Newsmagazines Commentary

Helge: I look at this from a corporate communication standpoint. What is the value of interaction for a company, sales organization or corporation blogging?

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: There is a relatively new phenomenon of big online newspapers providing a commentary function underneath their articles to give the audience the possibility to publish their opinions (cf. www.hs.fi, www.usatoday.com , www.sueddeutsche.de).

Helge: The media landscape is changing. We move towards a truly interactive society. Open, Interactive, Creatvie, Innovative are key words. The old way of “selling ideas or ads” is dead as CRM model (old school customer relationship management with the company in the driving seat is over). We’ve to engage people in a dialog. Added value comes through interactivity and “the wisdom of the crowd”.

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: This is a global phenomenon, and the frequency of daily published comments seems to prove that the readers appreciate this new possibility of being interactive. The phenomenon has so far received only little attention of researchers, although it raises questions like: Why do the publishers allow their readers to comment news coverage?

Helge: Why do they allow? Any media is measured by its ability attract readers, viewers and how much time they [readers] spend with the media. Feedback indicates that the content is valued by the readers. It’s still a minority that is writing commentary. This small F-B stream is also online market research at the same time.

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: Why do the readers want to do that, and, in which way and to what extend do these posts influence what journalists think and write? Will we have to revise the traditional theoretical models of mass communication in future in order to recognise a stronger role of feedback?

Helge: I think so…

Suviko wrote on Jaiku: In this workshop, we will learn the basic principles of the interview as a method of qualitative research and apply it on the field explained above. As it is a relatively unknown area, qualitative interviewing will fit the purpose best. Further, the students are asked to conduct interviews as well as analyze and interpret them within a research report. The workshop will take place in March 2008 in Helsinki.

Helge: Interview as a method…I did look at this from a corporate communication standpoint.