Knight Center events in Austin and around the hemisphere
stripslashes(Online Journalism Symposium Expands Reach Through Social Networking)Online Journalism Symposium Expands Reach Through Social Networking
Some 270 Journalists, news industry executives and academics from the United States and 16 other countries gathered in Austin, Texas, for the 10th International Symposium on Online Journalism. The gathering, held April 17-18, 2009, had the largest number of participants in the Symposium’s history, and its reach extended even further through its Web cast and extensive “tweeting” and blogging.
The annual event has been organized since 1999 by Professor Rosental C. Alves, the Knight Chair in International Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication, with support from UT Austin's College of Communication and School of Journalism.
Here are some of the event’s highlights, along with Web reactions from participants:
*Rachel Nixon, Global News Director of NowPublic (a news site with all user-generated content), discussed the changes in the traditional news cycle. At the panel “Using New Platforms and Social Networks to Enhance Interactivity and Journalism Outreach." Nixon explained how witnesses of news events have an increasing number of ways to share information directly, bypassing traditional news media.
Describing Nixon’s different experience with news, Tom Johnson of mediacovergence.org blogged about Nixon’s presentation:
"Nixon, however, nicely articulated why many news organizations are not employing user-generated content more effectively: Journalists fear that they will be replaced by an army of cheaper citizen journalists. But Nixon rightly notes that ordinary citizens are not trying to assume the job of journalists. Journalists will always be needed to verify news accounts and uphold news standards. But journalists need to pay more attention to their audience and provide them new information on issues that interest them."
*Maria Teresa Ronderos of Colombia's Semana.com showed a multimedia presentation about the FARC rebels, during a discussion on visual and multimedia storytelling.
Alfred Hermida of Reportr.net was impressed with Ronderos’ examples. He blogged: "For her, this reporting rivals the traditional long-form print in-depth report. Multimedia can make a difficult story accessible and journalists have to choose what works best in what medium. Ronderos said we are creating new narratives, but, in her words, we are still in the stone ages."
*In honor of the 10th Symposium, several people who had attended the first symposium came back and gave their perspectives on how the world of online journalism has changed in the last decade. See blog posts on “A Look Back at 10 Years of the Symposium” here.
The keynote address, “The Future of Journalism Amid Disappearing Newspapers,” was given by Paul Steiger, former editor of The Wall Street Journal. Last year Steiger founded ProPublica.org, an independent, non-profit outlet for investigative journalism.
Additional speakers came from ABC News, National Public Radio, New York Times, Politico.com, and Washington Post, and others. They discussed the diverse business models in online journalism, application of new platforms and social networks, newsroom integration, visual and multimedia storytelling, and more.
For more information, visit the symposium website.
Added Oct 30, 16:10, 2009
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