Peter’s MJ page

 In the class and the reading for week 2 we learned about RSS/Newsfeeds and the amazing technology behind the world wide web, that allowed all these innovations to take place and transform our lives . RSS is commonly believed to stand for either “Rich Site Summary” or “Really Simple Syndication”.  Essentially this is a system by which we can get information sent to a personalized website called a reader. By opening our reader and clicking on a little orange square shaped symbol or the word newsfeed, xml etc. on a webpage (or by copying the address of certain webpages and adding them to our reader) we can get information from this source (usually on the same subject or category) sent to our reader (or aggregator as it is sometimes known). The information is usually sent in the form of a headline, without graphics which we can read easily, and then if we decide it is interesting we can open the link and access the rest of the article. We can send feeds from as many different sites that offer the service to our reader as we choose, meaning we are able to determine what type of news and information we will be exposed to. This system also enables us to access an enormous amount of information all on one webpage. RSS has been available since the late 1990’s but it is only just beginning to penetrate the mainstream consciousness of web users. Acording to Janice’s blog, a recent survey found that only 11 per cent of blog readers used RSS and 66 per cent of people do not even know what they are.

There are numerous advantages in setting up and using RSS/ Newsfeed reader. Out of all the blogs that were written by the MJ students on this subject, nearly all mentioned the ‘convenience’ of the system. The consensus appears to be that it takes a long time to browse all your favourite sites to get to the information you want read. In order to gather this information you also have to navigate numerous websites and avoid many annoying (and increasingly it seems ‘flashing’ or ‘talking’) advertisments. An RSS reader allows you to read all you favourite news and blogs, listen to your favourite podcasts or watch video clips with ease. To set up a reader is not particularly difficult and it certainly does not require a high level of technical ability, as most of us found out in class. Indeed after about thirty minutes even the most technophobic amongst us were able to set up very comprehensive readers, with newsfeeds being delivered from a variety of disparate sites.

The development of your reader is then a very organic process, you can just keep adding or taking away sites from your reader at your leisure that suit your interests at any particular time. The problem of having ten or more windows open simultaneously on your computer as you catch up on your favourite news sites can be consigned to history. There is also no longer any necessity to remember addresses of your favourite websites (and the passwords!) when you are trying to access them from somebody else’s computer. You can access your reader from anywhere (unless of course access is restricted in your country or the country you are visiting) and feeds from all your favourite sites are waiting for you. Even those amongst us who confess to a love of print and the feel of a newspaper between the fingers, can see the advantages of using reader. KumarPalekar compares news readers to a map ‘assembling aligning and indexing the sea of content that one chooses into easy surfable blocks’.

Another common theme mentioned in the class blogs inextricably linked to convenience is “time saving”. According to  Mona  using a reader is an effective way to manage limited time. For Jonathan, a self confessed news junkie, the advantage of a reader is clear, essentially you can read more in less time. In an environment when people are working longer hours and there are more demands made on them at work, it may be impossible to spend several hours a day catching up on the news and all your interests. A reader enables you to do this. According to Helen the clear advantage of a reader is that the news comes to you rather than visa-versa. For a journalist it is essential to keep abreast of the news and of your particular ’beat’, a reader is an effective time saving device that allows you to do this. Also mentioned in the class blogs was how RSS could help journalists research an issue by having feeds on the subject matter sent to your reader from various websites, allowing you to sift through a lot of information very quickly and concentrate on processing information rather than spending inordinate amounts of time looking for it. 

A third rich vien of common thought on newsfeeds/RSS/readers which permeated the class blogs was a sense of empowerment over the control of content on the reader. Joyce sums it up when she said it makes reading the news a more individual pursuit. Cui puts it another way when she says the feed can only bring the news you have chosen to you, and Ken  puts it very succinctly when he says you can use your reader to get specific news content delivered. There seems to be a feeling of cutting out the middleman. You can get what information you want without having to be subjected to all the other paraphernalia that surrounds it.

