Presentation to Bergen University Journalism Lab, February 2016

1. Digital disruption and
journalism’s future
George Brock
Professor of Journalism
City University London
Bergen Journalism Lab, February 2016

2. We talk a lot about change
• Information is largely freed from the physical
constraints of movement across space
• Information can be – and is - generated in very
large quantities
• Once upon a time, journalism worried about
getting information, which was scarce
• Now, journalists must manage abundance

3. What does “disruption” mean?
• Assets (can) become liabilities
• Technological change is recurrent/permanent (eg
Snapchat makes Facebook look arthritic)
• New competitors, eg aggregators/curators
• Unclear who competitors are – and they change
frequently (Business reporting: LinkedIn? Travel:
Uber or AirBnB?)
• Digital is an engine of opportunity - for the user
and consumer of news and opinion to compare,
interact, switch, share

4. Staring at the future
• Mobile digital daily consumption has reached 51% in the US
and is at over 40% worldwide (KPCB & JP Morgan). The
Guardian: we expect two-thirds by end 2016. Video
consumption soars.
• There are 16 sensors in the average smartphone: content
could be adjusted for about every piece of data about what
the user is doing. (Frederic Filloux, Monday Note)
• “The metrics you’re tracking probably don’t matter as
much as the ones you’re not looking at.” (Matt Galligan, Circa)
• “We’re probably not that far from software which will
predict how well or badly an item of journalism will do with
a particular segment of the audience.” (Seth Rogin)

5. A little historical perspective
• Late 20th century was, in the history of news
media, quite exceptional
• That period was formative for the news media’s
departing senior generation
• Never before that time such simplicity or stability
of income (adverts+ circulation revenue)
• Unlikely to happen now: amid volatility,
experiment and adaptive agility count
• But also required : clear idea of journalism’s aim

6. A platform is just a means to tell

7. Think purpose, not platform
• Not a purely commercial undertaking: other
(democratic, moral) imperatives
• What people want to know is balanced with
what they need to know
• So the “mastery” of rapid, recurrent,
transformative change is…the right balance of
change and preservation in journalism
• We should not be “gizmo-driven”

9. Back to first principles
• What is journalism for?
• The systematic search to establish the truth
of what matters to society in real time
• 4 core tasks which newsrooms practice:
– Verification
– Sense-making
– Investigation
– Eye-witness

10. BUT much has changed (1)
1. If we are managing abundance: verification +
making sense more important (a global village
will have village idiots and they will have global
range)
2. Emphasis on production has shifted to
distribution (terms, collaboration)
3. Users are publishing and republishing (aka
sharing). More sources available.
4. Size and shape of audience/communities
rewritten
5. Role of technology much more central

11. Much has changed (2)
6. Information needs cannot be taken for
granted (issue for newspaper apps)
7. How we assess value changes. Vital for
journalism to concentrate on what is unique
and hard (preferably impossible) to replicate
8. Words may not be dominant much longer
9. New story-telling syntax

12. • “It is the imagination, ultimately, and
not mathematical calculation that
creates media; it is the fresh
perception of how to fit a potential
machine into an actual way of life
that really constitutes the act of
‘invention’.” Anthony Smith,
Goodbye Gutenberg, 1980

13. Smith-friendly examples
• Travel Journalism: a modest
suggestion about hotel ranking
• Film reviews: syntax is out of date
• Written journalism: more than
one dimension
• Journalism: verification expertise

14. New specialists, new skills

15. They talked about ‘disintermediation’
• Now think “re-intermediation”
• Some necessary skills unchanged
• Eg Spotting, researching, projecting a
story
• There is no reason why journalism’s core
purposes should not be both useful and
valuable in an information-rich world
• …if done right

16. Adding value
• Journalists must adapt to
quantity and speed
• But without sacrificing reliability
and (therefore) trust
• What might help here?

17. Problems
• Big data is too large
• “Data exhaust”
• Unsourced/unverified information
• Fraud
• Fragmentation (Twitter, Storify)

18. Reporters need to…
• Cut to the chase
• Search creatively, laterally
• Lock in reliable links quickly
• Be able to concentrate on coherence
(which is not available in a database)

19. May I introduce JUICE?
• Name derived from ‘journalist creative engine’
• http://juice.jellibee.co
• Quicker to the most useful (cutting to the
chase)
• Better display (sequence and sidebar)
• Creative search tools underneath
• Six dimensions of journalism curiosity

20. Juice prototype

21. 6 varieties of reporting
• We identified 6 creative search dimensions to
open up possible new angles on a story:
• Individuals – Who are the key players, viewpoint
of an individual
• Causal – The background, the history, timeline
• Quirky – Satire, not the obvious
• Quantifiable elements – Evidence, data
• Ramifications – What for the future?
• Data visualisations – Interesting combinations for
graphics

22. A test story
• Brief for the reporter:
• ‘You are working for The Independent, which
is assembling background material ready for
the EU referendum campaign. The editor
wants a brisk 3-400 word story on the key
financial backers of the Leave campaign. A
quick summary of 2-3 key personalities and
what they have donated.’

23. Search is just the start
• Quality journalism must show its evidence
without boring the user
• Links should be easy to put in and not
interfere with reading speed or pleasure
• In the future, authority and trust will depend
on the depth and breadth of links (aka
footnotes)

24. Next possibilities
• Slick, frictionless linking from accurate sources
– Must be reporter-proof
– How to ensure right sources (eg Which?)
• Data display at speed
• Image search in the Juice style
• Different levels of detail in each story, leaving the
user/reader the choice
• NB: the greater the use of detail, the better the
engagement
• Metadata directories (eg RTBF)

25. 25 years from now, when
someone looks back
• The greatest progress in journalism will
be…
• …from the organisation or individual who
has made the best mix of what people
want and need with journalism’s
moral/democratic aim

26. •It would be great to
have your ideas on that!

27. www.georgebrock.net/@georgeprof