Droning On, or Not

So we got our first drone/videocamera system a while back (at UTK's School of Journalism & Electronic Media), just before the FAA came out with its restrictions on drone use.  And checking with the University's legal office, they initially said we should limit use to over University property; then said better not use it until FAA figures out rules.  And so it's been on a shelf in our equipment room for the last year.

It's not that we, and other journalism programs, don't see the potential of drones to gather information and images.  One early application of drone journalism was its use to cover the aftermath of Alabama tornadoes in 2011. [The FAA started an investigation of that "unauthorized" drone usage, arguing that it violated its regulations (as yet, no public announcement of actions)].

On the international front, the Bangkok Post used drones to cover the political protests last year, Meanwhile, drones are finding widespread applications in filmmaking - especially documentaries (where drones offer significant cost savings over renting helicopters) - and other uses related to imaging (real estate) and monitoring (disaster relief, agriculture, etc.).   Drones are proving to be potentially very useful tools, albeit with real concerns about potential loss of privacy, or damages from drones hitting things (power lines, other aerial vehicles, even people). There's certainly enough to keep a few academic drone journalism centers occupied.

In the meantime, the FAA has banned most commercial drone use, while it works out its concerns and develops drone-specific rules.
In the meantime, this summer's seen an emergence of interest in drone journalism - based on some really good examples internationally, and a spate of horrified reactions when a (thankfully false) report surfaced that celebrity-news outfit TMZ had applied for a license to operate drones (to peek into celebrity homes and back yards).  The report was false, but the renewed interest in the ability to use drones in news gathering isn't.
 A number of "drone journalism" programs and centers have developed at University journalism programs. The initial problem they all face is getting permission to actually use drones for news gathering and news reporting.  Initially, many thought they could get waivers in the form of FAA "Certificate of Authorization" (COA) program designed for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).  That program allowed UAS use for research purposes, by "public operators (i.e. government agencies) of a specific drone within a specified geographic location for a limited period of time."  Even if the program was appropriate, the regulations require advance notice and approvals for each use, and severely limits the area and times of use - conditions that curtail the utility of drones for spot or breaking news coverage.
We profs would probably try sneaking drones into our journalism curriculum anyway, as we could identify specific times and places for class demonstrations.  However, the FAA indicated quite early on that "drones" were not the kind of "unmanned aircraft system" their current regulations covered, and until they could come up with new rules specifically for drones, most commercial drone usage (including for news coverage) was banned. So for now, the ability of most programs to use drones in journalism coverage and education is effectively curtailed.
That hasn't stopped some "drone journalism" centers and programs from partnering with news organizations to "research" drone journalism.  One, a joint project by Georgia Tech and CNN, to “investigate technologies, operating procedures, and crew skill requirements that will enable the safe and effective use of UASs for news coverage”, seems willing to continue despite FAA limits (part of that project is looking at aeronautical control systems, which the FAA considers UAS research).  Many others (Nebraska, Missouri, South Florida) have tried applying for COAs, despite the limitations.  But those approvals have not been coming.
Just as the FAA quickly decided that drones weren't UAS and thus able to operate within those guidelines, the FAA seem to have decided that drone journalism and other drone applications aren't what they meant by UAS research and were unlikely to get COAs.  Last month, the FAA said so explicitly, releasing a Memorandum that indicated that the only allowed use covered by a COA was for aeronautical research, which was restricted to research on airplane and aeronautical control systems.  The memorandum also indicated that the use of off-the-shelf drones for other research purposes (including journalism) would not be eligible for COAs.  The FAA suggested that public universities looking at drone applications wouldn't qualify as "public operators," either.

“The public aircraft statute exists to free governments from regulation, not to confer a benefit on government entities that is unavailable to civil operators. ... The public aircraft statute and UAS COAs do not exist to create a loophole of exclusive operation, or to allow state universities to become exclusive providers of certain aircraft operations by any entity willing to fund them as ‘research.’ ”

This certainly has slowed development of drone journalism here in the US; at least until 2015, when the FAA hopes to have new rules in place for drone operation.  Still, that delay hasn't slowed discussion of potential ethical issues, and consideration of whether the news industry should develop  normative guidelines for the use of drones in news reporting. Among the top ethical issues is the question of privacy (the TMZ/paparazzi issue), public concern that news organizations could be contributing to the growth of surveillance in public life, and the likelihood that drone coverage of criminal activities is likely to be subpoenaed by police (conflicts of interest).  Then there's the strong possibility of unanticipated effects, like drones hitting people or remote operators losing control. 

