Multiplatform Journalism

Defining Multiplatform Journalism

The term multiplatform serves as a response to economic, legal, and technological changes within the news industry since the early 1980s. The rise of cable television, for instance, brought about 24-hour news stations such as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, which have created a continuous news-cycle and adversely impacted the ratings of local and network television news. The repeal in 1987 of the Fairness Doctrine, a law mandating a reasonable effort to provide both sides of a political debate, generated a spike in nationally syndicated opinionated talk-radio formats, while the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed for the growth of media conglomerates to own more radio stations nationwide. The creation and adoption of the public Internet in the 1990s gave rise to new news formats and eventually included blogs, webzines, and podcasts. The Internet has also affected the financial model of the newspaper and magazine industries, who can no longer rely on consistent advertising and subscriber revenue streams and find their consumers gravitating to web-based news sources, which are often free. Many newspapers themselves have been purchased by chains or conglomerates that, unlike private ownership in the past, demand high financial returns that dictate relying on syndicated copy from wire services, reducing staff writers, and moving away from serious investigative journalism. The continual growth of social media and the pervasiveness of mobile communications technology in the 2000s, meanwhile, has created a more fluid and interactive audience for news.

[Page 1038]These developments have challenged the traditional role of the news media, who in the past have acted as gatekeepers that control the flow of information. Citizens can now cultivate their own information networks through websites that aggregate content on the web. Whereas households may have once subscribed to a local newspaper and watched one of the four network television channels to consume news, news audiences can now select from a diffuse set of media outlets and technological devices, many of which have particular biases that comport with their own. In fact, one’s consumption of news can even rely on either aggregator sites that compile news from around the web or social media feeds by following recommended links provided by others on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. And while the platforms of journalism have increased, so, too, has the spectrum of what is considered newsworthy: the contemporary news media devote a great deal of copy and air-time to soft news, which consists of lifestyle and celebrity infotainment, as well as political commentary. These journalistic phenomena are more inexpensive to produce, print, and broadcast than traditional news-gathering practices, which require a patient and substantial allocation of resources. As such, the era of multiplatform journalism privileges efficiency and speed to deliver content to consumers, and trafficking in celebrity gossip and political opinions reflect those priorities. It is left to researchers, then, to gauge what, if any, effects this has had on both the journalism industry and society at large.

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