Comments on: The problems with repurposing journalism

By: What’s wrong with journalism training in the UK « Reportr.net

What’s wrong with journalism training in the UK « Reportr.net — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:28:42 +0000

[...] is dispiriting to hear that training bodies continue to view the net as a distribution platform for existing print and broadcast content, rather than recognising the web as a distinct medium. [...]

By: Jamie Cohen

Jamie Cohen — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:45:59 +0000

Repurposing is a cop-out for media creators. The big fallacy is that other mediums will “die” in order for online journalism or media to live. Therefore many companies are repurposing for the online “life.” We do have to reimagine the way journalism and television will work for the online world. @Rachel Nixon: I agree, it seems that content can easily be repurposed from the original broadcast/print forms to the internet, yet is not the other way around. But if the story is strong, as in the case of the web television series We Need Girlfriends that CBS purchased, the story and the content is the strength.

No matter how we reimagine content, it should be based on quality, not quantity. Quality is translatable to every platform and every medium!

By: The rights of integration and wrongs of repurposing « Reportr.net

The rights of integration and wrongs of repurposing « Reportr.net — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:05:36 +0000

[...] April 24, 2008 in BBC, broadcast, internet, journalismTags: BBC News, Peter Horrocks, repurposing Image via WikipediaThis is something that I have addressed before, but it is too important to ignore – the issue of repurposing content for the web. [...]

By: Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media » Sunday squibs

Notes from a Teacher: Mark on Media » Sunday squibs — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 06:10:31 +0000

[...] The problems with repurposing journalism. And, speaking of books, Alfred Hermida has some bones to pick with part of Principles of Convergent Journalism, particularly in its dealing with repurposing. [...]

By: The Carnival of Journalism must go on! | Will Sullivan's Journerdism

The Carnival of Journalism must go on! | Will Sullivan's Journerdism — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:28:59 +0000

[...] REPORTR.NET: The problems with repurposing journalism “This fails to recognise that the the Internet is not print, it is not radio, it is not TV. It share some attributes with print and broadcast, but is a medium in its own right, with its own strengths and weaknesses. This requires a shift in how journalists have approached stories, adopting a multimedia mindset from the get go.” [...]

By: Alfred Hermida

Alfred Hermida — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 17:07:15 +0000

Thank you all for your comments. I agree with Peter that the term “multimedia, multiplatform journalism” is a clumsy one. What I mean is a journalism conceived from the start for each of the means of distribution, based on an understanding of the potential of each platform. This is very different to an approach based on taking content created for one medium and converting it for another.

For example, the BBC News site has been offering TV reports online for years, but they rarely attracted much traffic. But this changed when it started offering bespoke video that enhanced a text story rather than duplicating it. This goes beyond re-using the scraps left over from TV and instead gathering the material with a view to using it for both TV and the web.

It is also interesting to note that the discourse on this topic is based of the idea of “repurposing” material for print or broadcast for the web, rather than the other way round. Mindy McAdams makes a good point when she says that repurposes takes up precious time and doesn’t add much value. Instead she talks about how some newsrooms are turning the process of its head, putting the web first and then adapting this content for print or broadcast.

By: Rachel Nixon

Rachel Nixon — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:57:34 +0000

The idea of repurposing TV and radio content for online speaks volumes about the relative value that news organizations continue to place upon each medium. The assumption is that TV and radio material is suitable for the web – rarely the other way round.

Sure, there’s (editorial and financial) value in using content across media – but it shouldn’t be about repurposing. It should be about coherent planning at the outset of a piece of journalism as to how to best tell the story and for which audiences. Let this determine the media and methods for telling the story.

The web isn’t a distribution platform for TV and radio, it’s a valid medium in and of itself, and I really hope that people begin to realise this.

By: Charlie Beckett

Charlie Beckett — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 16:38:43 +0000

Re-purposing is an ugly word which sounds very much like Nick Davies’ ‘churnalism’. But what we are ignoring here is that journalism has always ‘repurposed’ data. Journalists have never spent most of their time doing original fact gathering and dissemination. Mostly we write up speeches, take pictures of events put on for our benefit, cover diary events and then write/talk about what other media is saying. Putting the same stuff on different platforms is useful in itself and will be a basic function of new media journalism. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s hope we get so good at it that we can spend more time on the ‘real’ journalism,
cheers
Charlie

By: Teaching Online Journalism » Let’s delete the word ‘repurposing’ from our vocabulary

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 15:56:38 +0000

[...] friend Alf Hermida worked for BBC News online for many years, so please listen up: It is time to stop talking about repurposing and instead to start a discussion on how to [...]

By: Adrian Monck

Adrian Monck — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 08:25:10 +0000

Re-purposing has become something of a dirty term, about as appetising in journalism as mechanically-recovered meat in catering.

But whether we call it conversion or re-purposing, content does need to be shared across platforms, doesn’t it?

Linear television news is still a primary platform, but it does generate a lot of unused but valuable material.

The problem is how it is used or “converted”, as RDF’s Crowngate saga demonstrated…

The other issue is at what point multimedia operations get the editorial commissioning power and newsgathering clout of their broadcast colleagues.