Innovation Journalism, Attention Work and the Innovation Economy - A Review of the Innovation Journalism Initiative 2003-2009.

Presented 5/20 09.15-9.30

David NORDFORS, Executive Director,
VINNOVA Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism

This article presents a review of the innovation journalism initiative so far. The novel concepts of innovation journalism, attention work and innovation communication systems are presented and put into context, explaining why journalism and communication may be considered important components of the innovation economy, as well as how this may benefit society...

Published as Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.1 1 May 2009.
https://www.innovationjournalism.org/archive/INJO-6-1.pdf

Open Innovation Meets Innovation Media: Concepts, Aspects and Future Trends of Creative Processes and Innovation Ecosystems

Dr. Sam Inkinen & Dr. Jari Kaivo-oja, Finland Futures Research Centre, CID Group, Turku School of Economics, Finland

Download paper here: Inkinen%26Kaivo-ojaOpenInnovationMeetsInnovationMedia.pdf

Many key concepts are interrelated in the recent innovation discourse: creative economy, network society, the information age, innovation (eco)systems, innovation environments, innovation journalism, innovation media, innovation communications, social technologies, web 2.0, web 3.0, everyware, ubiquitous computing, etc. This conference paper discusses key concepts, aspects and future trends of creative processes and innovation ecosystems...

Attention and Reputation in the Innovation Economy

Vilma Luoma-aho, PhD & David Nordfors, PhD, Executive Director
VINNOVA Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism

In today’s attention economy, attention is valuable and reputation plays a major role for choices made. The attention economy identifies attention as a scarce commodity, which increases the importance of 'attention work', professional generation and brokerage of attention. Attention is required for shaping a reputation, and often attention work on behalf of stakeholders in the market place has as an objective to influence reputation...

Published as Innovation Journalism Vol.6 No.2 May 13 2009.

Download paper here: LuomaahoNordforsReputationfinal.pdf

Critics and Players: Audiences, Trust and Reality in Mediated Markets

Mark Kennedy, Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor, Department of Management and Organizations, USC Marshall School of Business

Download paper: KennedyCriticsandPlayersdraft.pdf

In the literature on mediated markets, third party evaluators such as journalists, critics and analysts are viewed as operating outside the system of interests set up by industry and market categories used to allocate their attentions. As critics in the broadest sense of the word, they are viewed as mediators of a two-way sensemaking conversation in which producers and opinions sort out what to make of new innovation...

Covering the internet: an acculturation strategy for press of record?

Chloë Salles, doctoral student
Laboratoire GRESEC (71° section) – Université Grenoble 3 - France

Download paper here: SallesCoveringtheInternetfinal.pdf

This research is part of a wider doctoral study that focuses on the acculturation of the French paper of record Le Monde to the Internet and the technical devices it allows. The discourse produced about new technologies throughout the past twenty years is invoked in this study as an indicator of the changes occurred in the way technology has been considered...

Pitfalls of attention work in the innovation ecosystem

Dr. Vilma Luoma-aho, Dr. Turo Uskali & Alisa Weinstein, Stanford University, University of Jyväskylä, Finland & Blue Practice Communications, San Francisco

Download paper here: LuomaahoUskaliWeinsteinPitfallsofAttentionWork.pdf

Innovation is an organic process that is difficult to control. It is very much related and dependent on things around it, its growing environment. In fact, innovation requires an ecosystem to support its birth. Others speak of innovation system that is maintained by the interaction between people, enterprises and institutions. The paper focuses on attention workers, mainly PR-practitioners and journalists...

How journalists report on innovation: ‘Models’ of innovation among working UK journalists

Dr. Marc Ventresca and Roy Nyberg, University of Oxford, Said Business School

Download paper here: VentrescaNybergHowjournalistsreportdraf.pdf

Journalists cover innovations frequently, but academic research is only beginning to explore issues at the interface of journalism and innovation – i.e. how do current conventions in the practice of journalism shape the coverage of innovation, what features of innovation make it difficult to report on, and how these issues influence each other. This research reports on variations in how practicing journalists, editors, and innovation bloggers (henceforth all referred to as “journalists”), conceptualize ‘innovation’...

