Since the digital revolution initially began its disintegrating descent upon the newspaper industry over a decade ago, the New York Times, like other traditional publications, endured the severe hardships of revenue and circulation losses. The audience the Times had grown from the ground up for over a century was swept away by the allure of the Internet, causing a devastating blow to what was widely considered the flagship of newspapers. However, by implementing fresh, alternative strategies to evolve with the sweeping changes precipitated by the palpable, dramatic and historic shift from print to digital news-gathering, production and consumption, the audience the Times originally lost in print was regained, and has grown vastly in the online realm. This has been a gradual process defined by the Times’ resilience and tireless commitment to not simply surviving the transitional, digital moment, but defining it. In 2011, the Times remains the international gold standard for news, providing its award-winning content around the clock, across the globe and on a variety of platforms. This microcosmic case of the New York Times’ digital evolution presents a variety of striking implications about American culture and how it communicates.
The way the modern, online environment emphasizes news infused with multimedia and interactive components reveals the increasing sway of visual culture in American society. Visual culture – art, advertising, architecture, cinema, television, cartography, video, and images of science – is embedded in the fabric of American history and continues to shape American national identity through the ubiquitous presence of the Internet. Whether viewed through mobile phone, tablet, lap-top or desktop, the Internet is much more of a visual form of communication rather than a text, or tangible media platform. News publications like the Times illuminate the significant, perceptible impact of news that utilizes audio slide shows, photos, special reports and featured video segments that range across the spectrum of topics from travel, politics and autos to movies and fashion. The sensory stimulation of news that can be watched and listened to, in addition to being read, is completely native to the Web. These capabilities generate an unprecedented level of engagement between the reader and the news, while exposing the predictability and limited capacity of print.
The tangible level of engagement inherent to the Web unveils another potent symptom of modern society. Whereas traditional publications were the paradigm for mass media – the respected, trusted authority of newspaper editors disseminated news to widespread audiences – the online environment hones in on the latent power of the individual user. Focusing on the language specifically, people on the Internet are considered “users,” which implies a level of participation. However, print publications exclusively produce for “readers,” which connotes a more docile nature. This distinction accounts for why Mike Laurie at the online news source Mashable.com argues that,
“We’re no longer lazy consumers of passive messages. Instead we’re active participants. We now get news through the network we’ve created, and the news we pass to one another say something about us. It tells others what we’re interested in and what’s important to us.”[i]
Instead of submissive observers subject to the authority of print news, readers online are transformed into users with limitless capacity to explore an infinite array of information and sources. In addition, these individual users are empowered to choose, as well as produce, the who, what, where, when and why of their news, representing an astonishing level of personalization embedded in the contemporary media milieu.
Although technological advancements have facilitated once unthinkable levels of connectivity, it has also spawned a cultural obsession with being perpetually “plugged-in” that has potentially debilitating consequences. In 2010, the Windows and AT&T tech-giants teamed up to create a television commercial to advertise their new product, a smart-phone called the Windows Phone 7. The commercial, however, is a staggering social commentary on Americans’ addiction to their phones. The commercial, aptly titled “Really,” shows people mesmerized by their phones, eyes locked in on their mobile devices as if caught in some kind of trance. For one minute, “Really” displays everyday people in an array of sardonic scenarios; one man appears so transfixed with his phone that he doesn’t realize he’s spilling the coffee in his other hand all over himself. In another clip, a man is so hypnotized by his phone that he doesn’t even realize the woman standing a foot away from him provocatively posing in sexy lingerie. The commercial goes on to show more people absorbed by their phones, from a surgeon texting in oblivion in the operating room to a scene underwater in which a shark swims up prepared to pounce on two innocent, dangling legs of a man above water utterly captivated, and completely unaware. The end of the commercial delivers the message, “It’s time for a phone to save us from our phones. The Windows Phone is designed to get you in, and out, and back to life.”[ii]
“Really” reveals how technology is becoming an alien, and alienating, force. The tagline alone insists that mobile phones have caused Americans to become consumed by such oblivion that they need something to literally bring them “back to life.” After posing this threat, it is incredibly ironic and telling that the solution is ultimately another phone to save us from our phones. As Alex Williams wrote in a recent Times article about America’s tech obsession, instead of digital products creating “an oasis of shared activity” it has engendered “an entangled intersection of data traffic – everyone huddled in a cyber-cocoon.” [iii] Never has there been so much to consume, on so many devices. In what is undeniably the most connected period of any other time in history, it is a staggering sign that the same platforms that cultivate such remarkable connectivity can also be the catalysts for marginalization. More than anything this is a reminder that today’s “plugged-in” generation absorbed by their digital gadgets needs to be cognizant of the benefits of unplugging, disconnecting and participating in life without a screen.
