By DANIELLE CORCIONE
So you want to launch your own website, huh? Mark Briggs, author of Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build What’s Next for News, suggests the following advice to those seeking to develop a new website: 1) fostering a digital community and 2) conducting business while being a journalist. A community brings together and unites consumers to build a consistent readership and a loyal fan base. Business transactions commoditize the website to gain economic success and ensure its survival in a competitive market. Talented writing alone doesn’t determine nor measure the success of journalism anymore.
However, it takes relentless endurance to shape and brand a project in the 21st century. Forbes describes their innovative, new journalism staff as brand-building self-starters that learn from themselves, as well as their audiences. The days of news hierarchy are over. The team expects to engage and start conversations with their reads, instead of only relying on them to consume news. By embracing a community of engaged readers, the company continues to produce profit and publish news.
Vani Hari started a blog over three years ago, dedicated to healthy living after a poor diet landed her in the hospital. FoodBabe.com sought to share health-conscious recipes, expose products with harmful ingredients, and promote the importance of food safety. It has matured into much more than a simple blog. #FoodBabeArmy, a hash tag first seen on Twitter, continues to foster the community of enlightened and progressive eaters to further push towards food justice. Additionally, she also added an online store that offers a wide array of products including organic beauty products, kitchen appliances, and work-out equipment.
A common ethical dilemma of journalism, especially on the Internet, is credibility. The University of Wisconsin’s Center for Journalism points out the new participatory element of the digital world: “The ‘democratization’ of media – technology that allows citizens to engage in journalism and publication of many kinds – blurs the identity of journalists and the idea of what constitutes journalism.” Who exactly is a journalist?
More recently, Vani — otherwise known as “Food Babe” — challenged Starbucks to expose the hidden ingredients in the well-anticipated holiday favorite, the Pumpkin Spice Latte; once the company finally exposed the genetically modified chemicals in the steamy beverage, she posted a recipe of how to make a Pumpkin Spice Latte with natural ingredients at home. Quickly, Vani gained credibility within the muckraking community, despite working from home without a larger news network behind her back.
Traditionally, journalists were separated from the public as broadcasters, staff writers, editors, etc. According to a Pew Research study conducted last year, half of adult Americans receive their news from their Facebook dashboards. The line of credible news is blurred between credible journalists and less-involved civilians. Journalists now have to establish their authority and separate themselves from other Internet users. Brand credibility incorporates both elements, of creating a community and conducting business; an audience is willing to contribute to a website that has a substantial, reliable team behind it.
Vani’s blog didn’t gain professional attention until she began investigating the chemicals in common food products; she has even appeared on major television networks, such as CNN and Good Morning America. Because of her appearance on television and in print media, her authority on food safety not only is reliable and separates her from the average blogger, but promotes her website to a larger audience.
The Internet, Post 9/11: the United States in the Digital Age
Thursday, September 11th, 2014 at 11:39 a.m.
Access to information was one of the biggest benefits of the Internet. 25 years later, Pew Research says 87% of U.S. adults say they use the Internet. That’s a huge change from the 42% that didn’t know what the Internet was in 1995. Most importantly, users not only have the ability to contribute and post their own information, instead of exclusively retaining others’ content.
Secondly, the freedom of speech grows with the development of social media technology. While Facebook usually is the most commonplace social media website of choice, Americans can choose from a wide array of companies to express themselves and create content, (mostly) free of censorship: Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, etc.
Users receive news through these different networks as well. A friend’s status update on your Facebook dashboard from this year (let’s say, about a celebrity’s death) shares the same value and worth as a live television broadcast from a large network, such as CNN or MSNBC. The information super highway becomes an equalizer for those wishing to share their commentary, opinions, and editorials. It’s easier than ever to support or oppose a cause, a product, an ideology, you name it. The hierarchal tension between the audience and the previously agenda-setting news organizations diminish with the Internet, because everyone has the potential to be heard.
There’s a relationship between the freedom of speech and access to information. Because users have the ability to post so freely, their opinions turn into information, reading material that other users can consume and comment on. Contemporary technology brings light to differing – sometimes, controversial – opinions and dispositions, especially those surrounding current events. (Let’s not forget Wikileaks so quickly.) The United States government fails to censor everything posted online, inside or outside of the country.
For instance, the federal government’s intelligence community notices the increase of “terrorist chatter” – the discussion amongst developing terrorist organizations – on the Internet and over phone lines as the anniversary of 9/11 draws closer, according to a recent story for the Washington Times. The same trend arose surrounding the World Trade Center attacks over a decade ago.
It’s rather difficult to compare terrorist chatter today to similar happenings nearly fifteen years ago. While the Internet has changed immensely in the past 25 years, the World Wide Web is in a significantly different place than it was in 2001. In 2000, only half of Americans had a cell phone; now, approximately the same number of Americans has smartphones. The Internet comes in different forms, with its different devices. While intelligence communities already have the resources to brainstorm, their various mediums keep growing.
More people have access to differing opinions through the emergence and constant influence of social media. While the White House grows in online presence, so does terrorist chatter. In 2001, large news networks dominated the world of politics and there were no influential social networks to voice opinions. However, the increase of social media – one of many examples of how the Internet has changed in the past 25 years – encourages greater access to information, the freedom of speech, and decrease the dominance of large news networks.