Futures of Journalism Profession: Scenario Analyses of Innovation Journalism Based on Critical Drivers in the Today’s Media World

Jari Kaivo-oja, PhD, Research Director, Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, Finland

Download paper here: KaivoojaFuturesofJournalismdraft.pdf

Journalism is a key profession in the modern information societies. In recent years, many new drivers have emerged and fundamentally changed the role of traditional "old-school" journalism. The professional requirements of journalism are in a process of complex tensions. This article analyses the futures of journalism as a profession from different perspectives, relevant for the futures of journalism profession...

Focus on Growth: Innovation, the media and public interest

Carl-Gustav Lindén
TV Reporter, TV Nytt, Yleisradio, Finland
Doctoral student, Department of Communication, University of Helsinki, Finland

Download paper: Lindenfocusongrowthdraft.pdf

According to normative theories the media are “expected to be organized and to behave in the wider public interest or for the good of the society as a whole”. Public interest here is defined as a product of dominating values in a society, something journalists are supposed to be aware of as it is the foundation for the special place the media have in society. That is unfortunately also the outer boundary of the sphere of consensus. The discussion on what journalism should be is coloured by diverging ideas due to differences in perspectives...

Innovation Journalism as Futures Journalism?

Sofi Salonen, Project researcher, Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics

Download paper here: SalonenInnovationJournalismdraft.pdf

Previous research has argued the futures orientation to be one of the central aspects of innovation journalism. Especially reporting on technological innovation is seen to benefit from the scenario approach to avoid an inherent sense of determinism present in much of the technology journalism. Also, a demand for horizontal, multidisciplinary analysis and the adoption of the systemic approach connect innovation journalism with the field of futures studies...

Weak signals in innovation journalism – Cases Google, Facebook and Twitter

Turo Uskali, PhD, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Download paper: Uskaliweaksignalsdraft.pdf

Innovation journalism is journalism about innovations and innovation ecosystems. It has also been argued that innovation journalism is future-oriented in its very nature. In this paper the author will continue to build theory on innovation journalism and weak signals based on three case studies: Google, Facebook, and Twitter. It can be claimed that all these three innovative companies have already changed the way the humans communicate, and also, consume news, but when did the journalists realize this, and how...

Roles and Challenges of Journalists in Finland’s Changing Innovation Environment

Maarit Mäkinen, researcher fellow, Journalism Research and Development Centre, University of Tampere, Finland

Download paper here: MakinenRolesandChallengesdraft.pdf

This presentation discusses how political and journalistic innovation discourses interact, and how journalists see their roles in the field of innovation environment in Finland. This document includes some preliminary findings of the project Global Challenges of Innovation Journalism (2008-2010) . According to the previous study (2005-2006) journalists considered themselves mainly in a role of information mediators, and many journalists seemed to strive for certain objectivity in journalism...

Innovation Journalism: A French perspective

Matthieu LARDEAU, PhD candidate, ESSEC Business School, France & Visiting Scholar, SCANCOR, Stanford U., CA

Download paper here: LardeauINJOAFrencheperspectivedraft.pdf

Presented as the intuitive name for journalism covering innovation, Innovation Journalism concerns primarily (but not only) innovation in technology and management (besides political and social issues among other). According to David Nordfors, InJo basically covers technical, business, legal and political aspects of innovations and innovation systems to enhance the public debate through better common knowledge and understanding of innovation issues. So in democratic industrial economies, journalism dedicated to covering innovation should be key...

