Australia's Digital Divide and The National Broadband Network

Remember back when television sets in the home first became popular, it took a while for the technology to diffuse until nearly every home in the country had one. During this time you were either the family that owned a TV or the one that didn’t. Similarly, the internet is technology still dispersing around the country though issues of diffusion may not be as simple as the ‘have’s and ‘have-not’s’.

The advent of the internet has sparked all manner of associated guidelines and rules to regulate its use. The Association for Progressive Communications established the Internet Rights Charter which states the internet should be accessible by all. The charter suggests “The right to communicate is a fundamental human right. Rights related to access and use of the Internet and electronic communication infrastructure are equally fundamental if ordinary people are to have their voices heard.” (Association for Progressive Communications, 2006). This premise makes it imperative that equal access and diffusion of the internet occur among all citizens. However, in 2002 only a little over 50% of Australia’s population was using the internet (Willis & Tranter, 2002). Hardly all encompassing. Willis and Tranter (2002) suggest during 2001 a time of rapid rate of adoption was passing and diffusion represented on the sigmoid shaped timeline was tapering off. It can be imagined this slight downward trend in diffusion by 2012 has created a persistent divide in internet adoption.

Slow uptake in the last decade has focused academic research on the divide of uptake between regional and non-regional areas. Research supports that adoption rates in rural regions are lower than metropolitan areas, especially in indigenous communities. In 2002, 57.9 non-indigenous people had accessed the internet in the preceding 12 months, compared to only 30.4 percent of indigenous people (Radoll, 2006). Also, internet use in a home environment, which has educational and social benefits outside the work domain, was lower in regional areas. Only 9.1 per cent of remote communities used the internet at home whilst 40.2 per cent of usage was at home for non-remote areas (Radoll, 2006). With access seen as the barrier to higher diffusion rates its reasonable to understand the Australian Governments implementation of the National Broadband Network (NBN). The policy aims to connect 93 per cent of households to broadband and use wireless and satellites to cater for the rest (Hewett, 2010). With speeds expected at 100 mega bits per a second, arguably superfluous for household usage, the NBN is estimated to cost $43 billion to implement (Hewett, 2010). If access was the only barrier to diffusion, subsequently closing the gap of inequality, this plan may be justified but geography may not be the only influencing factor.

The complex nature of new technology means diffusion not only requires gaining the technology but learning new skills to use it and actual ongoing use of the technology. Gibson (2003) says a ‘city-country divide’ is too simple a notion to analyse internet use. Though Australia is a large land mass our population is primarily massed around cities. In 1998, 63% of Australia's households were located in capital cities (Arnold, 2010). Arguably, by now internet diffusion rates should be higher given greater access in metropolitan areas so others factors must be at play. A report by NATSEM (as cited in Arnold, 2010) argues that “low-income earners, the unemployed and the elderly have not even connected to the net. If you are poor or lack good education it is not going to make much difference how many satellites we put in the sky or how many cables we run past your house.” Thus, income and age could be affecting internet use regardless of access. Holloway (2002) believes that initiatives like the NBN solve issues of supply but there relativity undocumented issues on the demand side that are affecting internet diffusion. One such factor could be education. The Australia Bureau of Statistics data showed a direct correlation between higher education levels and increased internet usage (Radoll, 2006). Arnold (2010) suggests the characteristics of high volume users are young, male and earning in excess of $75,000. Age as a demand barrier to internet usage may to reasonably influential given Australia’s aging population. Whilst more research is needed into socio-demographic barriers to internet diffusion it is clear that access in not the only factor creating a digital divide.

Pre-existing social conditions are reflected in the diffusion of the internet so a ‘divide’ due to remoteness is not an accurate representation of a greatly complex issue. The NBN may slightly increase the uptake of the internet but ongoing usage and diffusion in metropolitan areas requires policy that speaks to more intricate factors. A corporate initiative dealing with the socio-demographic factors of the internet is Telstra’s Connected Seniors program. The Gold Coast’s Jazz Radio advertises this ‘tech time’ for seniors offering weekly sessions designed to teach the elderly in the community how to use new technology so they are not left behind. On a national scale, until census data on the impact of the NBN (if indeed it continues to be implemented) is available, its effectiveness remains to be seen.

