W2 Lecture: The New News

I had the impression after this lecture, that the survival of 'old media' in the digital age is questionable. It makes me sad, as there is something timeless and tangible about opening a newspaper and reading about what's making the news. Though I appreciate the irony in writing that thought on a journalism blog.

Versions of the web (web iterations):

-Web 1.0 is the industry focused version; aimed to promote businesses, (i.e online brochures)

-Web 2.0 (current) is the social group focused version, which allows individuals and groups to broadcast themselves and share content. ‘Herd mentality’.

-Web 3.0 (up and coming) is the individual focused version; provides the user what they want, faster, and with a more targeted approach through building profiles. This is achieved through Meta tagging, geo-tagging, with the use of memory, satellites, and smart phones/devices-tablets etc.

The interactive  approach and functions of W 3.0 will filter into the way news works as well, i.e users will only be presented with what they usually read such as weather forecast.*I wondered if everyone will like this. I, for one, like exploring the web and finding things that I have not seen before and which can be completely unrelated to anything else I'm interested in.

To demonstrate a point about the future of news and the web, Bruce gave us jelly beans. Aside from its being a tasty interruption in the normal run of the Monday four p.m. lecture, it was a really effective analogy. Free online news (a bag of jelly beans) imbues entitlement in the public. Because of this, the consumers don't feel too good when they are told they must pay for their online news (either pay for or return their jelly beans). And from this, munching on our jelly beans, we pondered the dilemma: will consumers of online news be willing to start paying for it when they feel entitled to it?

The answer lies in subscription models, and value adding (special extras for a fee, such as the online Times +, which offers cheaper tickets to things and discounts etc.). *Think Foxtel vs Freeview, broadband vs dial-up, private vs public schools-these all show that value adding works. Because some things are worth paying extra for, for some people. Another strategy is the introduction of pay walls, where online newspapers and blogs make readers pay and log in to access their content.


*I saw this graph while watching the ABC News after the lecture, which reminded me of the graph in the readings for this week. It appears at about 44 secs into this video: http://www.abc.net.au/news/business/kohler-report/

*While doing a bit of research and just skimming the net, I was amazed by the sheer amount of content on the ABC websites. You can even watch TV episodes from the ABC on them, which is awesome. But it does lead me to ask the question--will TV (and, comparably, TV news) be dwarfed by online news consumption? http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/

-Bon