WEB
JOURNALISM
Dr Tilak
OPEN ELECTIVE I – JUL-DEC 2019 SEMESTER
SYLLABI: COURSE CODE: CBJE180L
• Objectives: CREDITS: 03
• Apprise the students about the Indian digital market
• Teach them how to write content for websites
• Teach them how to write headlines for websites
• Give students an understanding of search engine optimization
• Give them an understanding of web design, web analytics and content
management system
LEARNING OUTCOMES
• On completion of the course, students will be able to:
• Describe the size of the Indian digital market and how it is evolving
• Write news reports for the web
• Write headlines for the web
• Explain the working of search engines
• Write search engine optimized reports
• Describe the principles of web design
• Explain content management system and web analytics
MODULES
• I: Overview
Evolution and size of Indian digital market
Understanding various digital platforms: website, mobile, apps
II: Web Writing
Characteristics of an Internet report
Readable Writing
Searchable writing
Formatting a web report
Assignments: Writing web optimized reports
MODULES
III: Web Headlines
Characteristics of Web Headlines
Clickbait Headlines
Headline writing tools
Assignments: Write news headlines for web; Write clickbait headlines
IV: Website design
Objectives of Web Design
User Experience: Site Performance, Speed, Importance of First Screen
Assignment: Analyse news website
MODULES
V: Web Technology
Content Management System
Search Engine Optimisation
Role of Keywords
Google analytics: Understanding reports, Monitoring traffic sources,
tracking campaigns
Assignment: Write search engine optimised report
ASSESSMENT
• 1. Mid-term exams: 15 marks
• 2. End-term exam: 35 marks
• 3. Teachers’ Assessment (several tests spread across the semester): 50
marks
WEB ‘JOURNALISM’
https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/01/2009-the-internet-is-killing-print-journalism-2019-the-internet-is-killing-
internet-journalism/
2009: The internet is killing (print)
journalism. 2019: The internet is killing
(internet) journalism.
BECOMING A JOURNALIST IS ‘EASY’
TODAY
• Google
• Call people
• No need to go to journalism school
• Just identify yourself as a journalist and start doing it.
• Call anyone. Read whatever. Go see something.
• Figure out what is going on. Explain what you learned.
• Publish it on the web.
• And you are a journalist.
• BUT, very difficult to make a living as a journalist.
INDIAN DIGITAL
MARKET
Dr Tilak
OPEN ELECTIVE I – JUL-DEC 2019 SEMESTER
INDIAN ONLINE MEDIA
• Quint, Scroll, the Wire
• New forms of content
• A mobile-first, social-first distribution strategy fit
• Built significant audiences very rapidly
• The Huffington Post: Launched in 2005; reported first profit in 2010.
• HuffPo bought by AOL in 2011; more investment; reported a profit again
in 2015.
• BuzzFeed, launched in 2006, reported first annual profit in 2013.
• Politico, launched in 2007, announced first profit in 2011.
• These sites pursued a path of ‘users first, profits later’. Requires
significant investment and patience on the part of their backers.
INDIAN ONLINE MEDIA: CHALLENGES
• Comparatively low average revenue per user in digital advertising in
India.
• Around 400 million people online in 2015 and estimated total digital
advertising revenues of $975m
• Total advertising revenues - $2.5 per internet user. China $5 per user.
Online advertising rates in India much lower.
• Legacy players and especially large technology firms capture the majority.
• Reference price for news and media content in India very low: Low cover
prices for print newspapers and cheap pay TV packages.
• India does not have much of a tradition of domestic philanthropic
support for news and media.
INDIAN ONLINE MEDIA: CHALLENGES
• The challenge is even more pronounced given the long payment cycle
and problem of unpaid dues in the Indian advertising industry.
• Need to develop sustainable business models.
• Combination of low ad rates, lack of willingness to pay for news, and the
dominance of large older media and even larger international players
INDIAN ONLINE MEDIA:
OPPORTUNITIES
• Rapid growth in the number of users and in overall advertising spend.
• Still unexplored market.
• Cultural and social opportunities.
• Niche market.
• Long-term potential.
SIX START-UPS:
• New editorial priorities
• Different content-based: the Quint, Scroll
• New distribution strategies
• Aggregation-based: InShorts, DailyHunt
• New funding models
• Non-profit: The Wire, Khabar Lahariya
• https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2017-
04/Digital%20Journalism%20Start-ups%20in%20India_0.pdf
SIX START-UPS:
• Currently primarily serving English speaking Indians
• Most moving into Hindi and local language content to reach a wider
audience.
• Not exempt from wider challenges of journalism in India
• Business pressures
• Weak professional ethics
• Outside pressures from politicians and others
• Issues around owners’ and funders’ potential conflicts of interest
GROWTH IN THE NUMBER OF
INTERNET USERS
DIGITAL CLASSIFIEDS MARKET
REVENUE
SO
• https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/death-digital-printing-
newspapers-information-new-york-times-a8769626.html
• If journalism is going to survive, readers will have to pay for it
• Three big earners for newspapers: job, house and car ads.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: A NEW
CHALLENGE TO ONLINE JOURNALISM
http://bwcio.businessworld.in/article/Artificial-Intelligence-A-new-challenge-
to-online-journalism/14-06-2019-171888/
Automatic Report routine
Fast Insights
Reducing barriers to entry
AI can eliminate the presence of human elements in the content creation
process; however, it also allows journalists to create videos from text and
pictures within a second.
“RADAR” (REPORTER AND DATA AND
ROBOTS)
• https://radarai.com/about-us/
• Creates automatic local reports with the help of databases from law
enforcement and governmental agencies.
• Radar is a news service that brings human reporters and technology
together to scale up news production.
DID A ROBOT WRITE THIS? HOW AI
IS IMPACTING JOURNALISM
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolemartin1/2019/02/08/did-a-robot-
write-this-how-ai-is-impacting-journalism/#72d580d67795
• Forbes also uses an AI took called Bertie to assist in providing reporters
with first drafts and templates for news stories.
• The Washington Post has a robot reporting program called Heliograf.
HOW TO COUNTER IT?
• Subscription (and donations)
• Focus on developing loyalty and retention: Pop-up newsletters
• Explainers and tools such as those aimed at educating younger voters
• Technology as an enabler for better journalism
•
HOW TO COUNTER IT? – STRONG
PRIVACY
• Laws (GDPR), data privacy, participation (interactive), right to forget
• General Data Protection Regulation - https://eugdpr.org/
• India: Personal Data Protection Bill
• Reading:
• Privacy law needs public debate: Data protection law must guard against internal
as well as foreign threats to citizen privacy
• https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/privacy-law-needs-public-
debate-data-protection-law-must-guard-against-internal-as-well-as-foreign-threats-
to-citizen-privacy/
• Govt to ping EU to align its data law with GDPR
• https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/govt-to-ping-eu-to-align-its-
data-law-with-gdpr/articleshow/70442538.cms
HOW TO COUNTER IT? – DATA
PRIVACY IN INDIA
• India Finally Has A Data Privacy Framework -- What Does It Mean For Its
Billion-Dollar Tech Industry?
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/sindhujabalaji/2018/08/03/india-finally-has-a-
data-privacy-framework-what-does-it-mean-for-its-billion-dollar-tech-
industry/#553b9f0270fe
• THE PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION BILL, 2018
• https://meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Personal_Data_Protection_Bill%2
C2018_0.pdf
HOW TO COUNTER IT?
THE CASE OF NYT: EVERY PIECE OF
CONTENT SHOULD BE WORTH PAYING
FOR
