Clay Shirky
Go to the Nieman Lab webpage (part of Harvard university) and watch the video of Clay Shirky presenting to Harvard students. The video is also available on YouTube below but the Nieman Lab website has a written transcript of everything Shirky says.
Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript), answer the questions below:
1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?Accountability journalism is important because he believes this is shrinking and claims that ads were supportive of newspapers and lasted for decades. Advertisers were forced to overpay and as a result made them commercially successful.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?Newspapers are used to represent the news on TV making revenue and talks about how both are interested in different things but use each other to make revenue.
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?Audiences are consuming through other members of the audience as social media through things being sent to each other but not actually looking for it themselves.
4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?This scandal was shocking to everyone and so many people read it so if the internet had been widespread then everyone would have gotten the story quicker. This story meant that audiences created the public for this story as he mentions and talks about the Boston globe unable to have such a big audience.
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? He argues that we should be balancing these expenses and having publication that has profit other than public revenue.
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?An action that provide some sort of benefit to the general public. Journalism is a social good as it provides the public with news and information that they can find helpful and can genuinely get to know what is happening around them.
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?we can replace the important role in society by having another institution that is classic and produces 5% accountability journalism. The short term danger is that the old models are breaking faster than the new ones. He believes that things will get worse as he mentions the fall of relative corruption moderate size of cities and mentions the long trough of journalism. He claims we should constrain this.
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?I believe that it is important for these companies to build upon business and provide news as the guardian is quite well know and is read to a high degree amongst the public. These companies have been available from a significant time perioud and are experienced and provide many opinions within the news so people can generate their own opinions too. However, these newspapers do not have to stay in business as there are many more successful news companies providing new to the public that do generate revenue. This means that their need in society today is only to some extent as now there much more source to be able to get your news e.g like social media and other companies.
Play the clip AND read along with the transcript below to ensure you are following the argument. You need to watch from the beginning to 29.35 (the end of Shirky's presentation). Once you've watched and read the presentation and made notes (you may want to copy and paste key quotes from the transcript), answer the questions below:
1) Why does Clay Shirky argue that 'accountability journalism' is so important and what example does he give of this?Accountability journalism is important because he believes this is shrinking and claims that ads were supportive of newspapers and lasted for decades. Advertisers were forced to overpay and as a result made them commercially successful.
2) What does Shirky say about the relationship between newspapers and advertisers? Which websites does he mention as having replaced major revenue-generators for newspapers (e.g. jobs, personal ads etc.)?Newspapers are used to represent the news on TV making revenue and talks about how both are interested in different things but use each other to make revenue.
3) Shirky talks about the 'unbundling of content'. This means people are reading newspapers in a different way. How does he suggest audiences are consuming news stories in the digital age?Audiences are consuming through other members of the audience as social media through things being sent to each other but not actually looking for it themselves.
4) Shirky also talks about the power of shareable media. How does he suggest the child abuse scandal with the Catholic Church may have been different if the internet had been widespread in 1992?This scandal was shocking to everyone and so many people read it so if the internet had been widespread then everyone would have gotten the story quicker. This story meant that audiences created the public for this story as he mentions and talks about the Boston globe unable to have such a big audience.
5) Why does Shirky argue against paywalls? He argues that we should be balancing these expenses and having publication that has profit other than public revenue.
6) What is a 'social good'? In what way is journalism a 'social good'?An action that provide some sort of benefit to the general public. Journalism is a social good as it provides the public with news and information that they can find helpful and can genuinely get to know what is happening around them.
7) Shirky says newspapers are in terminal decline. How does he suggest we can replace the important role in society newspapers play? What is the short-term danger to this solution that he describes?we can replace the important role in society by having another institution that is classic and produces 5% accountability journalism. The short term danger is that the old models are breaking faster than the new ones. He believes that things will get worse as he mentions the fall of relative corruption moderate size of cities and mentions the long trough of journalism. He claims we should constrain this.
8) Look at the first question and answer regarding institutional power. Give us your own opinion: how important is it that major media brands such as the New York Times or the Guardian continue to stay in business and provide news?I believe that it is important for these companies to build upon business and provide news as the guardian is quite well know and is read to a high degree amongst the public. These companies have been available from a significant time perioud and are experienced and provide many opinions within the news so people can generate their own opinions too. However, these newspapers do not have to stay in business as there are many more successful news companies providing new to the public that do generate revenue. This means that their need in society today is only to some extent as now there much more source to be able to get your news e.g like social media and other companies.
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