It's going to be an interesting new world with drone journalism, if and when the FAA allows it.

Sources: The Debate on Drones: Navigation for Journalists, PBS Mediashift, EducationShift
Ethics Aloft: The Pros and Cons of Journalists Using Drones,  PBS Mediashift, EducationShift.
University Hopes To Lend Drones To Students, May Face FAA Challenge, Forbes.com
Unmanned Aircraft Systems Alert: FAA memorandum may jeopardize certain state university research projects involving unmanned aircraft, Legal Alert from Kramer Leving Naftalis & Frankel laaw firm.

Knight: The Skills Journalists Need and Want

The Knight Foundation recently released a report on what skills and training journalists think are valuable and needed in the new digital news environment.  Based on a survey of 660 journalists, the majority from outside the U.S., found a strong interest in learning new skills.
  Digital skills topped the list, with more than three-quarters of respondents indicating that additional training in multimedia, new technologies, and data skills would be very beneficial.  Some 70% felt that leadership skills would be helpful, and 62% felt that additional training in the topics they cover would be beneficial.  It was somewhat troubling that almost half felt a need for additional training in ethics (51%), basic reporting skills (46%), and traditional journalism skills (46%).  The report adds that non-U.S. journalists were much more likely to find training in traditional skills valuable (65%) than were U.S. journalists (19%).
  The report found that more than half the participants had participated in an online or virtual class, a significant jump from the 5% reported in 2002.  Moreover, many felt that online training was effective -

84 percent of international journalists thought distance learning was better or about the same as classroom training; only 34 percent of U.S. journalists felt that way.

   The report also asked respondents about their level of job satisfaction.  Reporters overwhelming felt that their work contributed to society, even though they were much less satisfied with opportunities within their newsrooms. Combining the "Somewhat satisfied" with the dissatisfied measures, more than half weren't satisfied with training opportunities, chances for promotion, and their pay and benefits; some 45% expressed concern over job security; and a third weren't satisfied with how much influence they had over work decisions.

  The study not only asked about general satisfaction with their opportunities for getting training, they asked respondents to grade their news organization's efforts in meeting training needs.

Fewer than four in 10 of the journalists who work in newsrooms give their organizations an A or B when it comes to meeting training needs. The majority, about six in 10, rank their news organizations as C or worse. Grades have gone steadily downward in the three Knight surveys, with a greater proportion of Cs, Ds and Fs this year than ever before.

  While the study didn't use a random sample, and heavily over-represented journalists from Latin America and participants in various Knight Foundation funded projects, the report argues that - while the exact percentages aren't generalizable - the basic results can provide insights for both the journalism profession and those interested in providing journalism education and training.

Professional development will play a key role in the transformation of the news landscape.
Not all news organizations will survive the transition to the digital age. The ones that make it will be nimble, adaptable. They’ll have learning cultures, where training is built into the daily routine.

 Source - Knight report on training shows journalists want technology, multimedia, data skills,  Poynter
The full Knight Foundation report -  Digital Training Comes of Age

Getting People Jobs

Susannah Breslin  is a young journalist who writes for the Forbes Blog, mostly on job-hunting for journalists.  I highly recommend her "Pink Slipped" blog - not just for the tips and advice, but for the quality of her writing.
  Yesterday, she resummarized what she learned from being downsized a year ago; the day before she wrote about what she's learned in that year, and in doing her column, about helping others find jobs.  And since she's a  better writer than I am for that kind of stuff, I'll encourage you to follow the links and read her, rather than me trying to summarize.

Source -  Susannah Breslin's Pink Slipped column on Forbes.com

Paton at MediaNewsGroup - A difference maker?

