Lesson Title: Knowledge Management in Digital Newsroom-corrected for rewrite

Objectives:
At the conclusion of this lesson, you will understand;
Managing knowledge in the newsroom
Changes in the digital newsroom
Tools for digital newsroom
Introduction
The more complex a society, the more it needs information and knowledge workers. New
journalist must realize that huge amounts of data of all sorts exist somewhere in the world in
digital form. Knowledge results from further refining of information and further placing in
context, into a form that readers and viewers and even more useful or that saves them time
and money. Knowledge is the ‘cumulative stock of information and skills derived from the
use of information. The value and meaning we ascribe to knowledge increases in relation to
the thinking and acting involved to create it and place it in context.
Knowledge management (KM) is important for media groups because they must become
information-based organizations to compete in the information age. Knowledge management
enhances journalists’ use of data and information, their raw material. KM is about improving
professional practice and helping journalists learn how to do better journalism. It involves
learning how to store, transfer and share information in a form that makes it useful both now
and in the future. It involves a new professional culture that fosters teamwork and
collaboration. And it involves learning how to manage information systematically, rather than
the chaotic approach that too many journalists have used in the past. Knowledge management
began primarily as a business tool, but it becoming a powerful ally of newsgathering, writing
and editing.
Media organizations are businesses and journalists could learn much from what business has
gained in terms of data management and the knowledge economy. Journalists need to learn
from the professional practices of many groups, among them information architects and
knowledge managers.Further, circulation in mature markets was declining and newspapers
were competing more and more for readers’ time. Healthy economies in some countries in the
last three years of the twentieth century balanced the falls in circulation. Whereas newspaper
circulations in many developing countries, especially India, is still on the rise, until disrupted
by the Coronavirus pandemic.
The new digital economy came about because its infrastructure, laws and government
encouraged the availability and free flow of information. Information increases with the
invention and introduction of new knowledge-handling technology. Groups of knowledge
workers arise, who increase the amount of information for that group, especially as their work
gets more complex. In the past, the telegraph forced journalists to boost their skills and
education levels radically in the middle of the nineteenth century, otherwise they could not
compete. Journalists needed to gain other talents such as learning Pitman shorthand and
typing to make themselves employable (Standage, 1998: 69–70). The same need for training
and learning arises in the information age.
The information age will require well-educated journalists and need organizations that invest
in their staff. News organizations will need both to evolve and survive. Knowledge
management concerns the organization of a company’s non-tangible assets. Given the
primacy of information and knowledge in the information age, editorial staff need to
understand and apply the principles of knowledge management to their job. The concept of
information and knowledge management can apply to journalism, in a changing profession
and a changing world.
Section 1: Changes in Newsroom
Several factors are driving change in the modern world of journalism. These drivers include
an oversupply of data, changing audience preferences,and major social and economic
disruptions. Rapid developments in technology are also producing major upheavals. These
mean major changes to how consumers want to receive their news. These drivers have
already changed, and will continue to transform, the journalism environment in coming years.
It’s useful to begin by discussing them.
Convergence journalism involves re-using editorial material so that one piece of content
appears in print, broadcast and online, and can also be made available for portable devices
such as mobile phones. Convergence journalism is attractive because it satisfies consumer
demands and lifestyles. It also protects an organization’s journalistic franchise in the sense
that the multiple news format allows wider coverage of an area and permits cross-marketing
of a single product. Digital journalism extends information management, in the sense that it
shows how journalists control and re-shape their essential raw material: information. The
availability of relatively cheap and widespread digital technology makes the changes possible
through the availability of an enhanced version of the ‘lingua franca’ of the Web, hypertext
mark-up language (HTML), known as extensible mark-up language (XML). With XML it is
possible to convert any form of data into a form suitable for new delivery mechanisms such
as wireless application protocol (WAP) via mobile phones, and delivery of data to other hand-
held devices. The news business has become ‘multi-channel’. Consumer demand for a variety
of news sources are a major driver of change.
 An increasing number of newspapers were pursuing multimedia-journalism strategies. The
publication’s content appeared not only on paper and Web sites but also on radio, digital
television and mobile devices. The catch phrase has become ‘everywhere, all the time. Many
mainstream news media are developing into multi-media platforms that would provide a
range of services and products to current and new customers. ‘Organization structure and
processes will change to make news media more responsive. Multi-media newsrooms had
moved beyond experiment to become existing models to be researched and pursued.
Opportunities the new value chains are opening up to legacy news media while not losing
quality content and purpose of journalism. It is imperative for editors to plan their strategies
in advance and to be aware of the customers’ needs in the digital society. Cross promotions
and alliances with other media strengthen the news industry and prove how online
interactivity can widely attract more readers and increase revenue. While the process sounds
simple, the report noted, the 24-hour news cycle and the need for immediacy ‘present a
challenge for traditional journalists, who are used to one daily deadline. It also offered job
enrichment for journalists. At the newsdesk at both papers, editors exchange ideas and assign
stories among the various forms of media. Journalists realize that convergence becomes more
ingrained in newsrooms,. With this, there is an increased expectation that everyone had to
take part.
Section 2: Changing Newsroom Mindsets
Three major changes need to happen in the newsroom for knowledge management to
develop. The most important concerns the journalistic mindset and how journalists perceive
their job. News is moving from being platform specific to a variety of forms because of
consumer demand and changing lifestyles. Journalists need to change the way they work, and
this initially requires a new way of looking at their role. The next change relates to the
physical structure of the newsroom. Geography directly enhances the flow of information and
knowledge-age newsrooms need to look and work differently to facilitate that flow. The third
change concerns the technology that journalists use and their attitude to it. Journalists need to
accept the benefits of technology. Editorial managers need to see that technology is merely a
tool for doing better journalism, and journalists need training to use these tools effectively.
