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10.11

Computer-Driven Publishing

By Donald Christiansen

The editor of traditional print media, like newspapers and magazines, for example, has clearly defined responsibilities. An important one is to recognize or even help establish the publication’s intended audience. Then he or she has to embrace (or create) a system for acquiring worthy material to publish while, not incidentally, meeting strict deadlines. The editor and his/her staff of researchers, reporters, and writers are arbiters and gatekeepers, charged with finding and vetting sources, screening non-staff contributions, and encouraging discussion of issues while at the same time fact-checking and identifying biases. Then, too, there are concerns with establishing a unique identity (branding) — involving the publication’s logo, typefaces and layout, writing style, use of illustrations, and the like. And finally there is the task of measuring reader satisfaction and monitoring changing reader demographics.

But the traditional methods of the editor in meeting these responsibilities are under stress, and are changing due largely to computer automation.

Enter the Internet

With the advent of the Internet there are few limitations on who can publish, write, edit, or report, and on what topic. A term that has come into wide usage among online journalists and in journalism schools is aggregation. Its generally accepted definition is the identification of previously published material on a particular topic, or in a particular time-frame, etc. There are many computer apps that purport to aggregate the “best” sources for a particular news organization to “surface content” for a story it may be working on. Old-timers might refer to this as editorial research. Former Los Angeles Times journalist Robert Niles agrees that aggregation is nothing new. Newspapers have always relied on reports from wire services, feature syndicates, freelancing, and letters and op-ed pieces from readers. Even reporters’ interviews of sources are part of the aggregation process, he notes.

But some veteran journalists are concerned that online aggregation may too often be simply an unedited compilation of previously published material, without any new research or reporting. Nevertheless, Niles points out that automated aggregation yields pertinent information far less expensively than can be done with the traditional print newsroom model for reporting, editing, and page design, and he encourages traditional print publishers to exploit available online technology.

Curation

Curation is the popular new term for editing. Not all journalists agree on exactly what it covers. Its intent is to shape acquired material to the readers’ interests and expectations. For online media, curation can represent the step following aggregation, or it might be done concurrently with aggregation if an aggregation app includes pertinent screening criteria.

The adoption of the term curation by modern journalists is no doubt drawn from its traditional use by museum curators. The museum curator is one who has an intimate knowledge of artists and their works, or of historical artifacts and their significance, and so can select appropriate items for an exhibition or for permanent display. In recent years the verb curate has also been applied to high-end shops as a way to describe how they select their merchandise, and to nightclubs as a way to indicate how they select their performers. As Alex Williams, writing in The New York Times, described it, “But now, among designers, disc jockeys, club promoters, bloggers, and thrift-store owners, curate is code for ‘I have a discerning eye and great taste.’”

The disagreement among journalists in defining curation reflects the uncertainty in how the computer and the Internet can be brought to bear, not only in e-publishing, but in transforming traditional print media without diminishing the quality and value of the resulting “new journalism” to the reader.

Looking at the plight of modern journalists from his position as an executive at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, N.C., Troy Livingston compared traditional journalism with bloggers, independent websites, reader contributions to professional media, and Twitter. He concluded that “the main difference in the two types is the editor or lack thereof.” Among the bloggers who are latching on to the curator title, at least one said that since there is “virtually no [new] editorial content” attached to the articles she promotes, curating information need not be held to the same standards as reporting. Former magazine journalist Paul Carr says “curation without expertise is just scrapbooking.”

The Bright Side?

There seems little doubt that the editorial profession will have to become more proficient in understanding and utilizing the technical tools that are becoming increasingly available. Among the computer-driven techniques that compete with and in some cases complement traditional journalism are collaborative journalism, community journalism, link seeding, and user (reader) voting, topics that I may elaborate upon in a future column.

Meanwhile, fear has arisen among some journalists that the traditional human editor’s role is being seriously diminished. Others, only half-jokingly, call the conglomeration of computer apps and editing programs a robot editor or “editbot,” which could displace the traditional editor.

I think not. Someone will have to keep an eye on the editbot, reconstituting and reprogramming it as necessary to take advantage of evolving technology and keeping it in top form. And without a human editor-in-chief in overall charge, who will fire it if and when it cannot continue to deliver the goods to its readers?

Resources

On aggregation

• The latest in aggregation apps: News360 comes to Playbook, http://emediavitals.com/print/9062

• News personalization/Newsvine, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/061129junnarkar/

• Creation or aggregation, http://www.ojr.org/ojr/people/robert/201103/1827/

• Meece, M., "All the News You Want, When You Want It" (with apps, create a custom newsmagazine and leave out what you don't want to read), The New York Times, 22 September 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/technology/personaltech/with-apps-create-a-custom-newsmagazine.html

On curation

• Sterberg, J., Why Curation is Important to the Future of Journalism, http://mashable.com/2011/03/10/curation-journalism/

• Behling, E., Turning Editors into Technologists, http://emediavitals.com/content/turning-editors-technologists

• Behling, E., LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter offer new tools for journalists, http://emediavitals.com/content/linkedin-facebook-and-twitter

• Schlatter, N.E., A New Spin, http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/newspin.cfm

• Williams, A., “On the Tip of Creative Tongues,” The New York Times, October 2009.

• Rosenbaum, S., Curation Nation, McGraw-Hill, 2011.

Donald Christiansen is the former editor and publisher of IEEE Spectrum and an independent publishing consultant. He is a Fellow of the IEEE. He may be reached at donchristiansen@ieee.org.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.