You visit Baristanet obviously; you’re reading this right now. You may even leave a comment or join a conversation. But why? What motivates you to participate in online news sites and Baristanet in particular?
This survey on your use of Baristanet is part of a large international researcher project investigating reader participation on news sites. The study will be used to develop a greater understanding of what motivates users to participate in online news sites and also help determine user perception of common engagement techniques.
Journalism’s ‘perfect storm’, as it has been termed, has resulted in the loss of thousands of journalism jobs and news media publications and programs globally. News media organizations know they must embrace the online medium, but they are still struggling to find an online model that replicates traditional media advertising revenue.
If the news media is to compete in an environment where the engagement principles of Facebook and YouTube are considered the norm, then they must bring users into the newsroom fold. As a result, there has been a proliferation of news sites offering users the ability to interact with stories, make comments, join discussions and even generate their own content. But just what does the audience think of these participation strategies? The focus of research in this field has traditionally been on quantitative data – number of clicks etc. – but few studies have actually asked the audience what it thinks.
It is not enough to incorporate user participation into the news media and then rely on hits as a measure of success. We need to understand the motivations of users. Why are they engaging? And in particular, what is it about niche and independent sites that are leading the participatory journalism model?
This is important information for the journalism industry and will help form a clearer picture of the future of journalism. So please take the time to complete a survey about participation elements on Baristanet.
Click here to take survey (expect to take 15 minutes to complete).
Renee Barnes teaches online journalism at RMIT in Melbourne, Australia, and is undertaking a PhD focusing on online news audiences. Prior to joining academia she worked as a newspaper, television and radio journalist in Australia and the United Kingdom.
So the “Journalism Industry” wants people to fill out a 15 minute questionnaire from which they hope to glean a way to save journalism? Yeah, good luck with that.
Questionnaire:
1.) Do you have any ideas on how we can make a living as a journalist?
2.) If you were one of us, a Journalist, what business practices would you implement to increase profitability?
3.) How do you get people to pay $10 a month for something they can get free at the click of a button. Any ideas, Any at all?
4.) Ignore journalism for the moment. Let’s say we were selling cows, but someone else was giving milk away for free, what would get you to buy a cow? Anything? Really, can you think of anything? We’re getting a little spooked.
5.) Ok, If money were no object would you…..
etc.
How do I use Baristanet? You don’t want to know, trust me on this.
Cage liner for my digital angry budgees.
This is a really good question about the viability of newsprint, and the epicenter of concern for a good friend of mine. Maybe I can address the questions from ROC:
1.) Do you have any ideas on how we can make a living as a journalist? yes – Content, content, content. Write something people think is valuable. Don’t just regurgitate an AP piece. If a locally available news source is reporting, then have a different take, interview people they didn’t, anticipate discussions and provide information. Anticipate, don’t react.
2.) If you were one of us, a Journalist, what business practices would you implement to increase profitability? — Write anticipatory pieces, and include links to sites your readership will likely want to investigate. Example (lame): Headline: “Elmo doll no longer available at Montclair Store for Christmas”. Then write where it IS available, or write what the next most desirable gifts are, and where they can be found WITH links that can be monetized. Give suggestions for outings in lieu of gifts, like the radio city spectacular that may or may not include ELMO (i have no idea if they do, but you get the point)
3.) How do you get people to pay $10 a month for something they can get free at the click of a button. Any ideas, Any at all?—- Intensely locally information is valuable. Don’t allow people to comment for free and have full rights to the site. Post stories, but for the ability to post comments, charge $5/month. For the ability to get exclusive coupons to featured establishments, premium seats at the theater, or early admission/back stage pass to concerts at Welmont, charge $10/month. There is clearly a clic of about 20 people who routinely comment on these blogs, but i would suppose a bunch more would subscribe for valuable discounts and promotions.
4.) Ignore journalism for the moment. Let’s say we were selling cows, but someone else was giving milk away for free, what would get you to buy a cow? Anything? Really, can you think of anything? We’re getting a little spooked. —–Milk is a product of the cow. Being a resident of Montclair is like being milk of the cow. The Cow controls everything, including how much milk is made. The cow is the township. Why would you buy the township? Then why would you buy PRIDE in your town? If you’ve no PRIDE in your town, you’re unlikely to buy the milk. People who don’t buy your cow, won’t buy your milk, as long as there is a cheaper milk available, as it’s a commodity. Your cow needs to provide a special milk, call it “organic” and people will come. Aka, create a buzz, and your milk will seem better than all else. Then concentrate on making sure it actually is, by offering concerts at the Welmont, free Pumpkin viewings at the Van Dyke, BooRistaville, etc.
5.) Ok, If money were no object would you….. —-Money no object is not reality. Talk to the Scarecrow.
for the ability to post comments, charge $5/month.
Are you kidding me? If I don’t get a raise soon I’m going to defect to Patch!
To tinman’s answers I’d add emphasis on *investigate*. Plenty of us follow the news around town (and beyond, but I assume we’re limiting our scope to what this site covers). We have questions, but generally neither the time nor the expertise to do the necessary digging to find answers. In perhaps another place and another time, with a government less emphatically obscure, this might be less important. But where town committees cannot even get information from the town, *investigative* journalism should be a profit center.
I play a small voluntary role on the school side of things, and I’m working with some very knowledgeable people (far more so than I) and an “administration” that is – largely – cooperative. And yet it is still a slow process to find answers to questions (as well as information which suggests new questions to ask). There will therefore be a cost to this.
Yet it is my belief that journalism’s largest value added is a staff with the knowledge and resources to *dig* past the fluff and nonsense spouted by the political class.
…Andrew
Dear Andrew and Tinman: what planet do you guys live on? you dont seem to realize that we are currently in the midst of a collapse of journalism as a profession. No one has been able to figure out a way to make the kind of investigative journalism that you pine for pay, not at the national level, and especially at the local level. So what I think you should do is be very grateful for the Baristas who work for peanuts to give you whatever scraps they can manage. Iif you want more, get off your butts and find the Information yourselves. Be part of the solution. And if you dont want to do that, just pipe down. Honestly, you sound like a bunch of whiners.