Finally, the democratization of media, primarily through social networks, is paramount to the future of journalism, and ultimately an informed, engaged citizenry. A.J. Liebling’s sardonic quip that, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one” has been turned on its head as anyone with an Internet connection can publish to the world.[iv] With the emergence of the Internet, the barriers to entry for public journalism were almost completely lifted, most evident through the proliferation of weblogs, or blogs, in the early 2000’s. The citizen-engaged press utilized the boundless realm of the Web as an open forum for communication. Over time, as citizens have produced their own news, it has led to an improved citizen involvement with issues of public concern because the Internet environment empowers individuals to unlock the power of their social network.
Consider the case of a non-profit organization called Global Voices that is currently initiating groundbreaking change through modern journalism techniques that fuse citizen bloggers with the influence social networks. In first months of 2011, as protests and civic unrest spread rapidly throughout North Africa and the Middle East, international news organizations scrambled to cover the turmoil, specifically in Tunisia where President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled on Jan. 14, ending 23 years of authoritarian rule.[v] A handful of bloggers from Global Voices were on hand as well, contributing current, crucial news reports based on their observations in the midst of the political strife. This is the exact mission of Global Voices; a volunteer-driven organization and platform that works with bloggers all over the world to translate, aggregate and link to online content.[vi] As a part of its reporting, Global Voices turned to Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, where other bloggers and hundreds of ordinary people stepped into the role of citizen journalists and shared their experiences, cellphone photos and videos online.[vii] On an international scale, and with an emphasis on the context of contemporary American society, social networks bring democracy to a whole new level because literally everyone has the capacity to contribute their voice to the conversation.
Similarly, soon after the earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on March 11, 2011, the volunteer bloggers for Global Voices in East Asia put together special coverage of the devastation. Between sharing citizen videos and translating posts on Twitter, which dramatically included calls for help from people stranded on the upper floors of buildings, this organization employed the convenience and accessibility of the Web to spark the untapped power of individuals. “Our job is to curate the conversation that is happening all over the Internet with people who really understand what is going on,” said Rebecca MacKinnon, a former Tokyo bureau chief for CNN who founded Global Voices with Ethan Zuckerman, a technologist and Africa expert.[viii] By amplifying, contextualizing and translating these conversations Global Voices is revealing their relevance in a world inundated by information, as well as revealing the potency of citizen journalism.
From a holistic perspective, such a network enhances transparency, enriches communication techniques, and ultimately uses the Internet to inform audiences that, as the Global Voice website tagline reads, “The world is talking. Are you listening?”[ix] This is a form of journalism foreign to the tradition, and yet still imbued with the same intention. Though the reporters may not be professionally trained or have their content meticulously edited, the journalistic element of creating content that is accurate, informs readers and resonates with them to the point prompting action remains unchanged. This is no ordinary moment. It is one that continues to evolve and shape a never-before seen global network.
The New York Times continues to ingrain its mark on the world at large via its Internet presence. Ironically, what was a challenge for the New York Times, and almost put them out of business, actually enhanced their brand and allowed to reach a greater number of people worldwide. The newspaper’s relentless efforts to evolve with digital revolution have propelled it to the forefront of what the future of journalism holds, implies, looks like, and promises. While news print may be a thing of the past, the Times has proved that the newspaper is still a viable format for delivering information.
[i] Mike Laurie, “How Social Media Has Changed Us,” Mashable.com, September 7, 2010.
[ii]http://www.youtube.com/user/windowsphone?v=f1sN2Q6ded8&feature=pyv&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=Search&cmpid=BDB590E6-C119-4739-8EAA-A6347F92EEF3
[iii] Alex Williams, “Quality Time Redefined,” New York Times, April 25, 2011. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/fashion/01FAMILY.html?_r=1&ref=fashion
[iv] Jack Rosenberry and Burton St. John III “Public Journalism 2.0: the Promise and Reality of a Citizen Engaged Press” (New York: Routlege 2010) p. 1
[v] Jennifer Preston, “When Unrest Stirs, Bloggers Are Already in Place.” March 13, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/14/business/media/14voices.html?scp=6&sq=social%20media%20middle%20east&st=cse
[vi] ibid
[vii] ibid
[viii] ibid
