Online Journalism in SA
From SA Online Journalism
Despite the early promise of pioneering websites such as the M&G Online in 1994, online journalism in South Africa remains in its infancy. But there are encouraging signs for growth in South Africa.
Table of contents |
[edit] Core Readings
[edit] Academic Papers
- Berger, G. & Folayan, O. 2002. Hanging in and holding out: struggles of SADC news websites.
- Berger, G. 2004. The new media maelstrom. New technologies promise a wealth of media and messages. Rhodes Journalism Review.
- Frank, R. 2005. Are South African newspaper websites harnessing the Web?. Unpublished dissertation.
- Knight, M.A. 2002. The evolution of online news: a comparative case study of the process of online implementation at two South African news organisations. Unpublished thesis. Grahamstown: Rhodes University Library.
- Manoim, I. 2000. Putting the journalism back into online. Paper presented at Highway Africa 2000 Conference, Grahamstown.
[edit] Articles
- Buckland, M. June 2005. Why SA's Online Journalism is Rubbish. The Media Online
- Manson, H. 21 October 2003. Navel-gazing is needed for Internet journalism (Part 1) (Part 2). Media Toolbox.
- Manson, H. 7 December 2004. The cold truth about cold type. Media Toolbox.
[edit] History of online journalism in SA
How online journalism has evolved in South Africa since 1994.
[edit] Review of top websites
In this section we review each website based on a defined set of criteria.
- hypertextuality
- multimediality
- interactivity
- immediacy
- originality
[edit] News24
[edit] Independent Online
[edit] Mail&Guardian Online
[edit] Sunday Times
[edit] Moneyweb
[edit] Climate for change
What is inhibiting the top websites from presenting real online journalism?
[edit] Notes on Berger & Manoim Readings
[edit] Notes compiled by Marin Gorrie
[edit] Berger, G (2004)
• From early, the main function of the Internet for South Africa’s mass media was more a resource for research.
• Therefore, over the democracy decade, a new journalistic skill came into existence – computer assisted reporting and research-CARR.
• This entailed learning how to locate and assess relevant websites and how to use search engines efficiently.
• E-mail also became a powerful tool to receive info electronically and conduct interviews.
• With these developments came several concerns:
1. Too many journalists do too little primary research and rely on the Internet instead.
2. Our online knowledge is set by white, western and male origins of most information in cyberspace.
3. Plagiarism. Cut and paste journalism is very easy to do.
• South Africa saw a wave of online publishing emerge between ‘95-2000 and it crashed when it became obvious that the South African market couldn’t sustain the level of investment.
• Illusions of success emerged in the 90’s which were fuelled by a range of new tactics:
1. mainstream media put content online, expecting visitor traffic would attract advertisers.
2. most content was shovelware
3. a number of publishers took advantage of the low costs of running a website-most media sites were text heavy though and when this form of content was inadequate for viability new tactics came through including to set up destinations which grouped information from several sources. Eg news24, iol.co.za
• These tactics didn’t bring in enough profits and south African media companies pulled back their web-operations and cut staff and relocated them back to print.
• Berger identifies a few factors that point to why publishing via new media proved to have limited prospects.
1. the cost of Internet connectivity still remained too high for market growth beyond the elite.
2. slow download times
3. online media content has generally been the same as that offered on traditional platforms. The facility to search it electronically hasn’t been sufficient to make these sites into must-visit places.
• In the light of these limitations, audiences and advertisers for new media have been in short supply.
• Berger believes things should improve over the next decade with competition for Telkom leading to cheaper connectivity as well as interactive content.
• Berger believes print will become more expensive which will make new media a more competitive option for the consumer.
• He says that it will be a challenge for journalists to keep visibility and role within the expanding form of new media.
• His bottom line is that society can look forward to more opportunities for more black and women’s voices online and we’ll have more diverse information.
[edit] Irwin Manoim (2000)
• The attitude of journalists was that the internet represented a lot of things except Real Journalism.
• Manoim says that the internet in south Africa hasn’t produced great journalism. The internet cant meet the criteria of journalism that takes due care with a story, is capable of broad coverage and intelligently understanding issues and their context.
• In south Africa no online news operation comes near to raising the revenues necessary to keep journalism alive.
• Manoim says there are three methods of producing content online:
1. Shovelware-taking a product produced by other people in another medium at their expense and shoveling stuff into cyberspace.
2. Huckster journalism-the aim here is to put up a plausible journalistic front while lacking the means to actually pay for original content. It can involve rewriting stuff that somebody else already wrote.
3. Reporting-this is less popular. Most reporters are overworked and don’t have the time to invest in online stories.
• In addition to these, journalism on the internet still comes up against other stresses unknown to normal newspaper journalism. The internet raises the expectation that it will always be kept up to date.
• Constant updating is brutal-it involves shift work all day every day. People expect the internet to provide speed, depth and breadth. This is hugely labour-intensive and the internet in south Africa cannot afford the salary bill.
• Websites that spin out of newspaper titles have other problems:
1. war between print and online
2. some editors institute rules that no story can appear online until it has appeared in print-but this renders online almost irrelevant.
• Manoim says that the south Africa newspaper industry hasn’t ever before had to face competition from abroad but the internet and global markets are changing that. And the foreigners have access to resources and skills that locals cant match.
• He says the world web web is a terrible medium for serious journalism. The flip side of a website being constantly updated is that articles go through a cycle of speedily declining prominence. They first appear at the top of the front page and then are pushed down the menus as new material arrives and then hit the bottom and vanish out of sight.
• Therefore the item enjoys a brief life-span on the home page and isn’t cost effective to invest in the long-distance journalism that print journalism can invest in.
• In addition most internet readers continue their news browing to the headlines and teaser on the front page. Only a small group read through the detail.
• Manoim says there are remedies for some problems in online journalism.
1. the biggest problem is revenue/the lack of it. Advertising revenues are not close to be able to support viable journalism but they have been increasing over the last few years.
2. commodity- at the moment people are happy to take the news packaged like a quick mass product but in time there will be more serious and demanding journalism.
