Deutsche Welle, 12.04.23

DW AkademieWorkshop

Convergent Journalism

Comparing different media

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2 / 10 Print, Radio, TV, Online journalism

Questions journalists should think about:

The Audience

• What skills does the audience need to get information through this medium?

• How much money does the audience have to spend to use this medium?

• How often does the audience expect information updates in this medium?

• How can the audience give feedback to the journalists in this medium?

• How can the audience discuss the topic in this medium?

• How easy is it for the audience to get information from other media outlets publishing in this medium (i.e. from the competition)?

• Where is the audience geographically?

3 / 10 Print, Radio, TV, Online journalism

The Journalist

• What kind of information / stories are suitable, easy to

transport in this medium?

• What kind of information / stories are difficult to present in

this medium?

• What are the advantages of this medium for the journalist?

• What skills does the journalist need to work in this medium?

• What hardware does the journalist need to work in this

medium?

4 / 10 Print

Strengths Weaknesses

Explanation and analysis (background, cause,

impact, details, numbers)

static content, no updates; „yesterday‘s news“

Portable, light, cheap, „lean-back“ No immediate feed-back / audience

participation

Easy overview (length, relevance…) Limited space for the journalist

Audience and journalists need few skills except

literacy

Needs to be delivered / bought at store

Easy to navigate - audience determines what it

consumes, in what order, at what speed

Easy to mark, highlight, archive

Good for text-only information (meetings

behind closed doors etc), abstract thoughts,

philosophical pieces

5 / 10 Radio

Strengths Weaknesses

Fast, immediate No pictures, only words and sound (bad for visual

stories, statistics, numbers…)

Good for sound-rich stories (good nat-sound,

music, historical clips…)

Audience can‘t choose / skip / repeat, has to listen

to the program as it runs along

Authentic, credible, emotional No overview of what else there is / duration of

program elements

Radios are comparably cheap / integratet into cell

phones

Journalist determines speed

Audience needs very few skills – not even literacy Difficult to archive

Portable, „lean back“; secondary activity

6 / 10 Television

Strengths Weaknesses

Speed; can convey a lot of information in very limited

time

Facts and content are hard to remember (e.g. news)

Emotional power of visuals Overpowering pictures drown out the information

Good for stories with strong visuals / movement / action

(not „talking heads“)

Some things are not covered for shortage of video

material / covered only because of the good video (fires,

disasters, car crashes etc – „if it bleeds, it leads“)

-> distorts news agenda

Hardly possible to discuss theoretical or dense topics in

detail

Expensive and complicated to produce (equipment /

skills)

Subjective feeling of being well-informed by a credible

medium („seeing is believing“)

Journalists must be able to translate information into text

and (moving) pictures

Audience can lean back“, relax, doesn‘t need to think

much (entertainment value)

No immediate audience feed-back or interaction

TV-sets more expensive than newspapers or radio, not

really portable

7 / 10 Internet

Strengths Weaknesses

Speed / easy to update Costly hardware

No space / time limitation Depends on electricity / Wifi / internet connection…

Global medium Audience has to be literate and tech-savvy

interactivity Journalists must be tech-savvy, multi-talented and

keep up with technology

Audience determines what it consumes, in what

order, at what speed and to what depth (non-linear

storytelling)

Journalists need hardware to produce content

(computer / camera / video camera / internet

connection…)

Linking stories -> unexpected discoveries „lean forward“

Online „forever“ Links can turn into „dead links“

Multi-media platform

Easy to access information from different sources