Disruption in journalism = events or processes that radically change our understanding of traditional
ways of journalism.
Innovation in journalism = a variety of interventions to disruptive changes in journalism whose goal is
to introduce new technologies, products, processes or practices.
Clayton Christensen also wrote a specific paper on the innovator's dilemma in media & journalism
niemanlab.org/2012/10/clay-christensen-on-the-news-industry-we-didnt-quite-understand-how-
quickly-things-fall-off-the-cliff
Four important disruptive changes:
1. Shifting media economy
E.g. decline in print circulations and advertising revenues
new business models e.g. paywalls or crowdfunding
2. Changing audience patterns
mainstream audiences on the decline (Fragmentation of audiences)
focus on data and audiences analytics/metrics
3. Changing distribution channels
rise of platforms such as google and facebook, which take the bigger share of ad revenue.
4. Information disorder
‘fake news’/disinformation/misinformation. Decline in public trust of the media. Enhanced
verification practices and fact-checking.
Another disruptive change, are global crises, such as the COVID-19 crisis and economic crises. How
do we make sense of uncertainty?
Important questions:
* what are the major structural transformations that journalism is undergoing today?
* How can we rethink journalism today?
* Why is journalism still important today?
, We will be divided into groups, every group will have to make discussion points for 1 lecture. This is
part of the assessment. There is no exam, only the discussion points and a background article we
need to write.
PART 2
Things in journalism are changing all the time; sometimes your schedule changes suddenly.
Hille says that it is important to tell the stories about places where people usually wouldn’t go.
According to her, traditional media need to invest in robot journalism in order to stay relevant. As
long as the function of journalism stays alive, it’s okay if humans aren’t important for it anymore.
Olav Koens: journalism is having a front seat to history, reporting and explaining it to an audience. It’s
the best job in the world. He is very thankful for this job. There is a crisis in journalism, but it brings
tremendous opportunity. There used to be a system where you had to work yourself up to a certain
position, and it doesn’t exist anymore. You can start in a position abroad immediately if you want.
Local journalism is becoming more and more important. Facts matter more than ever.
Eva Smal: what is good journalism? There is active journalism, NRC doesn’t participate in that, but
tries to cover a lot of aspects of the world. Eva covers the business side of journalism, she does this
because it’s easier to understand, because most people are driven by money. Numbers can be scary,
but it’s not that hard and it brings a lot of opportunity for journalists. A lot of people think freelance
is the answer, but try to also work in a newsroom because you can learn a lot from colleagues as
well. Do an internship at a big newsroom. There are always opportunities at NRC, if you want, you
can give me a call.
Michel Maas: the atmosphere is an important aspect of foreign journalism. If you can’t explain the
atmosphere, people won’t fully understand the story. If you are good, it’s not hard to find a job. Just
move to a place and start writing. If you start with a good education, you have a headstart.
Ilse Openneer: one word of advice, you have to be interested in the profession, you have to invest in
yourself, work on the way you speak/write/edit. You can’t start off expecting yourself to be the best.
The way stories at RTL Nieuws are told is different to the way they are at NOS, so you have to like the
way they do things there if you want to apply. RTL is less likely to follow the agenda of institutions
that want to be on the news. They are more critical of the stories they want to tell.
RTL Nieuws always needs new talent.
Karin Sitalsing: is correspondent in Groningen for Trouw. I try to be unique in my stories in order to
be found interesting enough by the office in Amsterdam. I focus on smaller stories about people they
don’t know. I try to teach things they don’t know yet. The difference between freelancing and
working in a newsroom, is that you have the opportunity to pitch your story to a different newsoutlet
if one doesn’t want it. You can work for competing news outlets, but Trouw wouldn’t like it if I wrote
a story about Groningen for Volkskrant. As long as the subject matter is different, it doesn’t matter
for which paper I’m writing.
I always pitch the idea first. Can’t afford to spend lots of time on a piece and then maybe not earn
anything. Also: all media have their own specific angles and focuses that make them unique, and
so it can be more of a cooperation wíth them then an assignment fór them. Editors can give
instructions or suggestions to make the article suit the medium better. It’s so much more efficient
to work together then handing in an article and then find you have to rewrite it in order to be able
to sell it. And there’s the issue of length. For Vrij Nederland I write 3500 word pieces, but no
newspaper will publish pieces of that length. I’m sure there are colleagues who do it differently,
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