hit the streets
http://www.cfje.dk/cfje/VidBase.nsf/ID/CB00488977
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http://www.adweek.com/aw/iq_interactive/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2060818
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http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-12-30-blogging-usat_x.htm
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Homegrown News
http://www.ojr.org/ojr/technology/1071702097.php
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/aboutbbcnews/hi/this_is_bbc_news/newsid_3303000/3303455.stm
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http://www.ojr.org/japan/qa/1070490296.php
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go fully tabloid?
http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,7558,1101961,00.html
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http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1100154,00.html
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http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3452,36-344528,0.html
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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2045973
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Newsbook online
http://www.newsandtech.com/issues/2003/12-03/nt/12-03_newsbook.htm
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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2041705
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http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k3/dec/dec20.htm
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http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=3505
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http://deadbrain.co.uk/news/article_2003_12_01_4914.php
UPCOMING AT IFRA NEWSPLEX
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24-28 May 2004: http://www.newsplex.org/program/training_tour.shtml
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21-25 June 2004: http://www.newsplex.org/program/training_backpack.shtml
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20-23 September 2004: http://www.newsplex.org/program/training_ad.shtml
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11 October 2004: http://www.newsplex.org/program/training_visual.shtml
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9-10 November 2004: http://www.newsplex.org/program/training_summit4.shtml
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http://www.newsplex.org/program/training.shtml
NEWSPLEX CONVERGENCE MONITOR
Representatives of any media group pursuing a convergence
strategy are invited to contribute a brief profile of the
company's activities to the Ifra's worldwide registry of
cross-media news activities. The short online interview is available at
THE NEWSPLEX DIRECTORATE
The world's most forward-thinking media and media-technology
companies have underwritten development of the Newsplex
prototype cross-media newsroom for demonstration, training
and research in next-generation newshandling technologies
and techniques for the converging marketplace of print, broadcast,
online and mobile. These companies comprise the Newsplex
Directorate, guiding the facility's activities and receiving priority
access to its expertise and support programs. In addition to Ifra,
Directorate members are Digital Technology International (USA);
Edipresse Groupe (Switzerland); South Carolina ETV (USA),
which hosts the facility on its campus; Jyllands-Posten (Denmark);
Guardian Media Group Regional Newspapers (UK); CCI Europe
(Denmark); The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (USA);
IMPRESA (Portugal), Archronica Architects (USA), which designed
the facility; Star Publications (Malaysia); Morris Communications
(USA); and PR Newswire (USA). Additional Directorate seats are available.
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