Online Journalism 1 - Jacob CARSON

I’m beginning to re-evaluate my position on live blogging. At the beginning of this semester I was wary and more than a little sceptical. After all, I thought, how hard could it be?

It seemed relatively straightforward, sit back, crack those fingers and basically repeat what’s happening in front of you. Sounds simple right?

As we draw closer and closer to the point end of the semester, I wanted to take the opportunity to look back and reflect upon what I’ve learned throughout this semester.

Most journalism is about brevity, conveying as much information in as few words as possible. 

Online journalism takes this to the next logical step. Studies have shown that attention rates for online readers are dismally low.

So I’ll try and keep this quick: what about feature writers 

Arguably the largest international story of the year has been the rapid rise of the Islamist terrorist organisation the Islamic State (IS).

Citizen journalists are, as a rule of thumb, generally regarded with an eyebrow firmly cocked in suspicion by media professionals.

 It’s for a number of reasons, but arguably the largest is that the average Joe sitting behind his laptop screen just doesn’t face the same professional responsibilities and guidelines that a reporter might.

 This can lead to recklessness, which can lead to jumping to conclusions without the checks that are generally in place to prevent such things. Ultimately, it can mean that people can get things wrong: sometimes spectacularly so.

In the hours and days following the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, speculation ran rampant online. The online forum Reddit attracted significant criticism after its users decided to solve their case. Through the spread of misinformation and a groupthink mentality, the users came to the conclusion that the bomber was a Boston teenager who had recently been declared missing by City Police.

 Except he wasn’t the bomber: Just a guy who suddenly had thousands claiming he had killed three people and maimed up to two hundred more.

 The company issued a hasty apology to the man and his family, but noted that the intentions of the site’s users had been “noble”.

 This isn’t to say that citizen journalism isn’t without its merits. It just needs to be used correctly.

Farah Baker, a teenager living in the Gaza strip during the violent clashes between Hamas and the Israeli government this, received international praise and attention for her coverage of the bombing of Gaza city.

Her tweets, a combination of personal experience and other sources, created an intimate but never sensationalised portrait of life under constant threat from attack.

In its infancy, the majority of news sites were (and in fact, still are) directly affiliated with established media outlets. Be it newspapers or major network broadcast stations, chances are they still run a dedicated website that allows their content to be viewed on a computer rather than on the page or television monitor.

But as the medium has become a viable and intensely far reaching way of delivering information to the public, the addition of content exclusively for online consumers has become gradually commonplace. 

One of the reasons for this has been the interactivity that the technology allows (as discussed in one of my earlier posts), others have been ways to incentivise customers to use the online version.

  Another has been the acceptance that the Internet is strong enough to stand on its merits without content from other mediums. This has seen the creation of online-exclusive or predominately online news outlets. 

Arguably the most well known example would be Vice’s dedicated news outlet (see video above). 

Vice itself started out as an independent magazine before achieving cult and then later mainstream success with its online content. This incredible rise in popularity has allowed the company to cross over into television, or rather not-television, because it’s HBO. The first season of the program was once again a major success, picking up multiple primetime Emmy awards this year.

One of the many benefits of the Internet as a medium for news is its immediacy.

While the deadline should always be treated with fearful reverence, the absence of a publishing schedule (as in print) does afford a greater flexibility in the ways in which news is delivered to the audience.

The core of the issue: 

By Jacob Carson

Can Apple's latest smartphone offering help the tech giant reclaim its title as an industry innovator?

Apple’s release of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus last week may see the fortunes of the technology giant take a turn for the better.

The hotly anticipated device saw die-hard fans camped outside of electronics retailers across the country, eager to be some of the first to own the phone in the world. 

It’s domination of news headlines and a large influx of positive reviews come at a time where publicity for Apple has been relatively lacklustre.

“People have been very positive, it’s looking like we’re headed for one of the best results for the iPhone so far”, said the manager of the Apple store in Brisbane City

The iPhone 6 has been heralded by various outlets as one of the best phones that Apple has ever released, with particular praise going once again to its design, screen resolution and camera.

Tim Biggs, technology reviewer from the Sydney Morning Herald, noted the advancements made on the phone might see Apple make a serious claim for its once-held dominance of the smartphone market.

The company reported that pre-orders for the device within the first 24 hours eclipsed four million orders, setting a new record for the company.

Reports seem to indicate that the hype and fascination surrounding the phone, which has so far been commonplace for iPhone releases in the past, could not have come for a better time for the company.

However, not everybody has been as complimentary towards Apple’s latest offering.

Engineering Student Aman Gujral, a long time iPhone user, says that the choice of the hardware inside the device itself has perplexed him.

“Well, they’ve put in a big processing chip, (Apple’s self-designed A8 chip), but the phone itself doesn’t have enough RAM or computing power to make the most of that chip’s power.

“It just seems like such a waste to me.”

Recent online posts have also revealed a key design flaw within the new device.

The thin, streamlined design of the 6 Plus has led to claims that the phone is physically bending as it undergoes pressure inside customer’s pockets.

It’s not the first time that the design of the iPhone has been criticised.

Apple itself is no stranger to criticism either: 

Lets recap:

Apple’s foray into the smartphone and tablet computing market has been undoubtedly successful, with each new iPhone or iPad release shifting millions of units with relative ease.

