Hyperlocal Journalism is the Opposite of Global Journalism

The hyperlocal model, now that it has actually been tested in the market,
has not had the success its pioneers had originally hoped for.

See ‘Newspaper suicide watch: the folly of “local-local”’:
http://roguecolumnist.typepad.com/rogue_columnist/2008/06/newspaper-suici.html

Global journalism, however, has the theoretical potential to appeal
to a larger audience than hyperlocal journalism can,
and thus has the potential to generate more revenue.

Hyperlocal journalism is certainly relevant and does have it’s place in the market,
but a hyperlocal audience might only comprise 100,000 news consumers in many major cities,
whereas a global audience might provide an ever-growing community of a billion or more news consumers on the web.

The minuscule pay-per-click or CPM ad revenue that can be made from online media
can only amount to anything if the content receives an obscene amount of hits,
hits that can be tapped in more abundance from an ever-growing global audience
rather than that of a hyperlocal one.

Here is an old paper I wrote for my Journalism Ethics class at WKU in May 2007
outlining some basic principles that may or may not
ultimately relate to global multimedia journalism:
http://gonzopj.blogspot.com/2007/06/personal-code-of-ethics.html

Here is an excerpt, please keep in mind that it is now very dated:

“Compounding the ethical issues facing multimedia journalists in America is the newfound importance of creating work that holds up to global international scrutiny rather than just traditional regional American scrutiny. Moreover, multimedia news pieces are capable of being permanently archived online as well as viewable on-demand in perpetuity throughout the future. Most traditional news stories are produced in mediocrity for daily consumption and are often written shortsightedly for the here-and-now. While most revenue is traditionally made from ‘news’ (notable and current changes in society), just as much if not more revenue can be made in ‘documentary’ work online by producing stories that are less time or place specific and have more long-term educational or analytical value. Think of it this way, you can produce a story to be published exclusively in your community for just tomorrow or you can produce the same story to be published internationally that maintains its relevance and ability to generate ad revenue forever. The question then becomes how do you produce a multimedia news package that knows no time or place? Not by doing it the traditional way, that’s for sure. It also means pursuing higher production value through longer deadlines because poorly and quickly produced stories will prove less successful online, whereas exceptionally produced videos can sale themselves with little or no push-marketing.”

Global journalism will ultimately require a completely different philosophy
from that of the traditional journalism model to succeed.

It will require more of a global perspective as well as a more sophisticated delivery method
that is better capable of transcending both linguistic and cultural barriers.

There’s an old saying in science, “Act locally, think globally.”

by Patrick Yen at Sat Jun 28 21:20:59 UTC 2008 Louisville, KY, United States | Bookmark this | Digg this |