With every type of journalistic organization veering towards the digital age, the outcome is decidedly a synergy of several multimedia aspects.
The process has been slow for print publications such as The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times – and a lot more difficult than the process to adapt to online media is for broadcast news- but at least a process, or change, is taking place.
Similar to what Brian Buchwald of NBC believes, both news stations and papers must do more than merely regurgitate the newscast or copy online.
Print has transitioned from a tangible piece of paper to an online news source and from there, it has also transitioned from being just a text-only publication online to incorporating video, photos and various interactive media.
Viewing a news site these days translates to a multi-sensual experience involving sight AND sound, which are effective elements that will draw readers’ attention and make sure they keep coming back. Stories are more memorable; viewers are left with several impressions of a story.
However, in lieu of the idea of an all-encompassing online news site, news aggregation is only a piece of the puzzle to winning back readers for newspapers. “Link journalism” is another puzzle piece.
What is “link journalism?”
“Link journalism” is essentially the “link-age” to sites of other publications or related articles written by others, even if that means directing one of its loyal readers to a competitor’s site (see The Drudge Report image above).
According to several of the articles (and coincidentally, the links to other sites the articles provided), linking to other reporting or sources adds to the credibility of the original.
Despite it taking potential advertising revenue away, studies have shown that readers who are given additional links still remain loyal to the original site.
In the case of Google, a world-wide leading search engine, Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 says, “It’s all about sending people away, and it does such a good job of it that people keep coming back for more.”
Furthermore, with the advent of blogging, which is not seen as very formal or highly-trustworthy reporting, linking assists and improves credibility to the blog.
A blogger would write his/her thoughts, but through links to legitimate publications and articles to supplement them, readers can understand that the blogging is not unfounded.
If seen from a psychological standpoint, it is similar to sportsmanship (a stretch, yes…).
Providing links to competitors’ websites translates to confidence, which suggests, “despite viewing other sites, the reader will think the original is still the best.”
That is to say, only allowing readers to stay within the site emanates fear that maybe readers won’t come back if exposed to other sites.
Why is linking so important?
- All news is easily accessible and free on the internet now. Readers are going to get the news some place or another anyway, so why not aid the process? (They will like you more!)
- Monopolies of particular news organizations do not exist anymore
- Easy search & ability to filter news through “Ctrl + F” button or search engines (see Yahoo!News image above)
- Web is all about connections – links to more matter on the subject, background information, or definitions are important.
What Cynthia thinks:
I see this process as counter-intuitive, but in the end very effective and necessary.
The only concern I have is that this “indirect team work” will result in identical websites. For example, if there are only five online sites in the world, and each of those five links to the other four, what will make a reader choose Site #1, and not #2, #3, #4, or #5, since, essentially, the reader will be getting the same information one way or another?
Perhaps emphasis will be placed on the original reporting to win readers, or number of links or formatting of links... Who knows, we’ll just have to wait and see.
Mainstream News Outlets Start Linking to Other Sites
How Newspapers Abdicated the Front Page’s Influence and How They Can Get it Back By Linking
Mainstream News Organizations Entering the Web’s Link Economy Will Shift the Balance of Power and Wealth
Will Algorithms Make Human Editors Obsolete? Not If Journalists Collaborate
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