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Anders Frick
Freelance journalist from Sweden and Innovation Journalism fellow
2007, hosted by IEEE Spectrum in New York.
People have always wanted to be able to predict the future,
and those who can are generally successful, not only in business. For us
journalists, finding and correctly interpreting the weak signals of an
upcoming trend can lead to stories that no other journalist had even been
thinking of.
Tina Magnergard Bjers
Reporter at Sweden’s National News Agency TT and
Innovation Journalism Fellow, hosted by PodTech
Network.
From editorial filters to instant feedback from informed readers. From
circulation-figures to buzz among bloggers and the sharing that social media
creates. In the media-world of tomorrow individuals can – and will - publish
their work on online-based platforms and participate in the conversations
they fuel.
In this paper (or rather article) the reader gets to follow Innovation Journalism Fellow Tina Magnergard Bjers, coming from Sweden’s National News Agency TT, as she enters into the future landscape of online video network PodTech in Palo Alto. Bridging the two worlds raises many questions. PodTech’s business model, the beats covered and the media tools and products are described in the paper. Open source media, user generated content and ethics are also discussed.
Although PodTech does not produce traditional journalism, there are many things a journalist can learn about how to practice in the environments of web 2.0 from working there. Changes are up for many traditional newsrooms – both when it comes to technology and the media (tools and products), how innovation and other new beats are covered, the journalist/media-worker, business-models and ethics. The paper ends in a number of lessons a traditional newsroom could use as a checklist for the future.
For the session we look forward to a vivid discussion on the media-world of tomorrow and the newsrooms of the future. The participants are John Furrier, founder and CEO of PodTech; Mats Johansson, managing editor of TT and Daniel Kreiss, Ph.D student in Stanford's Department of Communication.
Vilma
Luoma-aho
A researcher and lecturer at the Department of communication, at university of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Antti Ainamo
Marko Ahteensuu
Researcher, Institutions and Social Mechanisms, University of Turku, Finland
The paper argues that rather than simply reporting what is
“new”, journalists are expected to become setters of agendas in society and
of how the future will unfold. Is this kind of reporting of “the possible”
rather than that of “the new” a good or a bad thing? More generally, what is
the relationship of public policy in terms of innovation and journalism?
What ought it to be? The authors of the paper approach the morality and
ethics of innovation journalism inspired by the philosopher Georg Henrik von
Wright. They follow his example of blending the historical method and the
Frankfurt School of critical theory. The authors´ emancipative conclusion is
that innovation journalism would appear represent more opportunity for
journalists and their project than suppression, marginalization or other
kind of subordination. For example it seems that attempts to “subordinate”
journalists to national technology policy do not in the end represent the
kind of undemocratic top-down discourse.
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Saku Mäkinen
Professor of technology management and vice-head of the Institute of Industrial Management, Tampere University of Technology (TUT), FinlandHeini M. Järvenpää
Researcher and a Ph.D. student at the Center for Innovation and Technology Research (CITER) in Tampere University of Technology (TUT), Finland
Turo Uskali
Visiting Scholar, Innovation Journalism/SCIL, Stanford University
Jari Ojala
Professor of history at University of Jyväskylä, Finland.
Innovation journalism is interested in detecting “weak signals”, early indicators of about coming events. This paper considers the problem of searching sources for weak signals when new technological innovations are popularized in the early phases of technological life cycle. This paper reports results of a bibliometric study searching for indicators at the applied research and application phases of technological innovation process. We studied the occurrence of the DVD (digital video disc) in trade publications and general press in the USA. Our results show that popularization of DVD technology in general press follows closely with cumulative adoption figures. However, the study shows that the trade publication sources can be used to obtain early signals on the future of technological innovations.
Stig Nordqvist
Ph.D. Business Development Director eNEWS Project Leader, Ifra, Germany,
Director Digital Media, Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Sweden
Malin Picha
M.A. Journalism, Project Manager
Swedish Newspaper Publishers’ Association, Sweden
In only a few years time, we will see a dramatic change on the media market when handheld mobile e-paper devices make their entry into everyone’s daily life. In this paper we want to focus on what the media landscape will look like in a few years, especially when it comes to consumers, technology, and media companies. How will the innovation of e-readers change the profession and business of journalism? We are going to describe a scenario of how a future e-reading channel would work journalistically and technically, while keeping the focus on the consumer needs. We will also discuss design prototypes, workflow and impact on content management systems. How can e-reading push the boundaries and create new frontiers in publishing?
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Zamir Haider
Business and politics reporter with AAJ TV, Pakistan and Innovation Journalism fellow 2007, hosted by CNET News.com.
Hype or media hype is nothing unfamiliar to journalists. However, at a time when innovation has become an international buzz word, reporting on innovation has become like walking on a double-edged sword. As news cycles become quicker, it is becoming even more difficult to understand hype and, at the same time, avoid fueling it while working as an innovation journalist. In my paper, I have tried to look into the broader issue of how journalists handle reporting on an innovation when it is surrounded by a lot of hype by looking at recent examples of hyped innovations, like the Segway, and talking to seasoned journalists who covered them. The paper also asks those same journalists to weigh in on the question of whether media hype helps or destroys innovation.
