Search Engine Optimisation in UK news production

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Journalism Practice, 5(4), 462 - 477, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/17512786.2010.551020.This paper represents an exploratory study into an emerging culture in UK online newsrooms—the practice of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), which assesses its impact on news production. Comprising a short-term participant observational case study at a national online news publisher, and a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with SEO professionals at three further UK media organisations, the author sets out to establish how SEO is operationalised in the newsroom, and what consequences these practices have for online news production. SEO practice is found to be varied and application is not universal. Not all UK news organisations are making the most of SEO even though some publishers take a highly sophisticated approach. Efforts are constrained by time, resources and management support, as well as off-page technical issues. SEO policy is found, in some cases, to inform editorial policy, but there is resistance to the principal of SEO driving decision-making. Several themes are established which call for further research

Making the News: Digital Creativity Support for Journalists

This paper reports the design and first evaluations of new digital support for journalists to discover and examine creative angles on news stories under development. The support integrated creative news search algorithms, interactive creative sparks and reusable concept cards into one daily work tool of journalists. The first evaluations of INJECT by journalists in their places of work to write published news stories revealed that the journalists generated new angles on existing stories rather than new stories, changed their writing behaviour, and reported evidence that INJECT use had the potential to increase the objectivity and the boldness of journalism methods used

Community Service: Editor pride and user preference on local newspaper websites

Armed with readily accessible online traffic logs that provide detailed information about the items users are selecting to view, editors are voicing concern about the potential effect on their own content decisions. Through a survey of local British newspaper editors, this article examines the overlap between user preferences, as suggested by assessments of website traffic, and content that editors identify as their best. Results are considered in the context of two related subsets of agenda-setting theory, as well as the sociological process of “making news.” The study finds overlap between broad categories of stories preferred by editors and users, but a considerable disconnect over the nature of the items within those categories

The internet gift economy : a study of socio-technological change in the US film industry

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Hollywood versus the Internet: the media and entertainment industries in a digital and networked economy

The behaviour of oligopolistic firms is a source of considerable debate and concern, given their market power and ability to shape the development of new markets. A key area of debate concerns the scope for strategic adaptation in oligopolies; and in particular, the extent to which such large and otherwise successful firms ignore or marginalize important shifts in the marketplace. In this article, I critically evaluate these general theoretical issues through the lens of a specific, geographically bounded case study: the collision between Hollywood, a mature oligopoly comprising six studios, and the Internet, a decentralized architecture that has made possible peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing between networked computers. I argue that in a secure form (enforced by 'digital rights management' software), file sharing has considerable promise for all copyright owners, including the studios. I examine the oligopolistic behaviour of the studios in response to the Internet, and in particular, their response to an alternative mode of peer-based film distribution, oriented around legal, paid-for file sharing. I argue that the studios are trying to preserve the oligopolistic structure of the industry in a digital age by promoting an inefficient and restrictive 'design' for Internet distribution, oriented around centralized server-client architectures, which provides tight control over digital commodities and minimizes the disruptive impact of the Internet. This behaviour must be understood in light of the social and economic incentives that influence executives, as well as the context in which decision-making takes place. Nonetheless, their response also raises some worrying questions about the future shape of creativity, distribution and consumption in the film industry (and in the broader realm of media and entertainment) in a digital and networked economy. The article is based on over 150 interviews with elites in the studios and other related firms in the Los Angeles region. Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.

Navigating the crisis in local and regional news

This report evaluates the likely impact of the serious funding crisis in local and regional news on the quality of journalism and on the potential for the emergence of a 'news gap' in the UK. A range of options for sustaining local and regional journalism are then examined in turn and possible ways of moving through the crisis are proposed

Navigating the crisis in local and regional news: a critical review of solutions

This report evaluates the likely impact of the serious funding crisis in local and regional news on the quality of journalism and on the potential for the emergence of a 'news gap' in the UK. A range of options for sustaining local and regional journalism are then examined in turn and possible ways of moving through the crisis are proposed

What's happening to our news

This book looks at how the quality and commercial viability of British journalism are under critical threat from the digital revolution. Advertisers are deserting newspapers and television news programmes for the web, draining resources away from newsgathering. Threatening to ‘hollow out’ the craft of journalism, this process has potentially serious civic consequences. News companies have turned to the internet to expand their reach and profit from digital advertising. Many are developing a strong multimedia presence and providing information in web-friendly bite-size chunks, but advertisers increasingly favour search engines over standalone news sites. The outlook is made worse by the current recession, which is accelerating the migration of advertising from traditional media to the web

Hollywood, the Internet and the World: A Geography of Disruptive Innovation

During the past decade, the Hollywood studios have broadly sought to subdue, rather than explore, the technological possibilities of the Internet. Specifically, the studios have used their ownership of creative works to control the speed and direction of innovation in an emerging digitally networked social and economic environment, which is built upon the Internet and an ecology of hardware and software technologies. In this paper, I use a relational perspective to examine two critical aspects of this case study. The first concerns the cognitive and discursive dimensions of firm strategy. The second concerns the formation and enactment of firm strategy within networks of social relations. The argument is therefore twofold. On the one hand, I argue that the Hollywood studios are seeking to create a “closed” sphere of innovation on a global scale, which enables the absolute defence of property rights. However, this has alienated a broad spectrum of new creative freedoms, causing a “bifurcation” of the networked environment. On the other hand, I argue that this strategic response must be understood in relational terms. The closed sphere has been legitimated, enacted and performed within relational networks at a regional scale in Los Angeles. The paper is based on unprecedented access to the Hollywood studios, combined with interviews across the media, entertainment and technology industries. The overall goal of the paper is to construct an “economic geography” of disruptive innovation under conditions of oligopoly.Hollywood, motion pictures, Internet, disruptive innovation, creativity,