Post contributed by Jonathan Guess -

John Paton took control of MediaNews Group and had visions to make his papers profitable in other ways than going digital like many papers have. It would seem that Paton has used some kind of magic to get his papers to make profits again, which rose almost 200 percent in his first year at the helm in 2009.
  Paton has become known as a great media thinker. He issued Flip cameras to all reporters at Journal Register papers, helped create a newsroom cafe that's open to the community in Torrington, Conn., and has been pushing to dumb ancient proprietary newsroom software in favor of free, Web-based publishing tools. He financed a lab to foster employee innovation, and the company has formed partnerships with a number of Web companies to provide news and information.
  We should expect to see this trend flowing through the rest of the country's papers. Reducing cost and thinking outside of the box when it comes to generating revenue has made men like Paton hot commodities in the news world, a sign that papers may still have a chance if the right people are chosen to lead them.

Source -  Newspapers' Digital Apostle,  NYTimes.com

Reporters Committee launches Digital Journalist's Legal Guide

Earlier this month, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press posted a guide on press law issues that digital journalists might face.
Their Digital Journalist's Legal Guide is "designed to assist anyone who is disseminating news online, from an independent blogger to a reporter for a major media outlet."  The Digital Journalist guide follows on, and is integrated with, the Committee's other Guides: The First Amendment Handbook, The Reporters Privilege Compendium, Federal Open Government Guide and State Open Government Guide.

Source" Press release from the Reporters Committee

From Backpack to Pocket Journalism

Reflecting the inexorable pace of technology, broadcast journalism has seen the field reporting crew shrink from 3-5 (reporter, camera, sound, lighting, producer) to one - sometimes called the backpack journalist.  The BBC's taking the next step, developing an app that will enable reporters to upload images, audio, and video to BBC servers, directly from an iPhone or iPad.  In areas with 3G or better cellphone service, reporters can use third party app Luci Live to broadcast live from their devices.

Several of the larger US networks (CBS, CNN) have apps enabling individuals to record and submit multimedia content to intermediaries who might use some of it, but haven't widely used apps for direct filing of stories or live reports.

Sources: "BBC Developing iPhone App for Live Broadcasting", Mashable
"BBC Developing new iPhone app for field reporters," Journalism.co.uk

Personalized News? Microsoft takes a shot

Mcrosoft's Future Social Experience Labs have been quietly collaborating with Cambridge University on the development of what's been labeled a "personalized news stream."  Developed as an app for smartphones running Windows, Project Emporia reuses data and news from social networks.  The app relies on two Windows technologies (auto categorization and matchbox) and gets all of its news information from shared URLs on Twitter.  The service is said to be similar to the way marketers determine personal ad relevance in the personalization of ad delivery.

However, the journalist in me has to wonder about relying on Twitter for news feeds - while Twitter can be a quick and easy source for breaking news, it also transmits a lot of unsourced, unchecked, and possibly malicious information -- and you have to wonder whether Project Emporia has a filter to sort the wheat from the chaff among more than 1 million Tweets a day (and if it does, how it works).  Will Project Emporia become a personalized news feed, or a personalized gossip feed?

While I'm at it, Microsoft has also been working on another project (Montage) which lets users create Web pages from stories or news from friends and others, and can be used in support of crowdsourced news.

These projects contribute to the diffusion of mechanisms supporting the personalization of news and information, which can also be readily adapted for citizen journalism and highly targeted micro-news services.  And the fact that allow of the collection, editing, page creation, and distribution can be accomplished from a smartphone or tablet, further embraces the ideals of citizen journalism and the idea of hyperlocal, hyperfocused,.and/or crowdsourced news. 

It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out over the next few years, and how it will change our notions of news and journalism.

