ISOJ 2011

1. annenberg.usc.edu
Between Creativity and Routine:
Newsmaking in Online
Journalism
By Nikki Usher
For International Symposium on
Online Journalism

2. annenberg.usc.edu
Are all news stories the same?
IAEA worried about radiation in Japan village
(AFP) – 3 hours ago
VIENNA — Radiation levels recorded at a village
outside the evacuation zone around the
quake-striken Fukushima nuclear plant are
above safe levels, the UN atomic watchdog
said Wednesday.

3. annenberg.usc.edu
UN: High radiation outside Japan's exclusion
zone
(AP) – 4 hours ago
VIENNA (AP) — Recent radiation readings
outside the exclusion zone around Japan's
nuclear disaster show radiation substantially
higher than levels at which the U.N. nuclear
agency would recommend evacuations,
agency officials said Wednesday.

4. annenberg.usc.edu
There’s a great divide between journalists and
academics:
Creative process ---- or just following a routine?

5. annenberg.usc.edu
Does it get even worse online
• Starkman’s Hamster Wheel
• The Whirr of Traffic
• More, now, competition…
• I say, NO

6. annenberg.usc.edu
Let’s get rid of old ideas of
creativity
• So Coleridge says it best when we think about
traditional ideas of creativity:
“the creative force of eternal reason”
It’s about imagination, right?

7. annenberg.usc.edu
Not so, really
Even Twyla Tharp thinks creativity is enabled by
routines, but more specifically, let’s rethink
creativity
“Creativity can be found just about anywhere
that people do, make or think things.
Everyone is creative…” but, “only some
function socially to create economic or
cultural value” – John Hartley

8. annenberg.usc.edu
What does this mean for online
newsrooms
• Certainly, there’s a scale for creativity, right?
• Scoops seem ephemeral
• The day’s stories that are “good” get cycled
out off the Web in favor of breaking news – in
some places this matches competitors
• Is this even worse in a world of audience
metrics

9. annenberg.usc.edu
Where can we see evidence of
creativity?
• Well, all the time, but let’s talk about scale
• Storytelling: as a narrative art (some better
than others)
– Storytelling as an agential process to make
decisions about how to shape, direct and make
choices about the news
– Doesn’t mean journalists work without creative
thought
(Cottle, Fisher)

10. annenberg.usc.edu
Gate-opening/Gatekeeping in
Online Journliasm
• The home page coordinator as the great gate-
opener (deciding what goes out to the public
from already chosen material)
• Creative process, no routine for decisions, as
I’ve witnessed
• Too much speed for regulated decision-
making, even in traffic-heavy newsrooms,
spontaneous
• Requires the flexibility of journalists

11. annenberg.usc.edu
Content differentiation for survival
• Creativity comes later in the news cycle
• To survive, a news outlet has to do something
different to retain its value
• The “take” is what may do it
– This may lead to alternative forms of journalism
(non-objective journalism, Q-heads, etc.)

12. annenberg.usc.edu
Storytelling Outside of Text
• The Myriad world of Multimedia

13. annenberg.usc.edu
Social Media as Creative
Experience
brianstelter Excellent Paul Farhi column in
WaPost http://wapo.st/fcJ1QMnotes that
NBC, partly owned by GE, ignored NYT's big
story about GE's taxes
@NYCcyn haha, I must admit, I was surprised by
how much twitter love the "mad men" story
received.