Fighting complexity with blogs

The newspaper journalism business is a very complex process. It involves reporters, editors, news managers, graphic editors, picture desks, numerous layers of people and printing technologies. But that’s not all, there is a sales department, administration department, circulation department and etc. Furthermore, digitalizing only increase complexity. This is because it involves shooting videos, creating animations and visualizations to attract readers. Which is why many newspaper businesses run blogs, it is a powerful tool of simplification that does not require the complex process of newspaper publishing (Legrand 2010).

newspaper journalism is a complex process

(image source: http://www.beautysnob.com/2009/04)

Blogs are seen as an easy tool to retrieve and report information because it’s low cost in distribution and production, its really simple syndication (RSS) features which makes data search easy, it creates a very powerful push-pull concept and it doesn’t require a newsroom full of people to blog, just one person will do. (Baltatzis 2006 & Legrand 2010). If you choose to search through the blogosphere and subscribe to their feeds, you are more likely find your desired information that is up to date. (Nauhton 2006 & Legrand 2010), which is why the blogosphere is described as a marketplace for ideas and networks. The trend of blogging is changing power structures in journalism and is providing the public the opportunity to be citizen journalists (Legrand 2010).

Blogspot.com in one the blogs that provides free blogging

(image source: mymall.netbuilder.com.my)

The utilizing of blogs by newspaper businesses can generate an evolution of an interesting relationship between conventional journalism and blogging (Naughton 2006). Newspapers businesses should blog because it increases their legitimacy and connects them with more people through referrals and networking. Not only does it connect them with new readers, it also keeps the old readers loyal, thus boosting the number of readers of that company (Baltatzis 2006). There are already many newspapers that started their own blogs, for example, Financial Times’ FT Alphaville, and Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital. These blogs are good at reporting news and interacting with their commuities in a lively way, and it is anything but complex, for both the readers and the bloggers (Legrand 2010).

Wall Street Journal's blog, Allthingsd.com

It is important that we equip ourselves with knowledge regarding media and communication, so we can survive the greater complexity of tomorrow’s media. Just like how big and complex organizations use blogs to fight complexity (Legrand 2010).

blogging saves time and energy as compared to newspaper journalism

(image source: http://onlinejournalismblog.com/2008/09/30/its-time-to-relieve-the-stress-of-rss-newspapers-make-your-own-readers/)

References:

Baltatzis, P 2006, Is Blogging Innovating Journalism?, Innovation Journalism, Vol. 3, No. 4.

Legrand, R 2010, Newsrooms Should Use Blogs to Battle Bloat, Complexity, Media Shift 22nd April, as viewed 13th November 2010, < http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2010/04/newsrooms-should-use-blogs-to-battle-bloat-complexity112.html >.

Naughton, J 2006, Blogging and the emerging new media ecosystem, Oxford: Oxford University Press.