A new type of media professional, with entrepreneurial skills, has emerged in the contemporary media environment in Australia – a professional that is informing the public and disseminating news and information but stretching the boundaries of journalism. These media professionals are engaged in, as Margaret Simons says, “the dissemination of news and views about our world” (2013, p. 13), but they are engaging with newer forms of media to provide these news and views. Flew calls these new forms “information media” (2014, p. 107). This presentation is reporting on a research project that aims to conduct an investigation into these new media professionals.

1. Dr Janet Fulton
PhD (Media and Communication) (UoN)
Lecturer in Communication
Faculty of Science and IT
School of Design, Communication and IT
July 9, 2014
MEDIA
ENTREPRENEURSHIP:
alternative paths for
media producers

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INTRODUCTION
• New type of media professional
– Informing the public
– Disseminating news and information
– Engaged in “the dissemination of news and views about our world”
(Simons, 2013, p. 13).
• Changes in the way content is produced and consumed with
– Changes in technology
– Digitisation of content
– Convergence
• Who are these producers and how do they work and survive in the
digital media landscape?

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INTRODUCTION
Research questions
• RQ1: How have these new media professionals adapted their skills
in production environments?
• RQ2: What technologies and software, including SEOs and social
media analytics, are deployed by these new media professionals?
• RQ3: What are the evolving business models they are using?
• RQ4: What are the degrees of success of these new media
professionals according to different locations in the media scape?

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INTRODUCTION
About the project
• Interviewing media producers who are disseminating information by
alternative means (not necessarily journalists)
• Researching “new media entrepreneurs” (Simons, 2013, p. 9)
– Bloggers (including lifestyle and news blogs)
– Online magazine producers
– Web publishers
– Broadcasters
• Content analysis of websites

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WHY IS THIS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
• Decline in employment in traditional media forms
• Decline in traditional media business models
• Increase in employment in areas such as online magazines and websites
(Jackson, 2013)
• The Web 2.0 environment, which is characterised by such features as
interactivity, participation and collaboration, has allowed people outside
the mainstream media to engage with an audience, and provide media,
via platforms such as blogs (for example, Wordpress), microblogs
(Twitter), social networking sites (Facebook) and websites.

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WHY IS THIS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
Skills
• How have they adapted their skills?
• How have they developed their skills?
• How have they learnt the skills?
Benefit:
Answers to these questions could lead to greater success for new players.

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WHY IS THIS RESEARCH IMPORTANT?
Monetising their work
• Are the workers “piecing together disparate lumps of work and income” (Ross, 2013,
p. 30)?
• Are they using subscription, single copy sales, advertising, sponsorship, donations,
non-profit funding, free content (Bakker, 2012)?
• Internet feature: “[i]nformation is for sharing not for selling. Knowledge is a gift not a
commodity” (Barbrook, 2003, p. 91).
• This feature describes the conundrum faced by new media professionals.
Benefit:
Provide valuable insight for startups
Provide information for educators to use

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DEFINITIONS
Are new media producers journalists?
What is a journalist?
Zelizer: One who practices the actions of news work (2004, p. 13)
ABS: “JOURNALISTS AND RELATED PROFESSIONALS write and edit
news reports, commentaries and feature stories for presentation by print or
electronic media” (2014, n.p.)
Sheridan Burns: “the result of the systematic consideration of information
with regard to broad news values refined by the context in which it is
collected and disseminated” (2013, p. 33)
Knight: “Anyone applying professional practices within recognised codes of
ethics will be differentiated from most bloggers” (2008, p. 123)

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DEFINITIONS
Citizen journalists? Amateur media? User-created content?
Citizen journalism: “is a form of journalism where citizens themselves, rather than (or at
the very least in addition to) paid journalists claiming to represent the public interest, are
directly engaged in covering, debating, and deliberating on the news” (Bruns, 2008, p.
174)
– Could include bloggers, tweeters, photographers, etc. who publish themselves
but other definitions (e.g. Outing, 2005) don’t quite fit the parameters of this
research
Amateur media: “[a]mateurs are usually understood to be uninterested in the business
aspect of their activity … amateurs take on the task in their spare time, content to
accept no financial reward” (Hamilton, 2013, pp. 178-179)
– While there may be some who do it for no or little financial reward, the research
participants are expected to do the activity seriously

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DEFINITIONS
Citizen journalists? Amateur media? User created content?
User-created content (or user-generated content): “defined as: i) content made publicly
available over the Internet, ii) which reflects a certain amount of creative effort., and iii)
which is created outside of professional routines and practices” (OECD, 2007, p. 4)
– Could include bloggers, tweeters, photographers, etc. who publish themselves
BUT
– “Most user-created content activity is undertaken without the expectation of
remuneration or profit” (ibid.)
Participants for this research are questioned about the economic viability of their
production. There are also different varieties of UCC including working with
professionals (e.g. BBC)

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DEFINITIONS
Entrepreneurial journalism
Entrepreneurial journalism is the latest buzzword in an industry that is facing
major challenges
– Universities are running courses
– Books and other literature are providing information on how to be an
entrepreneurial journalist
“…combines the skills traditionally associated with freelance journalism with
business skills associated with an MBA program, and a preparedness to start
one’s own online publishing venture if need be” (Flew, 2014, p. 116)
“They are all operating in a space that either is, or strongly overlaps with, what we
have traditionally thought of as being the business of journalism - the
dissemination of news and views about our world” (Simons, 2013, p. 9)

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CONCLUSION
Preliminary stages of research at the moment
– Still doing a literature review
– Interviewed eight producers so far
Value of the project
– Useful to media producers starting up their own business
– Useful within Communication programs to inform students on how
to monetise their work

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Bakker, P. 2012, 'Aggregation, content farms and Huffinization: the rise of low-pay and no-pay journalism', Journalism
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Outing, S. 2005, 'The 11 layers of citizen journalism', Poynter Online, pp. 1-13. http://cdn.agilitycms.com/wacc-
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Ross, A. 2013, 'In search of the lost paycheck', in Digital labor: the Internet as playground and factory, (Ed) T. Scholz,
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Wunsch-Vincent, S. & Vickery, G., 2007, Participative Web: user-created content,
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