when bird meets blog: 3a

Joining Forces (text post)

By now, I have hopefully established the fact that print media has something distinct to offer the media landscape.  Print media produces a certain level of legitimacy and tangible community, in a manner that the internet simply can not.  We can, therefore, conclude that, while citizen journalism and student media are based upon the same underlying tenants, the former does not threaten the existence or power of the latter.

It is undeniable, though, that the internet can play a powerful role in complimenting its print counterpart.  In my last video blog, Pelican reader Thomas Reynolds asserted, “I think there’s definitely value in Pelican having online accessibility, even though its true form is the printed.”

Certainly, from an organisational perspective, the internet has a lot to offer.  The globalising force of the internet provides increased communication across state borders.  A Facebook group set up to connect “student media hacks” from around Australia provides a forum for the discussion of various editorial issues. For an editor isolated in Western Australia, this increased connectivity serves as an invaluable resource.  Personally, I have used it to learn more about recruitment strategies, to discuss more sensitive issues concerning the representation of diversity and to research for this very blog, by gauging about various perspectives on student media.

Obviously, the internet is also a great way to communicate with your readership. Pelican, Farrago, Rabelais, Opus and Vertigo all have official MySpace pages, which are utilised especially for the purpose of promotion and recruitment (while simultaneously enhancing connectivity, in the same manner as Facebook). The Pelican MySpace page now has 250 friends, and has inspired over 100 comments.  Some of these offer constructive criticism related to the paper, while others are enquiries from enthusiastic students wanting to get involved.

Most importantly, however, the expectations of readers (i.e.: consumers) have changed dramatically over this past decade. At the 2007 NEWS (National Editors’ Workshop and Skillshare), which I personally attended in January of this year, journalist Lefa Singleton spoke about the need for new independent or student papers to be “innovative, unique and inspiring.”  She suggested that the internet has broadened our conceptions and expectations, and that readers now expected innovation from non-news-oriented press (including student media).

The trend towards original form can be viewed all around Australia.  Sydney's Is Not Magazine is published as a broadsheet, which is plastered around cultural "hotspots" on a weekly basis (pictured above left). Dumbo Feather takes the form of a novel rather than a magazine, with a flat spine and quality paper that connotes value and permanence. Perth’s Cut and Paste takes the form of an interactive DVD, offering links onto websites, as well as audio samples and short video clips to be flicked through at the consumer’s leisure.

Theorist James Glen Stovall echoes this sentiment, and relates it specifically to the rise of the internet, when he writes about how consumers have become “increasingly demanding” as they grow more and more used to the versatility of the world wide web (2004, p. 4). He lists capacity, flexibility, immediacy and permanency as the distinguishing features of internet journalism, and suggests that readers have come to expect these from all forms of publication (pp. 6-11). For this reason, a smart student paper will combine its print component with extra online features.

In 2007, Pelican has only just begun to explore these options. We have stretched our content’s capacity and flexibility through MySpace, which students have utilised to post videos or photos to accompany their published articles or to engage in interactive discussion regarding more controversial articles or letters to the editor.  We have increased flexibility by providing various online activities, including Pelican’s official WikiNovel (the mixed results of which were published in Pelican Edition Three). We have increased immediacy through Facebook, by providing students with regular updates on the paper’s process, while also pasting “sneak peak” articles online.  We have also embraced the internet’s capacity to offer a sense of permanence, by commencing the process of uploading PDF files onto our official website, which Stovall would argue is “able to exist far beyond any tangible medium we now have” (p. 9).

It seems, therefore, that print and internet need not existed in a facile opposing dichotomy; but rather thrive in a relationship of harmonious symbiosis. The internet may never be able to fully replace the benefits offered by print media, but it may help in enriching, expanding and empowering the published word.  As street press racks grow increasingly cluttered, only a fool would ignore the rich potential offered by the online world.

 
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REFERENCES
 
Cut and Paste, July 2007, 1.

 Is Not Art Magazine, October 2007, 10.