Again this idea of control of content is closely linked to convenience and time saving, as you do not have to continue to navigate sites, log on, remember passwords etc. to get to access the information you want. This theme of empowerment was extended with the idea in several blogs; that the reader made news reading a more egalitarian pursuit. You can attatch equal importance to many different sources and types of news and information. For example, a blog that you like can have equal status on the reader to a headline from the New York Times. Similarly, you can attach the same importance to different mediums of delivering news: on major media organisations websites, blogs and podcasts are often given less prominence than traditional written articles and this need no longer be the case.

As well as the many advantages offered by RSS, many of our classmates expressed concern in their blogs over limitations and the disadvantages attached to the new technology. The primary concern seemed to relate to the overwhelming  nature of RSS. By subscribing to lots of feeds we will be exposed to vast amounts of information, probably too much to keep up with. However, as journalists we will be under some pressure to keep up with current events and will be expected to be informed in a wide range of subjects. However, as people begin to decide for themselves what is and is not newsworthy it will become harder for journalists to keep up, this is simply because the range of events covered will broaden. This problem will affect us both in keeping up to date with the news and also with reporting news. It will also almost inevitably lead to increased pressure to publish as breaking news will become an even greater factor in attracting audiences.

Another concern expressed in the class blogs was the sentiment that, to an extent, using RSS is passive (for example, see Janice). This is not strictly true as you have input in selecting the materials sent to your reader; however over-reliance on your reader could encourage you to become lazy. Instead of being active and seeking out news and different sources of information on a subject, you just wait for it to come to you. To be good journalists we need to be continually exposed to a wide range of sources and information. Therefore unless our reader is used and managed properly, RSS could in fact be detrimental to good journalism.

Other concerns raised in the class blogs over using RSS is that it becomes more difficult to judge the importance of news. As journalists it is important to be able to ascribe weight to a news story, i.e. to determine its importance and relevance to the public. When we read traditional media organisations’ websites we are, to an extent, told what is important by the place in which it is situated on the website, the number of pictures attached, the size of the article etc. The reliance on headlines when using a reader to draw the audience into a story may actually further the trend towards news and entertainmnet merging, as in their current format readers make all the news and information sent to them look equal. 

It is ironic that for a tech-savvy generation a recurring theme for the blog posts is that there is still a preference for actual news websites, as Eileen points out. This goes to show that the RSS technology has a long way to go. 

But inevitably the technology, even though still in its youth, already has had an impact on the future of journalists. As Cui points out, news organizations now have to care about who actually reads their material rather than how many. They need to focus more on producing quality content to be able to hook their audience whereas through readers they might be afforded no more than a glance. 

This brings us to the next point, the rising importance of headlines and summaries, as Christina points out in her blog. Because of the current structure of readers, titles and summaries need to be more cohesive to be able to warrant net-surfers spending precious moments of their time reviewing them. 

Another key issue affecting news organizations is that of advertisements. As Eileen mentions, it cannot bode well for an ad-driven organization to have RSS readers that are, in effect, commercial free. But be assured the technology people are already well aware of this fact: in this article by EWeek magazine, companies are now exploring RSS feeds for their company marketing tools in lieu of spamming or sending marketing content through emails.  

For journalists, RSS might mean longer working hours to keep on top of the news and more pressure and competition from other sources. As Helen  and Ken both point out, there is increasingly more and more demand on journalists (to both read and publish more!)—are we up to it?  

This also brings up the battle between bloggers and news organizations. As Christina points out using a quote by Dave Winer, effectively he says RSS readers put bloggers and new organizations on the same sphere, where every headline carries the same weight. Again, is this a problem or a challenge? We’ll have to see. 

Given all these issues, it is going to be interesting to watch the changing relationship dynamics between news organizations, bloggers, advertisers and the news consumer with the continued development of RSS feeds. 

Of course, a keen eye is already focussed on the technological developments that RSS readers might undergo. Observations made by our classmates such as Anne and Nick  on the boring user interfaces, or a need for more graphics and multimedia elements (see Ken and Adrian) show that there’s quite a bit to be done before RSS feeds are maximized. In an article about an RSS demo show, innovations such as NewsDash which will allow people to create feeds for their chosen sites or Feedster LLC, a reader within a reader program to help organize feed content, are all in the making.  

For now RSS readers are useful but not yet essential tools for people. But then again that’s probably what people said about the World Wide Web when it began too.