The company itself is still one of the most profitable and well regarded in the technology industry, with an estimated revenue of 140 billion dollars in 2014. In many ways it was considered an industry leader, ultimately responsible for the current smartphone market, as it exists today.

It was the death of founder and company head Steve Jobs in 2011, as well as the company’s next batch of releases after Jobs died, which brought forth the consensus that the company was beginning to lose its way.

The release of the iPhone 4S shortly after Jobs died was met with a lukewarm reception from the public and the media. New CEO Tim Cook took Jobs’ usual place on the podium at the 2011 Apple conference and presented a phone that commentators generally agreed didn’t feature anything with the impact that previous phones had. 

Take, for example, the release of the very first iPhone in 2007. Developed under a veil of secrecy that demonstrated the strict control that Jobs exercised over his company, the iPhone attracted both praise and scorn from its competitors and the media. What was common in both was the belief that this was the beginning of great change in the telecoms market.

TIME magazine named the first iPhone its “Invention of the Year” in 2007, and the accompanying write-up (mostly) contained some fairly accurate predictions about the future of both the iPhone and the industry itself:

On Apple’s Competitors

“Now other phone makers are jealous. They're demanding the same freedoms. That means better, more innovative phones for all.”

On the future of the iPhone

“ …it'll be around for a while, and with all that room to develop and its infinitely updatable, all-software interface, the iPhone is built to evolve…

Now imagine something that's going to make the iPhone look that primitive. You'll have one in a few years. It'll be very cool. And it'll be even cheaper.”

Many speculated that it was Jobs’ ruthless pursuit of perfectionism in the design and function of Apple’s products that had ultimately brought the company its immense success.

After all, Jobs’ return to the head of the company after being fired in DATE resulted in one of the most surprising and successful company turnarounds in the industry.

Steve Jobs had managed to turn the then-floundering company into the juggernaut it is today. He became revered and reviled for his management style; praised as a design visionary and condemned for his cold and unforgiving approach to the business world. It mythologised him, and the image of Jobs in Levi’s jeans and a black turtleneck became as valuable to Apple’s image as their products did.

Tim Cook, however, is not as immediately recognisable as Jobs was, doesn’t have the fearsome reputation that Jobs did, and presents himself more like a human being than the icon Jobs had eventually come.

So when one of his first major releases as head of Apple was the next step, instead of the great leap forward, some began to ask if the company was directionless without its former leader.

The timing couldn’t have been worse from Apple, as its competitors had quickly become viable competitors for market-share dominance.

The Competition Steps Up

Just as TIME’s feature on the first iPhone had predicted, its release spurned other tech companies to capitalise on the market.

And while most of Apple’s competitors have presented their own offerings the public (including Apple’s traditional rival Microsoft), only one partnership has achieved enough success to actually knock Apple from the top position: Android and Samsung.

While the design basic functionality of an iPhone and, say, a Galaxy S5 are similar (Both feature large touch screens and minimal buttons etc.), the approach each company’s releases couldn’t be more different. It also demonstrates the key differences in the ethos’ mindset of each company (SEE VIDEO FOR MORE)

As it would turn out, the launch of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus would bring some of the best results for its manufacturer yet, with Apple reporting that pre-orders for the device had hit 4 Million pre-orders in the first 24 hours, a new record for the company. 

Critical reception to the device itself has also largely been complimentary. Stephen Fry, who’s been a vocal fan of Apple products in the past, even penned a column for The Guardian proclaiming the new phone a ‘the most exquisite mobile ever made’.

It was arguably one of the better results for the company so far, and it comes at a time in which critics of Apple have been more vocal than usual about the current direction of the company and its releases each year. 

As it stands, Apple’s foothold in the technology business is still strong, even if the ground it stands on is a little shakier than it has been in the past.

 See what the public is saying about the #iPhone6

It’s easy to feel a lot of fear when the future of the journalism industry is brought up in conversation.

  Speaking from my limited experience, students like myself are often bombarded from day one of their university with lecturers flatly saying that things just aren’t like they used to be.It can often feel like scaremongering, or doom for the sake of gloom, but as I learned more about and actually experienced the industry, the more I realised its purpose.

I immediately apologise for the comic-book reference, but it really is all part of the theme I swear.

The videos always seem to crop up this time of year. 

The footage is grainy and handheld, the image darts wildly across your video screen without ever really seeming to focus on anything. You lean in closer, squinting as hard as you possibly can to catch a glimpse of anything at all, because the audio is muffled by the whoops of a jubilant crowd. 

It really does say a lot about the dedication of some fans and the lengths that they'll go to. It also speaks volumes about the power that San Diego Comic-Con wields amongst the faithful.

For those unlucky enough to take the yearly pilgrimage to Southern California, these poorly shot, oft-incomplete clips are the only option to see what everybody's going to be talking about in entertainment before the mainstream media catches up. 

But then the video is taken down for copyright violation, and fans are once again left out in the cold. 

A leaked image from Comic-Con showcasing the upcoming "Man of Steel" sequel featuring Batman.

These links, brief as they can be sometimes, demonstrate perfectly the immediacy that the public demands information from the media. Anything later than 'now' is too slow, because the opinions are already beginning to fly in, thick and fast. 

The lesson to be ultimately learned is that in a digital environment, the publisher immediately loses control.

Once something is out there, its out there for good.

Till next week, true believers.