DigitalNewsAlerts provide patterns and longitudinal data of the online news landscape. They cover sites both old and new that were born out of the web – including legacy and newly established news organizations.
Technology platforms host news websites and often control much of their traffic, prompting policymakers to attempt to force them into paying for news content – although such efforts have so far proven unsuccessful.
Social media
Technology has revolutionized how news and information are disseminated. Digital ads have taken over the advertising market, newspaper circulations have decreased precipitously and TV news broadcasters can no longer rely on large audiences to grow their businesses models. Therefore, many traditional news sources have created their own online spaces using social media as part of their platform strategy.
With visual social networks like Instagram and TikTok as well as student-targeted news sites like Newsela and Tween Tribune, young audiences are adopting new forms of journalism and news consumption. Users have increasingly turned away from news organisations in favour of ordinary people, personalities and social media posts as sources of their daily news updates.
This standard investigates how news is distributed worldwide, exploring the role that large technology companies, governments, political campaigns and individuals play in shaping mass communication. Activities may include exploring the Mueller Report; Russian efforts to influence 2016 presidential election; or whether accessing internet should be considered a basic human right.
Threaded discussions
Threaded discussions provide individuals and teams with an organized communication framework for project discussions, remote team collaboration, knowledge sharing and general collaboration purposes. Furthermore, threaded discussions allow members of both sides to easily track updates while easily accessing updates themselves.
Threaded discussions provide an effective tool for online learning; however, novice users may find them challenging to use. Particularly with regard to reading classmates’ comments and responding accordingly; this may present difficulties for busy schedules or those who have other obligations outside of class.
Threaded discussion updates can become hard to follow when replies are posted at multiple levels of the reply tree, making conversations harder to keep focused and organized. A reply depth cap can help keep conversations on track; this approach is especially beneficial in announcement channels where updates must be easy to locate.
Blogs
Blogs are an effective way of staying abreast of industry news and events, sharing content with your target audience and increasing engagement on your website. Maintaining regular blog updates ensures readers can access the information they require while also building credibility for you and your brand.
Some blogs focus on one specific target audience or topic. For instance, penny stock trader Timothy Sykes uses his blog to educate people on penny stocks as an industry. Niche audiences and topics will make attracting readers easier while building your following for your blog.
Many news websites also employ blogs as another means of engaging their audiences, often posting stories and headlines from both original reporting as well as from external sources like Associated Press or Reuters. Furthermore, blogs provide another means of monitoring popular blogs and forums, with Google Alerts an ideal solution for monitoring specific keywords both within blogs as well as mainstream news outlets.
Video
Video can be an incredibly effective tool for capturing the intensity of breaking news events and providing audiences with an exciting, dynamic experience. Furthermore, it can build empathy between audiences and promote an emotional bond – though care must be taken not to exploit video for malicious actors to spread inaccurate or misleading information.
Digital outlets have tried placing editors or writers in front of the camera, with mixed results. It is crucial to experiment with various forms of content production quickly as good videos can quickly gain traction on social media.
AJ+ and NowThis are two organizations that have found great success with online news videos. Both use software to assemble footage semi-automatically before publishing directly onto platforms; in addition, both organizations have implemented an efficient workflow including platform experts and an insights team for tracking performance.
