CONVERGENCE IN THE TRENCHES
A
new study finds that almost 70 percent of reporters and producers at
small and medium-market TV stations are personally involved in producing
content for another medium. The convergence workload is rising across
the board, the study says, but most of the work still involves "repurposing"
content from Web sites instead of truly reporting across media, according
to study authors Andrea Tanner and Laura Smith.
The
researchers surveyed producers and reporters at stations in markets
51-210. Almost all of the respondents indicated that their station practiced
some form of convergence. The most common convergence partner is not
a surprise: the TV station's own Web site was cited by 61% of respondents
as the focus of their convergent duties. But about one-fifth of respondents
said they're responsible for providing content to another TV station
or to a radio station. Less than 10% said they also write for a newspaper
outlet.
The
survey found that most of what these reporters and producers post online
requires little or no new information or reporting. "Very few provide
still pictures, add additional facts to a story, or help design the
site," the authors write. "No news workers were tasked with creating
Internet-only stories. Fewer than 20% report providing unaired video
or sound bites to the Web site, even though such material is readily
available."
Reporters
and producers were equally likely to produce content for different news
media outlets, according to the study, but their tasks were substantially
different. Producers were significantly more likely than reporters to
work with the station's Web site, deciding what information should be
posted, to actually do the posting and to write story summaries for
the Web. Reporters, on the other hand, were more likely to provide content
to a radio station, or conduct online Q&A sessions with viewers.
Most
respondents (70%) said they had the skills they needed to do what's
expected of them, but almost half said additional training would improve
the quality of the work they produce. A quarter of respondents said
they felt the quality of their own work was suffering as a result of
increasing convergence duties.
While
almost three-quarters of respondents said convergence has increased
their workload, more than half said they spend less than 30 minutes
a day on convergence tasks. And a majority described their experience
with convergence as positive or very positive.
By
Andrea Tanne www.newslab.org
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