Source: "Personalized News: Microsoft Digs Deeper Into Social", Online Media Daily

New Report on Business of Digital Journalism

One of the bigger issues regarding the Future of Journalism regards funding - what viable business models will emerge for journalism and its distributive media.  And while online news is increasingly cited as a primary source for news, its been clear that following traditional models relying heavily on advertising are not likely to produce sufficient revenues in the short term.  In the meantime, the search for viable business models for digital journalism continues, with much experimentation.
Recently, the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (which owns and runs the Columbia Journalism Review [CJR]) released a study on the current state of the digital journalism economics.  The rise of digital is transforming journalism, impacting both costs and revenues, redefining the markets in which journalism outlets operate, but also creating significant opportunities for rethinking the purpose and focus of journalism.  The study rejects the idea that non-digital news platforms will necessarily disappear, and argues that news organizations should embrace digital platforms, recognize that they are still in a transformative state, and explore the potential for innovation in both the journalism and business sides.
The report offers some specific recommendations:

• Digital platforms should be more than a repository for existing content created for another medium.  There is evidence that offering high-value, more distinctive content designed for digital media can be economically successful.
• Rethink the relationship between audience and advertising.  Traditional mass media built its advertising model on reaching large numbers of lightly-engaged readers and viewers.  Digital media offers the potential for higher-value engagement, interactivity, and targeting. News organizations can benefit from understanding the audiences they have and the ones they want - and revise their content and offerings to build audience loyalty.
• Media companies need to rethink their relationships with advertising.  Advertisers have a much wider range of outlets they can use to reach people.  News organizations have to know and sell their strengths and areas of competitive advantage.
• As part of the above, the media and advertising industries need to develop alternative metrics for measuring audiences and advertising effectiveness.  In particular, they need to move away from the overly simplistic impression-based pricing systems that dominate both online and traditional media today.
• Journalists and news organizations need to give more emphasis to licensing and secondary rights.  They need to be vigilant in terms of outright theft of content, while recognizing the direct and indirect values of having their content more widely available and used.
• Journalists need to be prepared for a highly competitive news environment, and its concomitant downward pressure on editorial costs.  The rise of digital has reduced technological costs, allowing for more, and smaller, news outlets to emerge and become successful
• The rise of mobile and tablet personal media devices present special challenges and opportunities for journalism.  Those media are new enough that there is no clear picture of what products or services will be successful, so experimentation is key.
• News organizations should have very limited expectations for pay schemes for online sites in the short term.  As news organizations shift from providing more standardized, commoditzed content to a more differentiated and distinctive content - as they redefine their online sites from offering low-value content competing  with a plethora of other undifferentiated news sites, to offering high-value content to a more limited audience (and market), pay schemes become more viable.

Finally, the report reaffirms the notion that the public needs, and benefits from, "independent journalists who seek out facts, explain complex issues and present their work in compelling ways."  While they suggest that philanthropic or government support can help (although possibly reducing journalists' independence), they recognize that ultimately, it is up to the commercial market to provide the economic basis for journalism.  It just needs to figure out how.

Source: "Conclusion: Lessons, takeaways, and bullet points" CJR
Full Study: "The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism"
Executive Summary for a quick outline

The New Gatekeepers of Media

From Jocelyn Blake:

The New Gatekeepers of Media

Many people question the way in which we receive media. It's interesting to look at how a few years ago journalists were pretty much investigators. Journalists serve as gatekeepers helping to regulate the flow of information. After reading an article in The New York Times about our society's new gatekeepers I have realized how much journalism has evolved. Anand Giridharadas says, "The government analyst who earlier relied on moles and covert operatives and newspaper reports now has uncountable millions of Twitter bulletins and Flickr pictures, submitted by genuine witnesses, ill-meaning rival governments and other interested parties. The canvas grows rich, but who is to know what is intelligence and what is distortion?" My question is whether we can rely on the “new gatekeepers” when everyone is allowed to submit their ideas on the World Wide Web. I think it is very resourceful and convenient but I would hate to see journalism lose its authenticity.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/09/us/09iht-currents09.html?ref=technology

New York Times' New Digital Subscription Model

From Melissa Grimes:

In order to secure their future in the ever-progressing digital world, like so many other news sources, the New York Times is going digital. In mid-March they tested their digital subscriptions in Canada, working out all of the kinks, before launching in the U.S. and globally. They are offering three different subscription packages, based on the readers needs. This subscription option plan is a really smart move, by giving their readers choices, kind of like television gives its viewers, it will more easily integrate them into the new digital changes. Other newspapers and magazines need to pay attention, if the New York Times caved and finally went digital I would say to follow in their footsteps quickly or your publication may become extinct.

