Today’s journalist thrives in a multiplatform world. Each platform offers a unique way to tell stories, and our audience’s expectations vary accordingly.
In a modern media house, the daily information symphony is played through a media quartet: mobile phone, online, print and tablet. These four platforms present information differently, and journalists must take advantage of what the individual platforms can do best.
The 24-hour cycle of news for the modern information consumer is packed with possibilities, and that consumer wants to take advantage of as many of these as possible. It is up to those in charge of dispensing the information to know what the user expects from each medium. During the course of a day, we may travel through all four of the platforms, but we know when to reach for each and how each might satisfy our current information needs. We as designers and editors must explore and exploit the power of each in the way we present content.
The “lean forward” platforms are the mobile telephone and the online editions, which we turn to often during the course of our day. We know that our mobile telephones are good at both spatial (physical) and temporal (time-based) relationships. The fact that our mobile phones can pinpoint where we are and offer us information in real time is what makes them special. According to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism,
[w]hat [users] seek out most on mobile platforms is information that is practical and in real time: 42 percent of mobile device owners report getting weather updates on their phones or tablets; 37 percent say they get material about restaurants or other local businesses.”
The “lean back” platforms are print and tablet, which are more suitable for when we take off our shoes, lie on the couch or in bed and relax.
We switch frequently between platforms. There is the possibility that we may start reading a story in one platform, only to finish it on another, depending on the time of day and our mood. This is what makes storytelling today both fascinating and challenging for those of us in charge of telling and presenting those stories. It is also the reason that we should not categorize ourselves as print or digital journalists. Instead, we are all storytellers.
It is because of this that we are likely to see four platforms existing in perfect harmony for most publications around the globe.
This is the megaphone, so to speak—the town crier who announces what happens the moment it happens. It is the mobile telephone that editors use to post an “alert” for breaking news: The stock market reaches its highest peak, someone scores a goal, a jetliner falls from the sky. The mobile telephone answers to the users’ demand for “tell me what happened.”
Ten minutes after the “alert” comes the report. Now we know a little bit more about the story, so the story is twenty lines, not just five. It is available online, so we can return to look for updates. The online edition satisfies the users’ demand for “tell me more.”
One day later, the newspaper must have the “second-day headline.” Readers already know what happened. They now demand to know why it happened and how it is likely to affect them. This is the crucial analysis that only experienced journalists can provide.
If I am relaxing in the evening with my tablet resting on my chest, I want to see the photo gallery and video of the event, then read a column or personal account of what occurred.
Four platforms. Four specific roles in the storytelling process, each adding a layer to the information process.
The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has an extensive report on The State of the News Media. The full 2012 report, which includes chapters on newspapers, mobile devices and news consumption and digital platforms, is available here.
The authors note in the overview that “rather than replacing media consumption on digital devices, people who go mobile are getting news on all their devices. They also appear to be getting it more often, and reading for longer periods of time. For example, about a third, 34 percent, of desktop/laptop news consumers now also get news on a smartphone. About a quarter, 27 percent, of smartphone news consumers also get news on a tablet. These digital news omnivores are also a large percentage of the smartphone/tablet population. And most of those individuals (78 percent) still get news on the desktop or laptop as well.”
Local stories have benefited greatly from the preferences of mobile phone users. The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism found that “[n]early half of all American adults (47 percent) report that they get at least some local news and information on their cellphone or tablet computer.” As a result, smart publishers are rediscovering the importance of local news to the future of their organizations and are focusing new energy and resources on local reporting. In some instances, they have reoriented staff away from national and international issues to expand operations in their own communities.
It is the belief of many publishers with whom I work that national and international news is available everywhere, so publications should focus on their unique niche, whatever it is: perhaps sports, entertainment or community involvement. This coverage must be enhanced and adapted to take advantage of the startling potential of mobile platforms.
We have discussed the power of each screen and our lean-forward and lean-back modes of consuming information. But does the size of the screen matter? It does, according to a report by NPD In-Stat on “smart mobile devices,” which tells us that “larger screen devices seem to fulfill productive needs while smaller screen devices tend to satisfy communication or entertainment needs.” As I see it, we lean forward to small screens, lean back for larger ones. The larger screen supports more heavy text consumption, video playback and greater user interaction. The smaller ones serve us immediate, real-time information that may affect our decision whether to carry an umbrella on our walk to the office or select a restaurant three blocks away from the movie we are seeing.
The journalism we practice today and will practice in the future has changed. Today’s readers have a dynamic relationship with the news—helping to report it, sharing it and discussing it through Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. This creates a news ecosystem in which journalists and readers are true partners.
We meet readers in what I call the central square, which may be Twitter or Facebook, the place where our existing and prospective readers congregate in large numbers to share their own stories, aspirations and daily occurrences. What happens in that central square is of utmost importance to all storytellers. It is in the central square that many trends develop.
The new definition of news, in my view, has everything to do with the discussions that take place in that central square. It is common knowledge in most contemporary newsrooms that news breaks on Twitter, often in a 140-character summary reported by a citizen observing an event, and not by a mainstream journalist. Recent events—such as the landing of a plane in the Hudson River, the deaths of entertainers Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston, and the attack on the Bin Laden compound—have first been reported by people who, armed with a mobile telephone, had the necessary reporting tools to become journalist, photographer and/or videographer. The role of the professional journalist, then, is to reaffirm what people already know and, more importantly, to expand on the story, offering as many discovery elements as possible. In a sense, the journalist of today tells the reader: I know that you know, but here is more information that you should know.
For storytellers, this is a challenge regardless of platform. It is much easier to produce “reaffirmation” stories than to create new and surprising elements. The tablet, as a lean-back platform, offers us tremendous opportunities to expand on a story, to give it longer legs, to present it from a different angle, with multisensory treatments and surprises.
It is because of the requirement to surprise that I insist storytellers working on the tablet need to be the most creative, the ones who best understand the psychology of today’s media consumers. Today’s storyteller must be an expert on the lifestyle choices that these consumers make, from which platform they prefer for a particular type of information to what time of the day they will likely favor each platform.