Overall, change must come from the top. This requires committed leadership and editorial
managers willing to foster an environment that facilitates learning.
 An excess of supply over demand characterizes all modern information markets.
‘Information is becoming ever easier to produce, whereas human capacity to absorb
information is changing only slowly. It cannot enhance the capacity to any significant degree,
except by higher education. Many feel that society is drowning in information but still left
thirsty for knowledge. Journalists are more necessary than ever in the information glutted
world. Information overload is driving specialization at news organizations. Consumers were
demanding more relevance and advertisers were demanding better targeting. Communities of
interest were moving from a localized geographic base to a situation where people formed
groups based on interest, but the members are spread around the world.
The key driver for change is information overload. We refer it to in various other terms such
as data smog, information anxiety and data excess. Overwhelming amounts of data distort our
attempts to make valid decisions quickly. The challenge for media companies is to understand
this radical shift from information scarcity to surplus. This means a new role for journalists as
guide rather than gatekeeper and the need for new ways of running news businesses that will
support the journalist’s new role.
Section 3: Intranets in Newsroom
What are the benefits of Intranet in knowledge management? How to deal with potential
problems. Intranets boost the potential for collaboration. Once issues of mindset and the
physical arrangement of the newsroom have been dealt with, technology comes into its own.
One of the key ways to apply knowledge management is through teamwork and
collaboration–getting people to work together and share ideas. But the bigger an organization,
the less likely people can share ideas. Intranets are powerful tools for linking teams. Often,
these people work in different parts of the same building within a large organization.
Sometimes, they work in different parts of the world. Used properly and maintained
efficiently, intranets let members of a news organization do better research and ‘know what
they know’. The latter refers to a key concept of knowledge management that involves
getting access to the knowledge inside people’s heads.  
Intranets play a major role in knowledge management because they boost the potential for
collaboration among staff, including people in far-flung offices and bureaus. Knowledge
management nourishes in an environment in which we encourage journalists to share ideas
and information through a supportive workspace for collaboration. Intranets offer other
benefits: they are excellent tools for conducting research and they improve communication
and morale among staff. If kept up to date, they provide quick access to volatile data, and
they make technology easier for staff to use. These factors save time for busy journalists.
Along the way, intranets provide a return on investment through reducing costs and speeding
up people’s access to timely data. To reap the benefits of an intranet, news organizations need
to commit to maintaining their currency and preparing for potential problems.
One of the key beliefs of knowledge management is the notion that information becomes
more valuable when it is shared. The challenging part is organizing effective sharing. Too
many news organizations cannot see the resources available to them as their staff. They need
to change the culture to encourage collaboration. This could be a hard task because
journalism has traditionally been a profession that ignored collaboration. There’ was strong
institutional resistance to working together. Altering journalistic culture is a critical task in
transitioning into a digital newsroom. An ideal situation involves having all information
stored, accessible and shared, secure storage. Journalists who gathered huge amounts of data
immediately created several extra risks compared with their mainstream reporting colleagues.
Critical issues involve what kind of material reporters are using and overcome people’s
prejudices about recording sensitive information.Newsrooms are reluctant to change the way
they do things.
Large news organisations contain plenty of talented people with wide areas of expertise. But
the bigger the organization, or the wider its geographical spread, the less likely their expertise
can be shared at face-to-face meetings. This particularly applies when staff are in different
cities or time zones. But it could also relate to people in the same newsroom if there is no
culture of sharing. If the environment exists–that is, if managers generate it–intranets allow
people to share knowledge. And searchable databases connected via intranets.The intranet
facilitates collaboration. A single source of information Allied with the notion of
collaboration is the use of intranets for research and quick communication. Newsroom
intranet is the ‘single point of information for the company’.
Section 4: New Tools for Journalists 
What tools were available for journalists working in a multi-media and all-digital
environment? The journalist of the future will have many more tools for doing better
journalism. Apps serve a model for news organizations and news technology vendors
worldwide. to create a collaborative workspace. Mobile newsroom is now possible. With
reporting tools and multi-media newsgathering equipment. Major digital platforms
organizations are also designing tools for t journalist. Mobile journalist’s workstation.
Reporters can write with a stylus/pen on a tablet or a smartphone. Reporters can keep track of
their location via a global positioning system (GPS) linked to satellites. The GPS provides
accuracy up to a centimetre in open areas, though tracking deteriorates when the reporter
passes too close to tall buildings or beneath trees. One of the most important principles of
journalism is to locate a story in a physical space. We can accomplish this by situating the
news consumed literally at the story’s location. Factors such as broadband Internet access and
developments in wireless application protocol provide new ways to speed up the device’s
ability to deliver information. Apps for allowing reporters to write reports in the field are now
good enough. The Mobile Augmented Reality Systems (MARS) project aimed at exploring
the synergy of two promising fields of user-interface research. Augmented reality, in which
three-dimensional displays were used to overlay a synthesized world on top of the real world,
combined with mobile computing, in which increasingly small and inexpensive computing
devices and wireless networking gave users access to computing facilities while roaming.
Multi-media journalists” armed with smartphones can write words, tape audio, film video,
and take photos with a fourth–all of which would be sent via newsroom or directly to be
published. Refined forms of information management, such as computer-assisted reporting
and geographical information systems, connected cloud based databases and services are
changing how news organizations operate today.