How Much Do You Trust Me? The Role of Trust and Innovation in Russian Journalism

Katerina Tsetsura & Vilma Luoma-aho, Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication
University of Oklahoma & Vinnova Stanford Research Center of Innovation Journalism, Stanford University

Download paper here: TsetsuraRussianInnovationdraft.pdf

Building on a theory of generalized trust, this paper discusses how trust enables institutions to function in any society by facilitating action. Traditional thinking is that the generalized trust in society allows an innovation ecosystem to prosper in countries with high levels of trust. But in regions and countries where generalized trust does not exist, innovative solutions are needed for a society to function...

Climate Change and Innovation in The New York Times from 1980 to 2008

Maria Lassila-Merisalo, PhD, Department of Communication, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Download paper here: LassilamerisaloClimatechangedraft.pdf

My presentation focuses on how the terms “innovation” and “climate change” interact in the stories of the New York Times. The presentation includes preliminary findings of the project Global Challenges of Innovation Journalism (2008-2010). Terms “global warming” and “climate change” started to appear in newspaper stories in the 1980’s. The most considerable peaks have occurred in 1990, 1997, 2001 and from 2004 to 2007. The trend has been similar at least in the US, the UK and Finland, whose newspapers have been examined in the project so far...

Telecommunications innovation and the shape of the British news market

Dr. Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb, Oxford University Saïd Business School, UK

Download paper here: SilbersteinLoebTelecommunicationsdraft.pdf

This paper explains how innovation in telecommunications affected the structure of the news market in Britain. The model of growth is Schumpeterian. Periods of anti-competitive behaviour facilitated the collection and distribution of news. New forms of technology disrupted these entrenched market arrangements. The rush of competition was not conducive to the fulfilment of the democratic function hoped for in the fourth estate, and anti-competitive behaviour resumed...

Innovative journalism online: analyzing new practices and business models

Rebecca Coates-Nee, MSJ & K. Tim Wulfemeyer, Ed.D, Department of Journalism,
San Diego State University, USA

Download paper here: CoatesNeeInnovativejournalismonlinefinal.pdf

Traditional forms of media, particularly newspapers, are struggling to infuse innovation into their practices in the digital age. As audiences migrate online and become increasingly fragmented, traditional journalists are finding that simply shoveling the printed newspaper or news broadcast onto a Web site is not enough to retain page views and, therefore, advertisers...

Talking Politics and Snowballing Values: How Online Journalism Connects Innovation with the Political Process in Consolidating Democracies

Dr. Minha Kim & Minje Yang, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea

Download paper here: KimTalkingPoliticsDraft.pdf

The present study explores how online journalism connects innovation with the political process in consolidating democracies by investigating the case of South Korea, an emerging society and leading IT country. Focus is given to the two aspects of innovation journalism, which are online deliberation and cyberculture of postmaterialism. This paper attempts a theoretical speculation of this value-seeking political participation in order to respond to the question of how innovation renders political value drive citizen participation in public life.

IT and Democracy: An analysis of the power of digital images to strengthen the public sphere and decision-making process

Larry Pryor, Annenberg School of Journalism, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Download paper here: PryorITDemocracyDraft.pdf

Virtual Environments (VEs) open new possibilities for journalism. The advanced technology, which still resides mostly in laboratories, only requires adaptation and the imagination that can enable journalists to think with technology. The literature of VE theory shows the possibility exists to create alternative worlds that invite the public to share knowledge necessary for rational policy decisions. Our research has looked at using head-mounted displays to tell news stories, and we have worked with a multi-user 360° panoramic display...

Innovation Journalism at the In-Betweens

Jari Koskinen, CID GROUP, Finland Futures Research Centre, Turku School of Economics, Finland

Download paper here: KoskinenInBetweensdraft.pdf

The article does research into the in-betweens of innovation journalism and into the cultural evolution of expertise. Firstly, innovation journalism is studied in relation to innovation media and innovation communication. Secondly, the relationship between innovation journalism and the possibilities of new technology and interaction is discussed. Thirdly, the article takes a look at the connections between innovation journalism and the visual, audiovisual and multisensory means of narration...