Source: "Letter to Our Readers: Times Begins Digital Subscriptions", NYTimes

Journalism Ethics in a Digital Age?

Colleague Prof. Hendrickson pointed me to this piece by Stephen Ward on what we should be teaching about ethics in this new era of digital media and journalism.  Or more specifically, how can our students "use the new media tools responsibly."  Pretty much all professionally-oriented journalism programs teach ethics - but do they address the kinds of new situations our students may find themselves in?
Ward argues that in our ethics course, we no longer have a consensus on what is ethical, despite the existence of myriad codes of ethics (such as the Society or Professional Journalists'), and there is no widely-accepted framework of ethical principles.  Ward offers five features he suggests should be in any journalism ethics course:

1. Start from the student's media world.
2. Assist students with reflective engagement
3. Insist on critical thinking, not on fashionable excuses being offered
4. Be transitional - talk about the process of getting to a new ethics standard
5. Be global in your teaching (we aren't the only ones with ideas about what is ethical)

Not a bad starting point, I think.

AOL buys Huffington Post - What does it mean? (Updated & Bumped)

Last week saw the announcement of AOL's acquisition of the Huffington Post for $315 million, about seven times the Post's estimated annual revenues, and more than three times its last public valuation of $100 million in 2008.  Does this reflect the growing strength of online news, the continuing decline of the media giants, or something different?
AOL has been struggling to find a new identity since the end of its disastrous merger with Time/Warner, and has seen declining revenues in recent years, and has yet to see the breakout hit in its myriad offerings and acquisitions.  Reports suggest that AOL was looking for journalistic credibility - if so, the acquisition of a site more known for left-leaning political commentary than straight news looks like another blunder by AOL.  It might be a better move if the goal is, as AOL's chief, Tim Armstrong, said that the deal is part of a long-term strategy to reach "an influence audience." 
The deal is certainly advantageous for the Huffington Post's founder, Ariana Huffington, who will now oversee all of AOL's content (including Engadget, Mapquest, Patch, etc.) and gets to cash out, big-time.  One long-term question is whether she can successfully oversee such a broad range of content and services profitably. Perhaps more critically, will the Huffington Post's (mostly unpaid) writers continue to contribute freely, now that it's owned by one of those "money-grubbing big corporations" they rail against.  Will they now want to be paid (which will upset the current business model), or just find somewhere else to go with their material?
So is this another bad business move on the part of AOL, an effort by big business to influence public and political debate, or the future of media content?  What do you think?

UPDATE:  Sources report that Arianna Huffington is pulling $18 million from the sale, and more than $4 million salary with her new position at AOL. And from one pundit - "profiting off the unpaid labor of her digital sweatshop" (as noted above, most Huffington Post contributors are unpaid)..

UPDATE: There's early indications of how the business and financial world see this acquisition.  Since Feb. 1, AOL stock prices have fallen to the point where AOL's market value has dropped a total of $315 million, which happens to be the price it paid for the Huffington Post. 
The same NYPost story puts the value of the deal to the two HuffPo founders (Huffington and Ken Lerer) at $80 to $100 million.


Sources and for more information, see:

"AOL-HuffPost: All The News Fit to Merge," Business Insider
"AOL+HuffP0: A Quick Trip to the Future?" Online Spin
"You Can Make Friends, But AOL Wants to Influence People," Online Media Daily
"AOL stock sheds $315M - HuffPo price tag" NY Post

New Database of Digital News Outlets

The folks at Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) have been compiling a database of digital news outlets, which you can access at http://www.cjr.org/the_news_frontier_database/.  They don't have TNJN yet, so they're woefully incomplete, but hopefully they'll keep building it.

Murdoch's Digital Newspaper for iPad to launch 19 Jan 2011

Reuters is reporting that the highly-touted digital newspaper "Daily" for tablets will be launched at a news event featuring both Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdock on 19 Jan 2011.