Reference list

Arnold, B. (2010). Digital Divides in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.caslon.com.au/dividesprofile6.htm

Association for Progressive Communications. (2006). APC Internet Rights Charter: Internet for Social Justice and Sustainable Development. Retrieved from http://www.apc.org/en/system/files/APC_charter_EN_0.pdf

Gibson, C. (2003). Digital Divides in New South Wales: a research note on socio-spatial inequality using 2001 Census data on computer and Internet technology. Australian Geographer, 34 (2). Retrieved April 2, 2012, from Ebsco Megafile Complete.

Hewett, J. (2010, August 12). Broadband’s digital divide. The Australian. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/broadbands-digital-divide/story-e6frg6z6-1225904628003

Holloway, D. (2002). Disparities in Internet Access: A Case Study of the Digital Divide in Western Sydney. Australian Journal of Social Issues, 37 (1). Retrieved April 2, 2012, from Ebsco Megafile Complete.

Radoll, P. (2006). Australia’s Digital Divide: Chapter 16: Information and Communication Technology. Retrieved from http://epress.anu.edu.au/caepr_series/no_26/mobile_devices/ch16s03.html

Willis, S., & Tranter, B. (2002). Beyond the ‘digital divide’: Socio-Economic Dimensions of Internet Diffusion in Australia. Retrieved from http://www.sisr.net/events/docs/0208willis.pdf

Journalism In The Digital Era

‘Print dollars are becoming digital dimes’

The advent of the internet and rapid convergence of online media platforms has presented challenges for many professions from making music, thwarted by illegal downloads, to advertising where old conventions are considered lackluster against new integrated multimedia campaigns. Journalism is no different. For a long time traditional media have thought to be under treat from new media technologies. However, its seems with new digital news business models being tested we will see short form stories migrate online and long-form stories distributed through digital devices. These changes to the product and distribution of news also affect the definition of a journalists work.

The future of short-form journalism is in online news as newspaper sales are in decline. Though not as catastrophic as popular belief would have it, newspapers are treading toward being obsolete. The average sale of newspapers per day in Australian metropolitan areas has dropped from 2.7 million in 1993 to 2.4 million in 2009 (Este, Murphy, & Warren, 2010). In a recent public address Ken Auletta, columnist for The New Yorker, categorised media corporations in the face of the digital era as either “those that lean back or those who lean forward”. Auletta outlines that media organizations that lean forward see challenges as opportunities. News Limited could arguably be joining the ranks of those ‘leaning forward’. The company has developed a website exploring the future of journalism in Australia. This month News Limited subsidiary, The Herald Sun launched its ‘digital pass’ system. It becomes the first of Australian daily newspaper to offer subscriber-only content. The specific details of the project are the result of intense market and audience research. A business model to create revenue from online content has been elusive for traditional news organisations but The Herald Sun believe that the fremium model is the way forward against the pay per view or all-content-for-subscribers-only models. The fremium model provides some news for free but for in depth coverage and columns by high-profiles writers readers must pay for subscription. Merging newspaper content online is not without its perils. Last year, when the The New York Times launched an online subscription fee for regular readers there was much debate about the price of the product in the market place. In a report released by the Columbia Journalism School, Gueskin, Seave and Graves (2011) put forward examples of online news products by various publications and it seems at this early stage audience uptake of paid digital news distribution can be unpredictable. What is clear from these early ventures is that digital subscriptions are being explored as the future of generating income from online news.

Another aspect of the journalism community in the digital era is the distribution of long-form stories. Online content has a tendency to be shorter and focused on interactivity so, from the surface this platform is not well suited to thousands of ‘black and white only’ words of crafty analysis. On the contrary, it seems a metamorphosis of long-form journalism is taking place. The professional landscape is changing to embrace the possibilities of new media and cater it its readers needs. An application for the ipad and iphone has been developed called The Atavist. It offers non-fiction stories from real places and real events, replacing the typical magazine article with stories interlaced with video, audio, soundtracks, and an audiobook read by the author.

