The Application of in situ Digital Networks to News Reporting and Delivery Author Cokley, John D Published 2005 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Arts, Media and Culture DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/2229 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365482 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au 1 The application of in situ digital networks to news reporting and delivery Keywords: information theory; participatory communication; community capacity building; diffusion of innovations; media dependency; hegemony. Thesis submitted to complete the degree Doctor of Philosophy at Griffith University, Nathan, Australia Volume 1: Introductions, text and references Volume 2: Appendices By John Cokley, B. Business (Communication) GUID: 1629909 School of Arts, Media and Culture Faculty of Arts Griffith University Brisbane 12 December 2004 Supervisor: Associate Professor Michael Meadows, PhD Co-supervisors: Dr Steve Drew; Professor Paul Turnbull, PhD 2 3 Declaration I, John Damien Cokley (the undersigned candidate), declare that this work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma at any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. I also confirm that ethical issues have been considered and that I have been advised there has been no requirement to seek approval from the university’s ethics committee. Signed John D. Cokley 12 December 2004 4 5 Acknowledgements This work, like so much of journalism and research, has been an effort that – while focussed by one person, the author – has drawn on the personal efforts of many others. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of my supervisors, Associate Professor Michael Meadows, PhD, of Griffith University’s School of Arts, Media and Cultural Studies in Brisbane, Dr Steve Drew, senior lecturer at that university’s School of Computing and Information Technology in Logan City, and Professor Paul Turnbull, PhD, head of history at James Cook University, Townsville. Their interest and advice have encouraged me to pursue this research and its many parts. Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd studies I acknowledge the time spent by Mr Paul Darby, Mr Alan Calder, Mr Bob Howarth and Mr John Taylor, during interviews and conversations about aspects of technology at Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd; Mr Chris Mitchell for his permission to conduct my survey using company resources; and the journalists and other staff at Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd for their participation. Blackall Newspaper Project Members of the Association for Blackall Community Development (ABCD) played an obviously crucial part in this project, and they and others followed up with assistance in preparing this article. Kirstie Davison, Sally Cripps and Max Seymour all played pivotal roles, as did Mrs Chris Capel and Dr Gerry Roberts of the Queensland Department 6 of Primary Industries and Fisheries. Businesses around Blackall which agreed to sell copies of The Barcoo Independent did so for the 2003 pilot edition without receiving any commission from the 80¢ cover price, and deserve thanks for this community-minded decision. Sally Cripps and Raylee Coleman deserve thanks and credit for having agreed to work pro bono for the pilot and some subsequent issues of The Barcoo Independent to encourage its viability. Some of the “cheat-sheet” software tips for editing using Adobe InDesign (in Appendix 7) have been adapted from teaching notes I used at Griffith University in 2002, which had been created earlier by Dr Susan Ford. James Cook University students Reecy Pontiff and Patricia Coats assisted as “guinea pigs” during the testing and revision of the software tips, as did Kirstie Davison during implementation. Griffith University Distributed Newsroom project The GUDNewsroom project would have been impossible at the time without the active and helpful involvement of the following: Sally Eeles, my principal collaborator; Associate Professor Meadows, then head of the School of Film Media and Cultural Studies; Dr Cathy Jenkins, head of the journalism discipline, whose planning and foresight made possible the physical computer network which became home to the GUDNewsroom; Camilla Havmöller; Gilbert Sauvage and Stephen Boyd and their various staff (especially Philip Glazebrook on support) in the Office of Technical Services at the university. I also consulted Ms Margaret Buckridge, then a researcher in the Griffith University Centre for Learning Research, regarding assessment procedures and gratefully 7 acknowledge her valuable assistance. Ms Buckridge also assisted in my understanding of Biggs & Collis’ SOLO Taxonomy and Biggs’ description of the “kinds of knowledge”. The Antarctic Bases study I received valuable help and advice from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD), its telecommunications manager Peter Yates, and the staff who participated in my survey. Other help received Some of the online newsroom content was developed earlier in collaboration with Dr Lee Duffield, journalism lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology, and later using notes developed at Griffith University by Associate Professor Meadows, Dr Jenkins and Dr Susan Forde. My students over the years since 1990 – at the University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Griffith University and James Cook University – have also helped me focus on what is important in our business. Associate Professor Kerry Green, PhD, now of the University of Canberra, helped start me on this journey and I’m grateful for his encouragement and advice. Finally, I particularly want to express my huge debt of thanks to my family and close relatives for their faithful support and constructive suggestions along the way. All opinions and any errors remain my own, of course. 8 9 Dedication To my parents, Grace and the late Keith Cokley PhD (1921-2003), for showing me with their lives that with perseverance and love, anything is possible. And to my partner Phillipa Hanrick, and our children Liam Cokley and Erin Cokley, for their own tenacious perseverance and love in difficult, as well as fun, times. 10 11 Abstract The development of digital networks has allowed the largest news media organisations to consolidate and centralise their publishing businesses in flourishing capital-city markets. This has resulted in a withdrawal from other less-viable markets, especially those which are geographically remote, and the subsequent emergence of the “digital divide” with its attendant negative effects. This thesis proposes that the combination of technologies, theories and processes which has brought about the “digital divide” can now be realigned to reverse those negative effects, and to enhance the possibility of focussed participatory communication taking place within and between those previously less- viable markets. This enhanced participatory communication – which I have named “integrated journalism” – brings with it measurable and positive effects, generally known as community capacity building effects, which lead to better outcomes for the members of enhanced communities, a more innovative and flourishing approach to life and business, and a more innovative and forward-looking atmosphere within enhanced communities. Two new models are devised and presented: the first allows members of audience communities to learn and implement the process of publishing a community newspaper under the tuition of an experienced journalist; the second enables both journalists and audience members to measure and direct the effects of news publication within communities. 12 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS Title Vol 1: 1 Declaration 3 Acknowledgements 5 Dedication 9 Abstract 11 Contents 13 List of Tables and Figures 333 References 335 Appendices Vol 2: 379 13 CONTENTS IN DETAIL Part 1 Chapter 1. Introduction ……..………Vol 1: 15 Chapter 2. Methodology …………………...…33 Chapter 3. Review of existing literature …………………...…41 Part 2 Chapter 4. Journalism and digital networks in the community of 2004 …………………….103 Chapter 5. The Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd (QNPL) studies …………………….161 Chapter 6. The Antarctic bases study …………………….221 Chapter 7. Training implications. …………………….231 7.1. Queensland Newspapers Pty Ltd 7.2. The East Timor Press project 7.3. The Griffith University Distributed Newsroom Chapter 8. The Blackall Newspaper Project …………………….261 Part 3 Chapter 9. Discussion and limitations of these studies …………………….281 Chapter 10. Conclusions and implications …………………….311 List of Tables and Figures ……………Vol 1: 333 References ……………Vol 1: 335 Appendices ………….. Vol 2: 379 14 15 Part 1 Chapter 1 – Introduction 1.1 Rationale and the research problem Data presented in this thesis are based on an extensive series of contiguous grounded and action journalism research projects which commenced in 2000 and concluded in 2004. Those projects (outlined later in this chapter) dealt largely with the journalistic use of in situ digital technologies, where in situ describes items discovered by individuals in any particular environment (Allen 1990:613) rather than those placed there by those individuals for a specific purpose. Examples of in situ digital technologies include appliances which Forman and others (2003:113) describe as “general-purpose” technologies, such as mobile telephones, fax machines, and personal digital assistants (PDAs). Appendix