Inspector gadget in the newsroom: MMJ week 2

Convergence in the newsroom

For journalist this may be heaven and hell, adding additional work to the already stressful, time limited, deadline base job.

In the past, newsroom was filled with typewriter, it was replaced by PC’s and now Editors and reporters are stepping out of the news room and going mobile.

A perfect example is me, my newsroom is where I am, I maybe in a hotel room, a resto, in a fishing village, on a mountain, you name it, if I’m there that will be my newsroom. With a laptop, a camera and an internet dongle I’m all good to go but now it has been easier with the choice of smartphones that can virtually do everything is a small package. Think of the smartphone as a laptop, camera/video and internet provider all in one, but it has its own limitation.

Convergence in news organization

Most, if not all news organization today has adopted convergence hence the creation of their respective websites.

The day of the ‘print base only’ newspaper company is gone. In the Philippines even community paper has its own web version. And yes this is convergence. News company and news rooms have also joined the ‘social hub’ bandwagon to further enhance reach the new audience

Now they are entering the tablet and mobile news service.

Convergence for reporters

Today’s journalist/reporter is versatile, in TV, radio, web, print and production. When I say production this mean producing his own video, text, audio, photo and packaging it into a single report that can be sent to multiple platforms for the news organization, and yes it’s done by a single reporter. Did I mention DJ Clark? Google him and you’ll be amazed by his work. Are we becoming the true ‘inspector gadgets?’

Convergence for the readers/advertisers

Convergence affects everybody, the readers however are the driving force behind this, and readers are now dumping the print in exchange of the web. A proof here is the declining number of print circulation across the globe but off course it depends on the country and where the readers go the advertisers go too.

I just have a question though, when will convergence end?