Stories written on topical issues include relevant video footage in the prelude to inform the reader. Readers can switch been reading the stories and having them read out to them. The application is free but the stories are 3 dollars each. The authors are quality writers who receive royalties from purchases. This new type of long-form story accessible from ipads and iphones revolutionises long-form journalism. No longer will an overseas reporter analyzing complex situations simply describe the conditions but links to video footage will be embedded in the story and profiles on the people being discussed will pop up. The usually long-winded nature of in-depth reports now becomes excitingly interactive. New terms are being developed so readers know what to expect, with longer articles now being called ‘long reads’. These longer articles are being distributed via new media platforms such as Twitter. Longread on twitter publishes links to long online news articles from around the world, its popularity lead to the creation of its own website this year which acts as database of all its tweeted articles that can be searched by topic. What this means for journalism is that the quality of journalism will not be lost in the digital era, but that it will be enhanced by multimedia additions and platforms that make it easier for news readers to find in depth analysis on topics interesting to them.

All this change undoubtedly has an affect on the people creating these stories, the journalists. Publishing stories across multiple platforms requires extra work and working with new mediums requires learning new skills. Kwek (as cited in Este et. al, 2010) describes journalists now as their own business unit having to “ write copy, take photos, record audio, shoot video, moderate comments, collect statistics and build databases. And edit and publish.” What it means to be a journalist is changing, is it no longer useful to be a print or broadcast reporter only, journalists must now have an expansive skill set ranging from print to online and broadcast plus the ability to distribute their stories across numerous platforms. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance released a report giving a stocktake of the media industry. In regard to workload, 73 percent of journalists indicated that over the last 2 years their workload increased, with 43 percent believing the increase was ‘a lot’. Work life balanced was also surveyed and in the same period 42 percent of journalists said it ‘got worse’ with 59 percent indicating they weren’t being remunerated for extra work. 54 percent of journalists surveyed believed no training for new media was provided and felt they had to ‘pick it up on the go’. This points to a profession in transition. Journalists are currently being overwhelmed by the demands of multi-platform publishing. Whilst income from these online mediums is unsteady there can be no expectation for journalists to be remunerated according to their expanded skill set. Talking about this predicament American journalist Dick Polman (KellyWritersHouse, 2011) suggests upcoming journalists seem to acknowledge this and then choose this career path out of passion and a love for what they do.

The future of journalism can be seen in new distribution methods for short-form news and a revolutionized presentation of long-form content. These changes are creating a profession that statistically speaks of under paid, over worked journalists, yet the challenge to create and distribute stories digitally seems to be keeping them satisfied...for now.

Reference List

Este, J., Murphy, F., & Warren, C. (2010). Life In The Clickstream II: The Future of Journalism. Retrieved from http://www.thefutureofjournalism.org.au/foj_report_vii.pdf

Future of Journalism AU. (2012, March 4). The impact of traditional news mastheads in the digital world. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Bri6df_saz0

Grueskin, B., Seave, A., & Graves, L. (2011). The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism. Retrieved from http://cjrarchive.org/img/posts/report/The_Story_So_Far.pdf

Herald Sun. (2012). Digital Pass Starts Here. Retrieved from http://digitalpass.heraldsun.com.au/?utm_medium=SEM&utm_source=Google&sourceCode=HSWEB_SEM160_a

International Centre for Journalists. (2011, November 2). Ken Auletta: The Future of Journalism, Part 2. [Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6DVje6C58M

ipadpunk. (2011, February 4). The Atavist - Lifted (ipad App Preview/Hands-on Demo). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3k8YyYY1CU

The Atavist. (2011) Original Stories. Retrieved from http://atavist.net/

Kelly Writers House. (2011, November 3). Future of Journalism: Where will Journalism Be in 10 Years. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoUWOlt5cQo

Longreads. (2009). Tweets. [Twitter account]. Retrieved from http://twitter.com/#!/longreads

Longreads. (2012). Search Our Archive. Retrieved from http://longreads.com/

News Limited. (2012). The Future of Journalism. Retrieved from http://futureofjournalism.com.au/

News Limited. (2012). What the Herald Sun is Doing. Retrieved from http://futureofjournalism.com.au/herald-sun/

Pegoraro, R. (2011). New York Times to charge for frequent Web, mobile access: too much? too soon?. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/faster-forward/post/new-york-times-to-charge-for-frequent-web-mobile-access-too-much-too-soon/2011/03/17/ABjB6al_blog.html

Wikipedia. (2012). Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media,_Entertainment_and_Arts_Alliance

Transmedia Storytelling

Technology advances over the last century have resulted in a reality where we can connect to others from around the globe on the world wide web, we can skype from our smart phones and e-mail from our television sets. The nature of communication is changing. As audiences have easier access different platforms and use them more often, television shows and movies have also evolved their entertainment experience to keep their audiences engaged.

