In his presentation at ISOJ, Nuno Vargas, University of Barcelona (Spain) talked about how news and information is graphically presented online. His paper (PDF) discusses whether the design of online newspapers shows they are embracing the web fully as a new medium or whether they are they anchored to the paper metaphor. He found that newspapers still approach the web from a paper-based concept, rather than as a dynamic medium.

Just about anyone in journalism has heard of the Knight News Challenge. In his ISOJ presentation, Seth Lewis, University of Texas at Austin looked at how it shapes journalism. As background, he talked about the tension between professional journalistic practices, based on gatekeeping, and participatory logic of open and collective spaces. He researched how winners of the Knight News Challenge negotiated this tension. He found that the tension was not

Since I didn’t blog about this, here are the slides of the presentation at the ISOJ by Matt Thompson, editorial product manager, Project Argo, National Public Radio. Thompson talked about the need to shift from reporting the news to reporting understanding. ISOJ presentation 4.24: From news to understanding View more presentations from Matthew Thompson

The wealth of knowledge at the International Symposium on Online Journalism continued with a session on non-profit journalism, with examples from across the US. First up, Scott Lewis, CEO of Voice of San Diego. He started by talking about the bundled model of the newspaper, which obviously changed with the internet. But, said Lewis, the unbundling of information meant you have to go to it, rather than have it come

Here are the slides from the paper, Wikifying the CBC: Reimagining the remit of public service media (PDF), presented at the International Symposium on Online Journalism with one of my graduate students, Amanda Ash. The paper discusses a collaboration between the Graduate School of Journalism at UBC and CBC Radio 3 to research and develop a Canadian music wiki, funded through the MITACS Accelerate program. Wikifying the CBC View more

An impression roster of speakers tackled the question of participatory journalism at International Symposium on Online Journalism. The session was introduced by Dan Gillmor, professor and director, Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship, Arizona State University, with an overview of the read-write web, from consumers to creators to collaborators. The question, said Gillmor, isn’t who is a journalist, but rather what is journalism. There is plenty of supply, but the

The second day of International Symposium on Online Journalism offered a refreshing look at international innovative initiatives. Harry Dugmore, MTN Chair of Media and Mobile Communications, Rhodes University (South Africa) started by providing an update to a project founded by the Knight News Challenge. in South Africa, almost 100% of families have access to cellphones, while broadband access is growing but slowly. While bandwidth is rising, the prices are prohibitive.

Back to the blog after presenting my paper with Amanda Ash in the wiki project at CBC Radio 3. In a session at International Symposium on Online Journalism on blogs and UGC, Joshua A. Braun of  Cornell University outlined how broadcasters in the US were adopting blogs. This is an area close to my heart, as I have published research in how the BBC adopted blogging for accountability. Braun look

The third panel at International Online Journalism Symposium tackled the big one: how can newspaper companies survive in the digital era. Session chair Earl Wilkinson, executive director and CEO, International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA), set the tone by talking about headlines predicting the death of newspapers. But in his view, newspapers are facing an economic downturn, above all in the US and UK. As a result, the storylines on print

The second panel at the International Online Journalism Symposium focused on mobile platforms and how journalism is adapting to new devices such as the Apple iPad. The first speaker was Dan Treinish, director of content acquisition & business development, Skiff, a platform to distribute content to mobile devices. Skiff was incubated as a start-up by Hearst about three years ago. The business model is based on the migration of ad