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Ralph Hermansson
Reporter at the Swedish political weekly "Riksdag och Departement", Innovation Journalism fellow 2007 hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Few would disagree that the political framework is crucial for an innovation-friendly environment. Supporting inventions and innovations is key in most industrialized countries.
There are many reasons why the government should support high tech industry more than other industries. One is that the high tech industry, in general, has a much more dynamic growth pattern. This industry is also known for creating substantial societal returns and positive spillovers to other commercial sectors. These kinds of companies also tend to perform more research and development than others.
But R&D is both complex and costly. For this reason, the trend today is increased cooperation between universities, private companies and government. This way, the public sector can benefit from innovations made by relatively small companies and the small companies get the financial endurance that the government can provide.
Cooperation is becoming increasingly common between private companies as well. Google is for example key partner to companies as eBay, Apple and Sun Microsystems.
In the long run it is fair to ask if the consumers really benefit from less and less competition between former rivals. Competition is, after all, supposed to be the engine in a society driven by market economy.
For a journalist trying to cover innovation processes, lack of competition between companies may also constitute a serious problem. It can, for example, be much harder finding a second opinion or a critical view on hot topics.
If former rivals are unwilling to comment on other companies’ new developments or strategies, who will? Hopefully there will still be enough independent analysts ready to comment, but increased cooperation can in one way or another mean that it will be harder and more time consuming to find a differing opinion.
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Miriam Olsson
Business journalist from Sweden and Innovation Journalism fellow 2007, hosted by CNET News.com
In new media, the story begins when it’s posted
New media such as dot-com publications, online news sites and blogs give readers and bloggers vast opportunities, both to talk back to reporters and publicists and to create content.
The term “readers” can be a misnomer. They might start off reading a story, but what more and more often follows is a more active conversation with reporters or publishers because of innovations like public comment sections and e-mails. Such online innovations can give readers the power to mould and change the nature of a given story. Bloggers writes about companies, innovations and innovation processes and users create content on social media sites. One percent of people online are “creators” of content, 20 percent comments online, rest is watchers.
Are publishing innovations facilitating reader feedback and blogs, leading to wider, more democratic news coverage of innovation?
Using CNET News.com, one of the oldest exclusively online newsrooms, as an example, this article charts the different levels of interaction and influences to a newsroom through reader feedback, blogs and social media sites.
CNET journalists seem to have integrated interacting with readers into their every-day work. They also report themselves on the dynamics of Web 2.0, when user created content becomes important to the newsrooms. But can it also threaten journalistic professionalism? Some tends to think so and others do not. The fact is that there are many more sources of news and information in new media. Reporters and publishers know they will be monitored with increased transparency in favor of the readers. And even though possibilities of interacting in online news forums and Web 2.0 sites aren't being fully exploited, a lot of people are watching and paying attention.
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World’s major print media published 3,485 clean-tech (short for clean technology) articles last year. Press coverage of the clean-tech has risen sharply, the growth in number of such stories was more than 70 percent in both 2005 and 2006. Venture capitalists are being busy, too. VC investments to clean-tech companies, most of them to solar power and biofuels, tripled to over $2 billion last year. Not all of the companies can survive. You can say that clean-tech is headed toward a classic boom-and-bust cycle. Did the journalists go into the hype again, just like it happened in the dotcom bubble?
When we consider journalism we usually think of media, not about audiences and their perception processes. What does innovation mean to the public? How is innovation positioned in the public agenda? Innovation is not a primary priority for the mass media, which pay more attention to drama, everyday tragedies and sensationalism. Audience research is vital. We study audiences from a multidisciplinary viewpoint because we need over-all understanding of complex communications, how audiences process messages about innovation and use them to build a public agenda.
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The key challenge for anyone covering a big new idea or innovative use of
existing technology is to see any such development for its worth at an early
stage. For those doing innovation journalism, detecting 'weak signals' is
not an easy task even when these emanate from tangible technological
advancements. It is even harder to report innovations springing from ideas
whose strength is not fully tested. Reporters covering them have to guard
against being used as propagandists for ideas that may never fly. Yet they
must be able to draw attention to Big Idea stories so that they may get
support from other important players in the equation, such as government and
financial institutions, helping a Big Idea flourish for the greater good of
society.
This paper examines how reporters who cover innovation in developing
countries can, and should, determine the worth of any new Big Idea for
social change.
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Violeta Bulc
Mateja Dermastia
Innovation journalism is becoming a powerful tool
for sustainable growth of innovation systems including local communities,
which play more and more important role in sustainable long-term growth
orientation of EU. Innovation journalism due to its mission and the concept
behind it represents a perfect tool for enabling quality interaction,
shearing of knowledge, experiences and visions, between all stakeholders of
local environments; individuals and organisations. The first outcomes of the
pilot project “InLoComm – Litija 2012” prove the thesis. It is clear that in
order to maximise the potentials of local societies a more systematic and
outspoken approach is needed and the Innovation Journalism has a vital role
to play in it.
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