Gone are the days when you crowded in silence around the television set to watch the weekly half hour episode of your favorite show then waited for a whole week until your program came on again and resolved that burning question about your favorite character. These days your probably reading character profiles on the internet whilst watching the episode and if you have missed one, catching up with a webisode or playing the online game.

This phenomena, the telling of a fictional story distributed through multiple different media channels is called transmedia storytelling. The theory was pioneered by Henry Jenkins, a modern scholar of digital communication. Jenkins (2006, p.95 ) stimulates that “each new text makes a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole.” The different platforms used in transmedia storytelling offer different experiences in the fictional world and different information to gather but each platform should work in synergy to create the over arching story. Jenkins (2006) explains that The Matrix franchise exemplifies transmedia storytelling as the movies, games and online episodes created a narrative so expansive it couldn’t be contained to single medium. Transmedia story telling is most easily recognised in the fantasy genre where a fictional world might be the premise for television show then expanded on in game that offers exploration of intimate details of the fantasy world. The same characters can then be followed on their journey through a graphic novel whilst audiences answer interactive online quizzes that can the affect story direction in upcoming episodes.

Heroes is a recent example of telefantasy series that initially used transmedia storytelling well. The video below shows how characters from Heroes were integrated into the real lives of audiences as people could receive updates on their phones when Heroes characters where progressing on a journey or new information was available.

Heroes won awards for its integration of game, graphic novel and mobile phone technologies, used to deliver additional content that expanded and investigated the Heroes universe (Short, 2011). Evans (2011) argues that transmedia stories have “become less about promoting a central television program or film, and more about creating a coherent, deliberately cross-platform narrative experience.” Unfortunately, in the case of Heroes its multimedia success did not reflect that of the television show itself. Short (2011) believes that the alternative formats may have taken viewers away from the television format but ultimately un-rectified flaws in the story meant it went from a 15 million initial audience viewing to being cancelled four seasons later.

When stories are distributed across diverse platforms and, if done by the same company it is called horizonal integration. The same company works to distribute similar information across multiple different platforms. Smaller companies not large enough to take advantage of horizonal integration on their own could use an intermediary, such as, Transmedia Storyteller to utilise the variety of new platforms available to reach audiences.

Transmedia storytelling interacts with audiences and users across a variety of platforms to tell a story that is no longer classically linear but evolves according the medium it’s being told through. Ensslin (2011) argues that virtual worlds foster “creative growth, cultural cohension and public empowerment” and as online gaming becomes more popular audiences will not simply be told stories anymore but through use of transmedia they will become part of telling the stories as well.

Reference List

Bizdhara.com. (2011). What is vertical and horizontal integration. Retrieved from http://bizdharma.com/blog/what-is-vertical-and-horizontal-integration/

Confessions of an ACA fan. (2012). The official weblog of Henry Jenkins. Retrieved from http://www.henryjenkins.org/aboutme.html

Ensslin, A., & Muse, A. (2011). Creating second lives: Community, Identity and Spatitality as Constructions of the Virtual. Routledge. NY

Evans, E. (2011) Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media and Daily Life. Routledge NY.

Heroes Transmedia. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_My6prvbQgA&feature=related

Jenkins, H. (2006) Convergence Culture: Where old a new media collide. New York University Press. New York & London.

