Artefact Description

The sixth artefact was a non-functional prototype of a ‘professional news website’ with a unique selling point that users can upload media content to the articles. Participants then answered a questionnaire about the mock-up.

Artefact Analysis and Evaluation

My previous artefacts found that infotainment is becoming more and more expected to accompany news articles, putting pressure on news organisations to deliver. I also found that citizen journalism is becoming more and more prolific due to the availability of blogs, and their freedom to create more conversational content has put pressure on professional news sites to ensure they still have the interest of their consumers.

Subsequently, for this artefact I wanted to test a theory that a combination of citizen journalism and infotainment could pressure the online news industry into reshaping their business models to allow contribution of media content from the public, to assist articles that would otherwise be text based. I built a non-functional mock-up of a professional news website that allowed users to upload media content to articles and asked participants to look at the design and get a good idea of how the site might operate. Finally, participants (who were experienced/enthusiastic web users) answered a questionnaire, providing contextualised answers. This allowed me to acquire informed and educated qualitative data.

Firstly, 100% of participants said they would rather read the article in the mock-up if it included media content, strengthening the findings from my earlier artefacts.

Additionally, participants were cautiously positive that a scheme like the one in my prototype could be successful on the website of a large news organisation, but showed awareness of the possible pro’s and con’s.

Furthermore I found that generally, participants thought that it would be difficult to maintain credibility when utilising such a scheme; however, as long it was carefully regulated, this issue should remain minimal.

To conclude, responses suggest that citizen journalism contribution to professional news websites will only increase in significance, through more prioritised discussion areas and through the need to supply consumers with actual event footage.

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Artefact Description

The fifth artefact gathered 3 professional news websites and 3 citizen journalist websites and provided a screenshot and short description for each. Participants then had to answer a questionnaire about the trustworthiness and credibility of each site.

Artefact Analysis and Evaluation

The previous artefact looked at Citizen Journalism on a small scale, reporting on a particular subject. The results showed that citizen journalist sites can be successful alongside their official counterparts, largely due to the freedom they have to post opinionated articles. I wanted to further my citizen journalist research by looking at its consumer perception.

I provided participants with screenshots and a description of three well known, professional news websites (BBC News, The Independent, The Sun) as well as 3 of the most renowned citizen journalist websites (WikiNews, Drudge Report, OhMyNews), before asking questions about their awareness of the sites and how trustworthy/credible they thought each site was.

I used this method in order to provide a snapshot of each of the websites, without showing any bias. In terms of awareness, nearly all participants had heard of the professional news websites, whereas the only citizen journalist site participants were aware of was WikiNews, with nearly half being aware of it.

However, the results showed that awareness doesn’t guarantee users, with only 2/29 and 4/30 saying they actively use The Independent’s and The Sun’s website respectively.

Regarding consumer perception, BBC News and The Independent scored very highly for trustworthiness and credibility, whereas all of the citizen journalist websites scored relatively low. Some reasons given for this included less educated contributors, the fact that anyone can contribute and poor aesthetics in the case of Drudge Report. Interestingly, The Sun also scored very low for trustworthiness, proving that being well established doesn’t necessarily guarantee trust; something which my last artefact’s results suggested.

In conclusion, Drudge Report proves that unappealing aesthetics can directly affect how credible a news website is perceived. I also found that consumers will doubt the credibility of a citizen journalist website as they assume that their contributors are less educated.

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Artefact Description

The fourth artefact was a Case Study on Citizen Journalism based on data gained from expert interviews with 2 people that run an Official news website and a citizen journalism website respectively. The Case Study was also based on traffic figures and observation of the two websites.

Artefact Analysis and Evaluation

My third artefact suggested that consumers find infotainment news articles more enjoyable and informative than text-based articles. For my next artefact I wanted to discover the effect of Citizen Journalism and whether it’s as enjoyable, informative and credible as news content from official organisations.

I interviewed the person who runs the Official news website for a football club and the person who runs a successful Citizen Journalist blog (Bulls News), also on the football club. I asked about the type of content they produce in terms of factuality and subjectivity. Interviewing both parties allowed me to make comparisons and gauge their understanding of what they do.

I discovered that the Official website was 100% factual, allowing no room for opinion and they are restricted to publishing only the official word. Bulls News however, admitted to often adding their own slant to their stories and reporting on rumours and speculation. They believe this is one of the reasons for their success as when official news has been lacking, they can speculate or ponder, which is more enjoyable for their consumers.

The research suggested that Official organisations achieve instant credibility with their consumers whereas Citizen Journalists have to work hard to establish themselves and credit their sources to achieve credibility.

I also concluded that Citizen Journalists lack financial motivation which can cause their websites to stagnate, whereas Official organisations have the financial drive to improve.

Ultimately we can conclude that Citizen Journalism can compete with Official organisations due to the ease and freedom they enjoy. And if the Official site wasn’t as organised as the one in this case study, then a Citizen Journalist website could easily be capable of surpassing its official competitor. So yes, Citizen Journalism is a genuine pressure that the news media industry must be aware of.

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I put together two web pages, both featuring the same news article; however one also included a video and pictures. I then sent the two versions to 2 sets of 10 people, who then filled out 1 of 2 questionnaires (depending on which article they read) to indicate how they rated various aspects of the article they read.

Conducting the experiment in this way allowed me to make direct comparisons between the 2 article versions and identify whether there were any clear and consistent differences between them.

The majority of the questions on both questionnaires were the same so I could make direct comparisons as previously stated. However, I also added more questions specific to each article which I believed were relevant. For example, for the text based article questionnaire, I asked what would improve the article. This allowed me to see whether people felt elements such as video or pictures would improve a standard, text-based news article.

Interestingly, 80% of those that read the text only article felt that pictures would have been beneficial to the article and 50% thought that a video would also have improved it.

Another article specific question asked whether those that read the infotainment article felt that the video benefitted the article. 70% stated that it did, suggesting that they found it useful and enjoyed receiving news in this format.

Generally the results slightly favoured the infotainment article, as it rated 7.8 out of 10 for enjoyment compared to 6.1 for the text based article. The infotainment article also rated 8.2 for how informative it was compared to 7.1 for the text based article. These results show a slight preference for news in the form of infotainment but the results were only marginal and hardly conclusive.

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