The Chriso's News Blog

Online news is an important part of the internet that has shifted from traditional broadcast media to asynchronous media. The traditional media have battled for many years to find success on the internet in the form of a viable business model. It is a battle of how things were done in the past and how internet users consume news today.

“The advertising market in Australia is worth about $13.5 billion. Yes, internet advertising is growing more rapidly than any sector. It grew by more than 25 per cent in the past year to $1.7 billion.”(Hull, 2009)

There still seems like traditional media companies prefer to be broadcasters rather than trying to shift to a collaborative media where contributions from readers are valued to enhance the site.

News.com.au owned by Rupert Murdoch is a commercial site where abc.net.au is the taxpayer funded site. The both sites operate completely different in terms of commercialism. Murdoch has started a debate about his future model for online news(Clark, 2009) however ABC Mark Scott has made a statement “The great days are gone and Murdoch doesn’t realise his empire is in decline” (The University of Melbourne, 2009) makes an ideal subject for critique of their sites.

The ABC has made a big commitment in web publishing and has made great efforts to get users involved in the site with several media choices available for stories. The site tries to cater for all people through usability standards and collaborative tools. The content of the ABC web site offers an array of choice from Podcast, video and forums. The site graphics and layout is one that is typical of a news site with revolving images of the latest news stories that creates interest in the content. By clicking a story you’re able to get related video and audio material of the topic.

News.com site is very similar in a lot of respects to the ABC site only that it does not encourage participation from the reader. The site has lots of content and the common “Share Button” with a very calculated set of site that they allow you to share the story with. Given the noise of Rupert Murdoch I am surprised they allow you to share with Facebook.

The content continues to insure it has a sex related story that seems to run in the vein UK newspaper page 3 story. Today‘s story Obese underwear model sheds layers however when you visit the story the headline is “Paul James almost back to his original weight”.(News.com, 2009) These types of tactics to lure readers defy the rules of good internet publishing.

Both news.com.au and ABC News are very good news sites. The main concern is news.com.au idea that in the future we will pay to use the site is not very compelling. Mark Scott told Jonathan Homes on ABC Media watch

“it’s certainly not that. But it’s an attempt to state, I suppose, the reality of the circumstance that we all find ourselves in as media organisations: the audience has the power now.”(Puccini, 2009)

A good understanding of that principle is where I believe news.com.au or more correctly News Ltd needs to grasp.

Image Source:

Top: Screen captured from ABC.net.au & News.com.au web sites

Middle:Free Williamsburg : www.freewilliamsburg.com/…/myspace_bought.html

Bottom:ABC News www.abc.net.au/news/photos/2007/06/06/1944219.htm

References

Clark, A. (2009). Rupert Murdoch plans charge for all news websites by next summer.   Retrieved 24th December 2009, from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/rupert-murdoch-website-charges

Hull, C. (2009). Logic of newspapers’ survival. Retrieved 23rd August 2009, from http://www.crispinhull.com.au/2009/07/04/logic-of-newspapers-survival/

News.com. (2009). Obese underwear model sheds layers. Retrieved 19th December 2009, from http://www.news.com.au/national/paul-james-almost-back-to-his-original-weight/story-e6frfkvr-1225811164362

Puccini, J. (Writer) (2009). Episode 37:End Of The Free Ride, Media Watch. Australia: ABC 1.

The University of Melbourne. (2009). AN Smith Lecture in Journalism: The University of Melbourne.

Tags: Assignment 1