National Broadcasting Corporation. (2011). Heroes. Retrieved from http://www.nbc.com/heroes/

Short, S. (2011) Cult Telefantasy Series: A critical analysis of The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Buffy the Vamprie Slayer, Lost, Heroes, Doctor Who and Star Trek. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, London

Transmedia Storyteller. (2012). How it works. Retrieved from http://www.tstoryteller.com/

Wikipedia. (2012). Webisode. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webisode

Collective Intelligence in Journalism

“No one knows everything, everyone knows something, all knowledge resides in humanity”

Pierre Levy

One field where collective intelligence is re-shaping the professional landscape is journalism. Before online information and communication technologies, journalists alone sourced and collected information for distribution. The newspapers or news stations where the first to know and first to disseminate information. The advent and popularity of digital media means collective intelligence is now being drawn upon in journalism through blogging, citizen journalism and micro-blogging.

Collective intelligence is a term first coined by Peirre Levy and is understood to mean “the capacity of networked ICTs to exponentially enhance the collective pool of social knowledge by simultaneously expanding the extent of human interactions...and new knowledge” (Levy as cited in Flew (2008, p. 21). Journalism is attempting to enhance the collective pool of knowledge through blogging. This type of journalism is relatively new but now mandatory for professional journalists as a means of communicating more information without the restrictions of page space in newspapers or broadcast time on television. The information is networked online, catalogued and archived so information distribution is not inhibited by geographic location or time of publishing. This means a journalist’s blog written about Syrian health conditions does not end up as a discarded newspaper or not watched on the the nightly news but rather the blog is ingested into a global network so as to expand the knowledge of anyone, world wide, seeking detail on that topic. ABC Blogs are expanding social knowledge on issues and also combining resources from radio, online and broadcast so that information is collated and easy to navigate. This new format of professional blogging by journalists is one way in which the profession is adding to the collective intelligence.

Alternatively, journalism is also benefiting from collective intelligence by the rise of citizen journalism. Recently, major news stories from around the world have not been seen first on television stations or in reports by professionals but from information from citizens themselves, uploading pictures and footage from smart phones to social networking sites such as facebook or video sharing websites such as youtube. The buddhist monk’s protest in Burma was unknown until video footage like this was uploaded by citizens which distinctly added new knowledge to the collective intelligence which was then expanded on by journalists to produce reports like this. This is just one case of many we have seen, most notably the uprising in Syria, which became public knowledge through by citizen journalists. The journalism profession is using this collective intelligence now as source for news stories. New information from citizen journalists is followed up on in professional reports so the collective intelligence is expanded as professional news gathers cover stories that they may not have otherwise been able to source themselves.

Another area where journalism is utilizing collective intelligence in micro-blogging. News outlets are continually updating their twitter accounts with links to news and current affairs. As these tweets negate space and time boundaries and to remain relevant globally Australian news outlets continually post international news coverage constantly adding to overall social knowledge. Not only this, but use of micro blogging adds to the human interaction surrounding this intelligence. With information distribution in this format easily ‘re-tweetable’ and linkable to facebook and other accounts, people are able to spread news themselves and also comment on it. The ABC's The Drum twitter account not only publishes material but incorporates audience tweets into its show. Broadcast journalism now utilizes digital television to show live tweets of audience members and allows them to ask questions or ask for clarification on issues and this is then addressed during the show. This type of cross platform interaction is expanding the human interaction around a certain topic. Where information used to flow only one-way, from communicator to receiver, journalism is utilising digital media networks to embrace the two-way nature of communication and expand collective intelligence.

The journalism profession is both a receiver of and contributor to collective intelligence by embracing digitalisation of its profession and incorporating, blogs, micro-blogs and citizen journalism into its distribution methods.

Reference List

About.com. (2012). Journalism: What is Citizen Journalism. Retrieved from http://journalism.about.com/od/citizenjournalism/a/whatiscitizen.htm

Australian Broadcast Corporation. (2012). Blogs. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/services/blogs/

Australian Broadcast Corporation. (2012). The Drum. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/#!/ABCthedrum

Exclusive footage of Myanmar crackdown - 10 Oct 07. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItPFPJ9c_E4

Flew, T. (2008). New Media, An Introduction. (3rd ed.). Australia: Oxford University Press.

Monks Revolution Continue in Burma. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJyPnhV_g74&feature=fvwrel

Real Story - Twitter and Journalism. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56nNgh9VVts&feature=related

Wikipedia. (2012). Microblogging. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblogging