towards a narrative based user centered design of an immersive news environment (thesis)
TRANSCRIPT
Towards a narrative based user-centered design of an immersive news environment
Eefje Op den Buysch
University of Amsterdam MSc Information Studies
Human Centered Multimedia
ABSTRACT Scenarios contain analytical coherent stories that engage
through imagination. When stories are presented as a series of
connected, coherent events, this is considered a narrative. This paper describes a study that aims to find if future scenarios
provide feasible means for a narrative based design of an
immersive news environment. Through a user-centered design
approach it was found that scenarios provide the means for
crafting narratives based on understanding future context and environments. Scenarios did not provide sufficient means to
deeply understand the user. Conversations with industry
experts and analysis of scenario stories yielded the needed
immersion inducing user perspectives. The study aims to
progress towards a newsroom simulation in which journalists can experience their future work. In that regard expert’s
feedback on the design is promising.
Categories and Subject Descriptors
• Human-centered computing ~ User centered design •
Human-centered computing ~ User models.
General Terms
Design, Human Factors.
Keywords
User-Centered Design, Future Scenarios, Transmedia Storytelling, Robot Journalism.
1 INTRODUCTION Dutch news publishers face economic downturns and
increased competition in the pluralistic media landscape.
Automated news editing, or ‘Robot Journalism’, is considered
an opportunity for news companies in achieving necessary cost savings and maintaining competitive position [1]. In
2015, Fontys University of Applied Sciences started a four-
year study on development of an automated system for news
editing for Dutch news companies [2]. In addition to the
development of prototypes of tools and algorithms, the study focuses on anchoring the new system in the Dutch
newsrooms, through a user-centered design approach [1].
User-centered design methods [3][4] offer system developers
means to obtain valuable input from users during a
development process. To help users picture themselves working with a new system, techniques like storytelling [5] or
use-cases [3] can be applied. When designing systems that
make use of not yet developed technologies, involving the
user in the design process can become complicated. This is
what the researchers in the before mentioned study on robot journalism experienced. To get input from users, futuristic
features and functionalities need to be made tangible: users
need help in envisioning how robot journalism could be an aid
to them.
Creating a simulated ‘news environment of the future’ could cater to the needs of the researchers. The news environment
would be a setting where experimenting with, and
development of algorithms, prototypes and interfaces go hand
in hand. It would offer stakeholders the opportunity to
experiment with new technologies: it could reflect a future work environment that takes into account the context of that
work environment, e.g. the future ‘world’. In a news environment as proposed here, journalists and editors would
be invited to experience the future of their work, by offering a
life-like and context-rich array of technological advancements
in journalism.
To build such a news environment an understanding is needed of what the future might bring. Scenarios provide means for
exploring the future. In futures studies, scenarios are
archetypical products that reflect deep and creative thought
about plausible futures [6]. Scenarios for the future of
journalism can be found in ‘What’s News - The Journalistic Landscape in 2025’ (Journalism2025) [7], a study initiated by
the Dutch Journalism Fund. In the study, four plausible
scenarios for the future of journalism in the Netherlands were
constructed through the collected input of 150 participants:
journalists, publishers, philosophers, chief editors, scientists, technology experts and managers. The study was
commissioned by the state secretary of Education, Culture and
Science of the Dutch parliament [8] as one in a series of
studies into present-day developments in journalism. The
scenarios provide insight by exploring multiple futures. This helped the sector discuss opportunities, threats, op tions and
risks in a well-founded way, while considering the external
environment [7]. Although the report is specifically aimed at
the Dutch situation, there has also been press coverage from
parties outside of the Netherlands [9][10][11]. Scenarios contain analytical coherent stories that engage
through imagination [6]. When stories are presented (or ‘told’)
as a series of connected, coherent events, this is considered a
narrative. Narrative design provides techniques to structure and present stories in such a way that they fuel active
involvement of the user, which leads to immersion into the
story.
This study looks into using scenarios as a base for crafting
narratives that help journalists and editors picture themselves working in a future newsroom, which in its turn will give its
system developers insights in the users’ need regarding the
new robot-journalistic editing system.
2 RELATED WORK The reviewed related literature provides background and
context for the study described in this paper.
2.1 Developments in journalism The work of journalists has been, and still is, characterized by the basic journalistic process of gathering, selecting, ordering,
analyzing and processing information. The Journalism sector
however is facing impactful changes. The rise of the Internet
has had a disruptive influence on the profession and the
business models in the sector [12]. No longer were journalists exclusively the ones that published news and expressed
critique on the powers that be. The barriers for publishing
lowered. Readers became writers. The monopoly on
information and the production and distribution thereof,
crumbled [12]. However, even before the Internet was available to the
masses, it became visible that people changed from being
‘merely’ media consumers to active contributors and
producers. Media scholar Henry Jenkins describes these
change as forms of participatory culture [13]. This culture includes co-creation, social awareness and –connectivity, and
a believe that contributions (to a community) matter [14], pp.
5-6. Next to participatory culture, also media convergence has
had an influence on media use, Jenkins states. The number of
media channels grew rapidly and the omnipresence of computing increased [13]. That influence can be seen in how
social media and the use of smart devices have changed the
journalism arena. With clicks, likes, shares and comments
news consumers have become active participants [7], p. 13.
2.2 Dutch research on Robot Journalism Researchers van der Kaa and Wubben initiated the development of a platform for robot journalism in the
Netherlands [1]. They argue that, even though techniques for
automatic generation of texts based on input data are fairly
common, the application of these techniques to journalism is
relatively new. Van der Kaa and Wubben define robot journalism as “the use of algorithms that automate the
production of journalistic text” [1], p. 1. Robot journalism can
be divided in tasks of text-to-text generation [15] and tasks of
data-to-text generation [16]. Van der Kaa and Wubben state
that the automation of journalistic text will not make journalists redundant: robot journalism can support journalists
in their story-writing process [1], p. 1.
Van der Kaa brought together a consortium of stakeholders to
conduct a research that will lead to the first automatic
newsroom in the low countries [1]. Together with Dutch news companies, sector organization NDP Nieuwsmedia, the Dutch
Association of Research Journalists (VvOJ) and Tilburg
University, a multidisciplinary team is formed. The research
started in September 2015 and will continue until August
2019. It is mainly funded by the Dutch coordinating body for practice-oriented research ‘SIA’, which is part of The
Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
The research combines methods from several domains: it
builds upon existing work in the field of Natural Language
Processing (NLP), Contextual Design, Media Studies and Journalism Studies. Insights from the field of Natural
Language Processing (NLP) are used to build the technology
behind the automated editing system. Knowledge from the
field of Contextual Design is applied to uncover how this
system can be best embedded in a newsroom. Finally, methods from the field of Media Studies and Journalism
Studies are used to define the needs of the news consumer [1].
The research project provides insights on embedding
automation systems within Dutch newsrooms. Outcomes will
feed the decision by publishers on whether or not to invest in robot journalism. Also, it offers universities insights on
possible adaptations in their curriculum.
The author of this paper is project leader of the research
project on robot journalism.
2.3 User-centered design User-centered design (UCD) approaches put end-users in the center of a design process. Through UCD approaches,
developers can ensure a design will fit its users’ needs. UCD
approaches range from analysis of work environments [17],
focusing on user goals and context [18] to assessment of the
ease of use of an interface [19]. UCD solves design problems through consecutive stages. The key principles to ensure a
design is user-centered, are described in ‘ISO 9241-210 -
Ergonomics of human-system interaction’ [18]. According to
the ISO principles, a design is user-centered when: (i) it is
based on understanding of users, tasks and environments, (ii) users are involved during design an development, (iii) it is
driven and refined by user-centered evaluations, (iv) the
design process is iterative, (v) the design addresses the
complete user experience, (vi) the developers take a
multidisciplinary approach. To understand users in their work environment a deep
understanding of their work is required. System developers or
designers are usually no experts in understanding work
processes [17]. When not supported to think about the client,
according to UCD experts Holtzblatt and Beyer, development teams tend to focus on the technology and the system
delivered, rather than on the users’ needs [17]. To tackle a
possible gap between a user’s work-habits and a designers’
point of view on the user needs, Holtzblatt and Beyer describe
modeling techniques that improve the level of understanding of work. The same issue is addressed by interaction designer
Derya Özçelik-Buskermolen who examines storytelling
techniques called ‘Co-constructing stories’ to help designers
establishing a dialogue with users [20], while talking about
their past- and current work experience. Envisioning techniques within the co-constructing stories method also
support users in thinking about how to use new design-
concepts [20].
When designing systems that make use of not yet developed
technologies, involving the user in the design process can become complicated. To get input from users, futuristic
features and functionalities need to be made tangible: users
need help to envision how a new system could be an aid to
them. A future system does not only need to reflect
technological progress, it also needs to fit future needs of the user. The system needs to be placed in a future context: its
work environment, and even the world surrounding that
environment.
2.4 Scenarios as an approach to foresight A leading proponent and innovator of the strategic planning
method, Royal Dutch Shell, found in ‘scenario thinking’ a way to anticipate increased uncertainty, interdependence,
complexity and the emergence of new technologies [21].
Scenario planning is a multiple scenario approach, and has
evolved since 1970. Organizations use scenario planning
because the method offers a way to explore plausible futures. Scenarios, in the context of scenario planning, are defined as
“focused descriptions of fundamentally different futures
presented in coherent script-like or narrative fashion” [21], p.
195. Scenario planning is a method of looking outside and
ahead in a structured way [7], p. 7. The method is based on pinpointing trends that mark a certain and uncertain
developments that lay ahead. From those trends, critical
uncertainties are distilled: drivers of change with potentially
high impact that are at the same time very difficult to call.
2.4.1 Future scenarios for journalism in the
Netherlands When developing scenarios for the future of journalism, researchers Kasem, Waes & Wannet [7] worked according the
method as developed by Shell [21]. Two impactful, but at the
same time uncertain, trends shape the future in which the four
scenarios of Journalism2025 are projected. On the one hand
the question of where the Dutch will place their trust (Public Trust) and on the other hand the question of to what extent
technology will be embraced by the Dutch (Acceptance of
Technology). Regarding trust, the Journalism2025 report
states that existing institutions will experience pressure from
critical, assertive, bottom-up initiatives. It can either be self-organization (Do-It-Yourself) or central direction (Do-It-For-
Me) that determines trust in the future. When looking at
digitization it is assumed that technology will probably
progress further, the question is however in what pace:
radically (Radical) or incrementally (Reluctant) [7] p. 25-26. The extremes of the uncertainties ‘Public Trust’ and
‘Acceptance of Technology’ provide the poles of two axes
that together form a matrix. This results in four ‘scenario
worlds’ for the year 2025. In the method it is common to name the four scenarios with a metaphorical title (see also
Table 1). All scenario worlds deal with the same issues, but in
all four worlds these issues will unfold differently.
Table 1 - “These worlds reflect the tension between professional
and citizen journalism, the uncertain future of Dutch media concerns and titles, the role of internet and algorithms on the
production and spreading of news, and the way in which quality
journalism will be paid for in 2025” [7], p.4
Radical & Do-It-Yourself: Wisdom of the Crowd A world in which the economy and society are dominated by start-ups and virtual cooperative relationship. A strong do-it-yourself-outlook has become the key to success. Co-creation, sharing and crowd funding
are breaking through on a large-scale. The government is pushed back into a facilitating roll. The influence of big conglomerates like Apple, Fox and Facebook has reduced considerably. New initiatives appear and disappear at a fast pace. What counts for news is no longer
determined by media brands but by the crowd.
Radical & Do-It-For-Me: A Handful of Apples A world in which a handful of mega concerns increasingly set the
economic, social and political agenda. Hardware, software, physical products, content: everything is branded and offered via integrated chains. Just like the news, which is smartly personalized and always reaches the public at just the right moment. Journalists market the news
as niche products and services. Most traditional media businesses have not survived this development.
Reluctant & Do-It-Yourself: The Shire A world in which small scale, autonomy and caution are regarded as
being important. The all-providing government has largely disappeared. The general view is that technology should be treated with caution. The media landscape has come to look like a collection of islands comprising small t itles, often with a regional or local focus.
Many journalistic newspapers and magazines from the 2010s have failed. Instead of them news is exchanged on thematic community sites, which both citizen journalists and professionals contribute to.
Radical & Do-It-For-Me: Darwin’s Game A world in which government institutions and media businesses are evolving. They display more transparency and extensibility; dialogue with their target groups is no longer just something they are compelled
to do, and it is now bearing real fruit . A number of traditional news providers are managing to make their brands relevant again and in that way to slow down the explosive reduction in viewers and subscribers. The public expects journalism to constantly prove itself, sets high
standards, and is not loyal to specific brands.
2.4.2 International futures studies on media Strategic foresight research methods like the scenario
planning method used in Journalism2025, were used in two
studies that explore the future of media. A European study
[22] focuses on ICT in the creative content industries, and was
commissioned by the European Commission. Its researchers Abadie, Friedewald & Weber use the term future-oriented
technology analysis (FTA) for their forward-looking method.
They state that, with the fast and pervasive evolution of ICT,
it is difficult to predict the development of new technologies.
Abadie et al. found in their FTA method a way to envision the future based on a series of stages where each stage was
adjusted based on the findings from the previous stage [22], p.
29. They conclude that the method worked “rather well” for
them [22], p. 29. FTA offered them a way to adapt to
changing requirements and insights during the process. Abadie et al. do however state that in foresight it is essential
to accept that the future is unpredictable and unclear.
Pretending otherwise would be “methodologically
questionable and unethical” [22], p. 29.
The Canadian study ‘2020 Media Futures’ by Ashby & Van Alstyne [23] aims to find results to leverage and direct future
discoveries in OCAD University’s laboratories. Strategic
foresight is an important part of the university’s curriculum.
Partners of the research project include the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Radio and Television
Commission, and Corus Entertainment. The axes of the
scenarios as developed by OCAD University reflect slow paced diffusion of innovation versus rapid disruptive
innovation and socially driven value generation versus
corporate value generation. These scenarios show similarities
to those of Journalism2025. Both infer that (technological)
innovation plays a major role in the future. Next to that, both sets of scenarios reflect that bottom-up, self-reliant social
structures might be of substantial influence [23], p. 9.
2.5 Strategic foresight and transmedia
storytelling Scenarios and strategic foresight methods have been subject
for critique. Objections to scenario reports include being too
static [24], non-participatory [25], lacking good storytelling
[26], and simply ending up in “the archives of history” [27] p.
5. French foresight pioneer Michel Godet (La Prospective) states that in scenario reports there is often no follow-up
action described [28], p. 47. Jarva agrees with Godet in saying
that there is a gap between scenarios and action [27] p. 6.
To close the gap between scenario and action, Jarva and
Raford propose the use of narratives [25], [27]. Godet states that scenarios should be turned into project-based approaches
to make sure that imagination, emotion and rationality can be
included [27]. Both von Stackelberg [26] and Li [29] find in
transmedia storytelling ways to include not only stories but
also the media channels through which these stories are told, as an important factor in making scenarios lively and
participatory. Li identifies transmedia storytelling as a link
between innovative scenario methods and the collective
intelligence potential of the participatory knowledge communities [29], p. 21. With this, Li connects his research to
Henry Jenkins’ insights on convergence culture [13]. To von
Stackelberg, transmedia storytelling is an effective way to
build complex storyworlds, engage audiences and create
captivating content. This is why it would be fitting to use transmedia storytelling in strategic foresight projects [26], p.
73, he argues.
2.6 The use of narratives for immersion In narratology, a common way to get people to engage with a
story is to have them identify themselves with a character. The
Hero (taken from Joseph Campbell’s ‘monomyth’ from 1949 and adapted by Christopher Vogler in 1998) [30] is a
commonly used archetype to draw a reader or viewer into a
story. The narrative of the Hero is structured in such a way
that audiences can relate to his adventure, by means of
previous personal experiences and well-known story structures like fairytales. Both the use of archetypes and the
story structure (the story ‘arch’) make a story into a narrat ive,
evoking strong emotions. Audiences are so drawn into a story
that they accept unreal characters, surprising twists and
imaginative story worlds. It is ‘suspension of disbelief’ that allows a person to suspend judgment regarding implausibility
of a story: “it can bribe us into a voluntary submission of our
better knowledge” ([31] Coleridge, 1817, Chapter XXIII). A
person is willing to overcome implausibility because he wants
to believe the presented situation is real (for the time being). What is needed to get to this stage of suspension of disbelief
is a strong, well-designed narrative. This narrative fuels active
involvement of the user. When a user is engaged, the user will
respond to the fictional situation in a way that he would if it
was a real life situation. Immersion into the story is a result of such narrative design. In entertainment, immersion is widely
used to engage people in media productions such as feature
films or TV-series. Examples can be found in campaigns to
launch box-office successes like The Hunger Games [32] and
The Dark Knight’s campaign Why so Serious? [33]. Transmedia storytelling techniques [34] [35] are used to
design a user experience where multiple delivery channels,
great stories and participation are “taking audiences on an
emotional journey that goes from moment to moment”, which, in the eyes of practitioner Robert Pratten, defines transmedia
storytelling [34], p. 2. Interaction designer Janet Murray is
specialized in digital narratives. She takes Coleridge’s
passively formulated ‘suspension of disbelieve’ a step further
when she states that people actively create belief when they enter a fictional world [36], p.110. Murray describes that
people have a desire to experience immersion. People will
focus on the world that unfolds before them, and they will
reinforce that with their fantasy, instead of questioning the
trueness of the experience [36], p. 110. Murray’s ideas connect to those of Roland Barthes who defined two opposite
types of literary text: writerly and readerly texts. Readerly
texts are texts in which the meaning is fixed. They take little
more effort from the reader then to absorb information. In
writerly texts on the contrary, the reader takes on an active role in giving meaning to the text. The reader interprets the
text [37].
Industry expert Scott Lukas designs ‘themed spaces’ for
theme parks and museums. He states that inducing immersion
is one of the most important factors when designing a space to offer experiences in. Users who are really engaged in a space
“experience powerful emotions, senses of discovery and even
personal transformation” [38] p. 137. Within the field of
gaming, similar effects of immersion are described. Game-
designer and researcher Jane McGonical refers to immersive experiences as ‘epic’. Games offer ‘epic environments’: vast,
interactive spaces that provoke feelings of curiosity and
wonder [39]. Developers of learning situations (instructors,
educators) often use a life-like environment in which
immersion plays a large role. It gives users the “subjective impression that they are participating in a comprehensive,
realistic experience” [40], p.66. Examples can be found in
flight-simulators for pilots [41], virtual operating rooms for
surgeons [42] or the training kit CUARATT, developed with
pervasive entertainment software ‘Conducttr’ [43].
2.7 Research question To what extent do future scenarios provide feasible means for
a narrative based user-centered design of an immersive news
environment?
3 METHOD This study looked at future scenarios from a designer’s point of view. The scenarios from the Journalism2025 report were
analyzed in order to assess whether they provide feasible
means for the user-centered design of an immersive news
environment.
The study was based on the ISO principles of a user-centered design process [18]. It progressed through four consecutive
cycles, which allowed for iterations to take place. An aim was
to pinpoint elements for crafting scenario narratives that aid
immersion in the designed immersive news environment.
Users were involved throughout, so that their input and feedback could shape the design. Combining skills and
perspectives from several knowledge areas has ensured that
the complete user experience in the design got addressed.
Involved users in this study were people from the journalistic
field: journalists, editors, educators and managers of news organizations.
The cyclic approach allowed for moving from a broad
perspective in the first cycle, to a detailed view in the last
cycle. Firstly a broad understanding of the year 2025 was
established. From there, cycle 2 provided a more precise look on possible future environments. The third cycle made it
possible to zoom in even further: the workprocesses of a
journalist were examined.
3.1 Cycle 1 This first cycle is aimed at gaining a broad understanding of
the environment. Following the ISO principles for user-
centered design [18] this involves getting an idea about users
and their tasks and environments. Starting point for the first cycle was to study the
Journalism2025 report [7] in order to get a rough idea on the
design question at hand. Additional desk research provided
context, and clarified which developments the journalistic
field is facing. In an early stage of the first cycle, experts from the field were consulted. The experts helped in orienting on
developments that influence news companies in the upcoming
years.
Roy Mevissen works at Fontys School of Journalism. He is
lecturer ‘Crossmedia Journalism’ and manager of the curriculum for second year students. Mevissen previously
worked as editor-in-chief of the news platform ‘Peper’ at
Royal Wegener [44], which innovatively experimented with
online news channels in 2005.
Hille van der Kaa was consulted to get an idea about the challenges news companies face. Van der Kaa is editor-in-
chief of Dutch newspaper BN DeStem. She previously
worked for VNU Media, Royal Wegener, Tilburg University
and her company ‘De Uitgeeffabriek’, where she developed
several transmedia projects and -scripts. Her work is characterized by a combination of journalism, storytelling,
business acumen and research. Van der Kaa initiated a
research project on Robot Journalism at Fontys University of
Applied Sciences [1]. Roy Op het Veld is deputy editor-in-chief of ‘Het Financieele
Dagblad’, a Dutch financial newsletter. Next to his knowledge
of finance and journalism, Op het Veld has both managerial
and practical experience in editorial systems and technologies
influencing newspapers. Tom Nauta is director of ‘NDP Nieuwsmedia’, a trade
organization representing Dutch news media companies in the
private sector, through public affairs, media research and
education. Nauta was involved in the development of the
Journalism2025 report as a member of the steering group. After the conversations with the experts, the Journalism2025
report was analyzed in detail. Summed up trends from the
report were divided into trends that, according to the
participants, will definitely play out in the future and those
that the participants were not so sure about carrying through.
Scenarios are based on today’s certain and uncertain trends
that have a large impact on the future of the sector [7], p.7.
The Journalism2025 report includes an inventory of trends, which the participants of the Journalism2025 study jointly
defined. When the participants were unanimously sure a trend
would continue to develop, it was marked as certain. When
the participants were in disagreement whether, or in what
form, the development would play out, the trend was marked as uncertain. Next to that trends can be leading or dependent.
Leading trends are the technological and social developments
that have a large influence on journalism. Dependent trends
are developments within journalism.
Trends that were earmarked as certain are the trends that will
shape the future no matter the scenario: all four scenario-
worlds will be influenced by the certain trends. When relevant, results from cycle 1 were taken along to cycle 2, in
order to be studied further.
3.2 Cycle 2 The second cycle was aimed at gaining an explicit
understanding of the environment, following the ISO
principles of user-centered design [18]. The scenarios from
the Journalism2025 report were analysed and users (experts)
were involved to gain more understanding.
The four different scenarios represent four different
environments. The two scenario axes represent the two critical uncertainties [7], p.8.: leading trends with a high
level of uncertainty, and at the same time a major impact on
the future. In the Journalism2025 scenarios, the axes are
‘Public Trust’ and ‘Acceptance of Technology’. The extreme
of an axis represents an extremity in Public Trust (Do-It-Yourself vs. Do-It-For-Me) and in Acceptance of
Technology (Radical vs. Reluctant).
In this second cycle the uncertain trends were extracted from
the Journalism2025 report. The trends were listed and were
then taken to experts from the journalism field to be
discussed. The conversations were informal and loosely
directed. The conversations were aimed at distilling those elements that the experts thought of as an ‘important
development’, a ‘concern’ or a trend the experts see as ‘likely
to progress’ towards the future. Listening for signals of
change that the experts spot in their surroundings, provided
insight on the expert’s view on possible futures. Firstly, a conversation took place with Dimitri
Tokmetzis, employee of Dutch journalism platform ‘De
Correspondent’. Tokmetzis is a data journalist. With a focus
on technology it is his mission to make technologies that
influence life, accessible for a wide audience [45]. In his articles he covers stories on the security industry, hacking,
online privacy and -criminality. In 2012 Tokmetzis published
the book ‘The Digital Shadow’ [46], which describes how
losing privacy and the rise of digital profiles can effect lives.
Secondly there was a conversation with prof. drs. Bart Brouwers, Professor of Journalism studies and Media at
Groningen University. Brouwers founded and owns E52.nl, an
independent platform for journalism in the city of Eindhoven,
the Netherlands. Brouwers previously worked at Telegraaf
Media Group were he was head of business-development. In 2013 Brouwers published the book ‘Beyond The Deadline:
Journalism after the crisis’ [12] in which he analyses the
Internet’s disruptive and creative forces that influence
journalism.
The experts provided insights on what they think the future might bring. These insights will feed the crafting of the
storyworlds, which takes place in cycle 4. A storyworld needs
to reflect typical elements that make a user experience the
world s/he is stepping into. A combination of the uncertain trends distilled in cycle 2 and the insights from the
conversations with experts in cycle 1 and 2 were taken to
cycle 4.
3.3 Cycle 3 The third cycle was aimed at gaining an explicit
understanding of the journalist and his tasks, following the ISO principles for user-centered design [18].
Getting to know the work of a journalist is key to be able to
simulate a journalist’s work in a future news environment. For
users to be immersed in the simulated situation, they need
strong narratives and plausible tasks to suspend their disbelief. Focus point for this cycle was to find out how journalists
work, what tools they use and what they might need in the
future to do their work.
The essence of journalistic work is summarized in the
‘National vocational and educational profile’ [47], jointly
written by the four providers of journalism bachelor
programs in the Netherlands: 1. Journalists are engaged in current events: they are
looking for news and new developments;
2. Journalists gather, analyze and select information, they
consult sources and they consult with informants to
obtain as much relevant data as possible; 3. Journalists process information to form a journalistic
product: a story that is informative, appealing and
understandable to the public.
Two journalists of Dutch newspapers were observed and
interviewed. The aim was to understand typical journalistic
tasks such as gathering information, preparing for an
interview and writing a story. The scenario stories of Journalism2025 [7] were analyzed to find elements that
represent journalistic tasks.
Expert Rene Kloeg was asked to demonstrate work processes
at the editing floor. Kloeg works as ‘Chef Internet’ and deputy
editor-in-chief at Dutch newspaper ‘BN De Stem’. He started working at this newspaper in 1976 and has a rich experience
in work-processes at the editing floor. Next to that Kloeg has
worked, and still does work, as a journalist. Being able to spot
a story and organizing work processes are two traits that
define his career. The excursion to the editing-floor of a newspaper provides practical insights on journalistic work
processes. Findings were used to create the script and the
synopsis in cycle 4.
3.4 Cycle 4 The fourth cycle was aimed at designing the immersive news environment. It involved multidisciplinary skills, and
addresses a complete user experience, following the ISO
principles for user-centered design [18]. Users were involved
to direct iterations in the design.
The goal of the designed news environment is to have the journalist experience journalistic work of the future. This
way, observing researchers can learn about the needs a
journalist might have in working with future tools and
technologies in the field of robot journalism. The design
combines a narrative (containing context, backstory, characterization) and the way that the narrative is presented t o
a user (through scripts and mediachannels). For the news
environment to be immersive, there need to be elements
included that will suspend the disbelief of the user. To do so,
the news environment needs to reflect a plausible, life-like situation. Since the news environment reflects the future, it
needs to introduce future (technological) advancements to the
users. Essential situations, tools and tasks to do so, were
Figure 1 – The four scenarios in diagrammatic form
identified through the cycles that preceded this final cycle.
Experts Hille van der Kaa (see also §3.1) and Robert Pratten reviewed the design. They assessed whether the design
reflected the future context, the scenarios and the journalistic
processes, in a plausible way. Robert Pratten is CEO and
founder of Transmedia Storyteller Ltd. He is an experienced
producer of transmedia storytelling projects and author of the book ‘Getting Started in Transmedia Storytelling: A Practical
Guide for Beginners’ [34].
4 RESULTS This section contains the results from the four consecutive
cycles in the user-centered design process.
4.1 A broad understanding of the context (cycle
1) Analysis of the Journalism2025 [7] study learnt that its
starting point were the questions the sector was asking itself,
regarding the future of journalism towards the year 2025. An
inventory of these questions was drawn up in the report
through the collected input of professionals from the field, scientists and educators [7], pp. 59-61. The inventory includes
the topics: influence of technological and societal
developments; the business- and revenue models related to
those developments; the adaptation of newsrooms to the
changed environment and the consequences of the developments on the education of journalists [7] pp. 12-13. In
the report it is concluded that the primary concern of the
participants lies in the threatened and vulnerable position of
the public function of journalism [7], p. 55. These questions
were topics to discuss with experts. Educator Roy Mevissen recognizes journalism being under
stress. He spoke of not journalism itself being in a crisis, but
the journalistic industry. To him, many companies seem
paralyzed by the changes that have hit the sector. He
underlined the importance of the traditional role of journalism as watchdog in a democratic society. His concern however is
that journalism will, instead of fulfilling citizens’ need for
objective and complete information, degrade to merely
generating click bait (attention-grabbing, sensationalist online
content that is merely created for the purpose of generating advertising revenue). Mevissen thinks that students need to be
educated to be resilient towards new developments. Cross-
media production- and entrepreneurial skills would fit the
students’ curriculum. But, Mevissen states, then we would not
be preparing them for the daily practice at news companies: for many titles reaching that point is a long way down the line.
Looking at the news industry from a news companies’ point
of view, van der Kaa acknowledged recent developments in
generating news for the sake of clicks and views. Platforms
like Buzzfeed.com aim to generate revenue through advertising, which seems to work. Newspaper BN De Stem
still generates revenue from subscriptions, but van der Kaa
foresees this to decline in the upcoming years. Talking about
the role of journalism in society she questioned if journalists
need to be the ones that play the role of watchdog. Van der Kaa is confident that journalism remains to have a function in
the public eye but remarked that reaching out to audiences
might be a matter of creating innovative media productions
instead of merely the content. Van der Kaa foresees
opportunities for new forms of news productions, ranging from Virtual Reality-experiences to Automated Journalism.
Op het Veld emphasized that indeed adaptation of the
newsroom to the changing environment is key to survive. Op
het Veld illustrated what adaptation means in his point of
view. He elaborated on the use of digital technologies, like using algorithms to create automated financial reports at ‘Het
Financieele Dagblad’. In his view editorial teams need to
embrace technology to create journalistic products: it is
essential in surviving the ongoing competition in de news
sector. The conversation with Nauta added views from the
perspective of journalism as an industry. Nauta stated that
competition has increased because of two factors. The first
factor is the fact that public broadcasters, who are funded by
de Dutch government, play an increasing role in delivering online news. Their offer is hardly distinguishable from the
offer that used to be exclusively brought by privately held
news companies. The second factor is that digitization and
developments in media have caused global companies like
Google and Facebook to enter the Dutch playing field. This has a competition-distorting effect, Nauta states.
After talking to the experts the Journalism2025 report was
analyzed in more detail, to verify if the developments adduced
by the experts are included in the report. The participants in the Journalism2025 research collectively pinpointed a number
of trends that they think are influential. The overview of these
trends [7], p.13. was analyzed as a next step in this cycle (see
also appendix A). The certain trends are:
Sustained technological development by which algorithms will increasingly direct news consumption;
The growth of bandwidth will create more possibilities for
video and storage/streaming will be cheap;
Smarter use of data will enable linking personal profiles
and tailored information;
Smart devices will change the playing field of journalism;
Governments will be incapable of restraining the market power of technology giants like Google.
Disruption of earning models;
Commercialization of the media;
Unbundling.
Comparing the developments mentioned by the experts and
the list of certain trends it became clear that there is an
agreement on the majority of trends. Sustained technological advancements (e.g. algorithms) were mentioned by van der
Kaa and Op het Veld. Upcoming possibilities for video were
mentioned by Mevissen, van der Kaa and Op het Veld.
Smarter use of data (e.g. personalization) was not mentioned
by the experts. Devices and social media were mentioned by van der Kaa, Op het Veld and Nauta. Commercialization of
the media was mentioned by Mevissen, Nauta, and van der
Kaa. The theme of governments vs. technology giants was
mentioned by Mevissen and Nauta. Commercialization of the
media was mentioned by Mevissen, van der Kaa and Nauta. Unbundling was not mentioned by these experts.
Through the analyses and the conversations with the experts a
clear image arose of what troubles the journalism sector. This
first cycle in the process provided insights on the trends that
will set the context by the year 2025, influencing either which scenario. The insights will determine parts of the backstories
for all scenarios. These stories are created in cycle 4.
Additionally, the trends ‘Unbundling’ and ‘Smarter use of
data’ were taken to cycle 2 for further validation.
4.2 Understanding of the environments (cycle 2) This second cycle was aimed at gaining an understanding of
possible journalistic environments in 2025. Dimitri
Tokmetzis, data journalist at The Correspondent, provided his
view on possible futures. He states that journalists are likely to
have new roles in the future. Journalists will be fact-checkers, ICT specialists, data-gatherers and –analysts. In that changed
role, transparency will be key to be trustworthy as a journalist.
Tokmetzis explains how The Correspondent makes an effort
to add context to stories by providing background, analysis
and investigative reporting. He foresees a need for tools to create layered stories that can be published platform-
independently. In Tokmetzis’ view it is likely that tools will
be (partly) automated, for instance to compile case-files or to suggest appealing headlines. At The Correspondent journalists
use an in-house developed editing system, designed to fit their
specific needs. For the future, Tokmetzis’ finds it likely that
extensive tracking of reader behavior will take place. Review
methods to express perceived credibility and quality of journalists will emerge. Next to that Tokmetzis foresees an
extensive international cooperation between professionals:
journalists, ICT professionals and data-experts will work
together because different fields of expertise are needed to
produce journalistic products in the future.
From this conversation the Journalism2025 was further
analyzed to extract the remaining uncertain trends. Prof. drs.
Bart Brouwers (Journalism Studies and Media, Groningen
University) was invited to share his views on the uncertain trends confidence in journalism; citizens acting as journalists;
adaptation of news organizations and unbundling.
The role of journalists will definitely change, Brouwers states.
In his opinion journalism has an important role to fulfill in
society. People get informed about matters they would otherwise not find out about. He argues however that this does
not mean that it should be only journalists that take on the role
of watchdog. In recent years it became clear that publishing
platforms and
-resources are no longer exclusively available to journalists. This development will have a disruptive effect on society.
Brouwers explains that there are journalistic tasks that could
be taken over. By citizens, but also by machines. Citizens will
increasingly dive into matters from a personal fascination and
also a personal interest. In this sense citizen journalism differs from traditional journalism, because it is not objectivity that
guides the citizen. The rise of the Internet has made it easy
for citizens to be involved and to be influential, through blogs,
comments and the opportunity to dive into (public) dossiers.
Since Brouwers is professor in Journalism Studies he has a clear view on what his students need to learn, in order to
become journalists that will be able to adapt to progressing
developments. Distinctiveness, strong journalistic values and
an entrepreneurial attitude are the traits that will keep
journalists in the game, according to Brouwers. To him it is puzzling that students seem to have traditional journalistic
aspirations: they attend the university course to become a
journalist at one of the larger Dutch newspapers. But, says
Brouwers, those titles will disappear inevitably. Which in
itself is not that worrisome: other journalistic platforms will arise. Upworthy.com [48] and Upcoming.nl [49] are examples
of this development. Brouwers continues by saying that we
mistakenly think that platforms like Upworthy and Upcoming
are an endpoint. Platforms like this get their business from
generating click bait. Using catchy headlines to generate views is part of their business model because their news items
appear in unbundled form, on social media and websites.
Brouwers assesses that, for a journalist, it might be
uncomfortable to be writing a headline to an article that does
not cover its content. Brouwers says he is annoyed by Blendle’s1 click bait [50]. Nevertheless he insists on looking
at the “extremely interesting” possibilities these development
produce.
Brouwers refers to the Journalism2025 scenarios in saying
that he is a strong believer of technological developments. He foresees an interplay of big technological conglomerates and a
strong crowd-based society, a new eco-system. In these “new
1 Blendle is a journalism start-up from the Nether lan ds t hat o f fers
single articles from newspapers and magazines on its app, using one
paywall.
times” journalists will be less able to distinguish themselves
from citizens. Both the government and the big tech companies will play a part in this. Brouwers refers to the
journalistic profession when he states “we journalists need to
step down from our God-given, unwavering and unalterable
position in society”. The journalists’ power play of being the
only ones able to “save society” is outdated, Brouwers concludes.
Gained insights from the conversations with Brouwers and
Tokmetzis were transferred to the creation of the backstory in
the design of the immersive news environment in cycle 4.
4.3 Understanding the work of a journalist In cycle 3 the objective was to gain an explicit understanding
of a journalist’s work. Interviews with-, and observations of
journalists that work at two Dutch newspapers confirm that
the basic journalistic process lies at the heart of a journalist’s
daily work. Consulted journalists from Dutch newspapers ‘Eindhovens Dagblad’ and ‘Het Financieele Dagblad’ use the
news, press agencies, press releases, emails from
organizations and personal communication as a lead to write
new articles. Next to that they have their knowledge of a
sector or field. The journalists collect information through interviews, (desk-) research, press conferences and visits.
Potential stories are presented in meetings at the editing room
where colleagues and chief-editors evaluate the
newsworthiness. An article goes through several correction
rounds before it gets published. Working with editing systems is a significant part of the journalist’s job.
The Journalism2025 scenario stories each contain a section
‘Journalists and stories’, in which roles the work journalists is
outlined. The stories were analyzed and indicators to the
journalistic workprocesses were marked (see also appendix B). This analysis provided insights on the setting journalists
work in, with whom, how they are paid, which role they have,
what tasks they fulfill, what tools they use en the kind of
journalistic product they make.
At the editing floor of BN De Stem, René Kloeg showed how news articles evolve from idea to publication, through a
demonstration of the newspaper’s Content Management
Systems (CMS). At BN De Stem, journalists gather for a
team meeting in the morning. Journalists have prepared stories
to pitch to their colleagues. Next to that, potential news stories are given to journalists as a task to follow-up on. After the
meeting, the journalists start compiling their stories using the
CMS. The system includes tools to support them: showing the
position of the article in the paper, offering publishing tools to
post articles online and tools to aid them in assigning keywords and tags. In the afternoon the editorial team gathers
to pick stories that will be printed in tomorrow’s newspaper.
Complete stories are prepared by journalists using the CMS.
Stories get approved by chief editors. While explaining and
showing the process, Kloeg also talked about features he thinks the CMS could benefit from. With those remarks Kloeg
gave an insight on future developments on the editing floor
and future work-processes of journalists. Kloeg would like to
see integrated dashboards to monitor key performance
indicators (such as reading time, views, shares) and social media dashboards that help gather news. He also sees
possibilities for automation of headlines and automated
tagging of personal names, geographic locations and
keywords. An important feature the CMS is missing, he said,
is the opportunity to logon to the system from anywhere. At the present time, journalists can only logon via WiFi and with
secure network access, which is not granted easily to non-
employees such as freelancers.
The insights from cycle 3 were used to design the journalist’s
tasks in the script for the immersive news environment.
4.4 Designing the immersive news environment The aim of cycle 4 is to design the immersive news
environment in which ‘real’ journalists can experience the
future of journalism. The Journalism2025 report [7] contains
four scenarios: ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’, ‘A Handful of Apples’, ‘The Shire’ and ‘Darwin’s Game’. The scenario
‘Wisdom of the Crowd’ was taken as an exemplary starting
point for the design of the user-journey. Following the ‘active
story’ approach, the design defines the world, the story, the
experiences and the execution [34], p. 64. The design got developed in stages. Starting point was the analysis of the
story ‘Wisdom of the Crowd’. The story was coded to
pinpoint the insights from cycle 1: the trends and
developments that need to characterize the world of ‘Wisdom
of the Crowd’ (see appendix C). Then a draft of the synopsis was written, based on the insights of cycle 2. The synopsis
combines future developments in journalism and views from
experts regarding the way journalism will have evolved by the
year 2025. Next step was to design a script in which a
journalist’s tasks are combined with elements that let the journalist experience the future. The script got designed in
such a way that the four different scenario stories from the
Journalism2025 report could be used, without having to
change the news-environment simulation tools. To achieve
this, the drafted synopsis was structured around characters and tasks that could be similar in all four scenario stories. This led
to an overview of story-elements (see appendix E). With the
story elements in place the synopsis was reviewed and
rewritten (see appendix D). The synopsis was then broken down in scenes and beats to form a script [34], p. 64. The
script contains the story-elements and tasks, based on the
insights on the work of a journalist from cycle 3. The script
needed to allow for choices to be made by the user. Therefor
the script contains several ‘If, Then’ elements, based on anticipated triggers, conditions and actions (see appendix F).
4.4.1 Reviewing script and synopsis Having experts reviewing the synopsis and script enabled
iterations on the design, which is one of the principles of the
user-centered design approach [18]. Van der Kaa has
experience in both journalism and transmedia storytelling. When starting to read the synopsis (appendix D) van der Kaa
remarked that she did not think that in 2025, the normal
morning routine of a journalist would be “reading online
newspapers, scanning through social media accounts.”
(appendix D, p. 2). She thinks there will be other tools by then, replacing laptops and smartphones. Van der Kaa reflect s
on the plausibility of the synopsis as being an accurate
translation of the work of journalists. In answering questions
on the plausibility of technological developments for the
editing floor, Van der Kaa remarked that to her it is especially convincing that the journalist in the synopsis is not working
at an actual editing room. Not being on the editing floor
together with others, is in van der Kaa’s view a good way to
draw a user into a future situation, because it is far from the
present situation. Van der Kaa does however state that this might take extra effort from the user to immersive into the
story. In reviewing the story-element overview (appendix E),
van der Kaa understood the way the news environment could
cater all four scenario stories from the Journalism2025 report
[7]. The elements that would induce immersion lie in both the story (the characters, the conflict) and the tasks (the process of
writing a journalistic story). Van der Kaa expressed that
combining familiar elements with new, unknown elements is a
strong way to get users involved in experiencing their future
work. Robert Pratten responded positively to the concept and goal of
the design (“fantastic”). When reading the synopsis and the
script it did not get clear to him how the story would be
delivered to the user. Pratten interpreted the synopsis as a
movie or play that a journalist would watch. He stated that having a character say or do something is not the same as
giving the character a goal and let him or her discover that
there are new ways to achieve tasks, because it is the future
now. This feedback revealed that the design needed
visualizations of the user-experience. The user-journey ([34], p. 104) was sketched to clarify that the design is based on a
‘real’ journalist participating in a simulated news
environment, using a merely a laptop and a smartphone. The
user-journey shows the sequence of events (scenes and beats),
which the journalist will experience through interactions, decisions and narrative (see appendix G).
5 DISCUSSION This study aims to find to what extent future scenarios provide
feasible means for the user-centered design of an immersive
news environment. The report ‘What’s New(s): Scenarios on the Future of Journalism’ [7] was used as starting point for the
study. Results show that scenarios do provide information to
enable the crafting of narratives for the immersive news
environment. The news environment was designed through a
cyclic user-centered design approach which involves getting to understand the user and the user’s environment [18]. The
scenario stories provided the means to understand the context
of the year 2025, through the outcomes of cycle 1. The
scenario stories also provided the means to understand the
four futures for the journalism sector, as a result of cycle 2. However, the scenario stories did not provide the means to
fully understand the users: the journalists and their
workprocessess. Understanding the user is key in crafting
narratives that induce immersion. It is the narrative that will
draw users in: they will suspend their disbelief in the simulated news environment when the situation they
encounter seems plausible to them [36]. The conversations
with experts helped to provide insight on plausible tasks, roles
and workprocesses of journalists. It is the principle of
subjectivity from Jenkins’ ‘seven core principles of transmedia storytelling’ [35] that proved to be the missing link
between the scenario stories and the design of the immersive
news environment. The Journalism2025 report needed to be
analyzed from users’ perspectives. Therefor, the steps the
participants of the Journalism2025 report took to progress to the four scenario stories, were traced back. The trends that
were listed by the participants of the Journalism2025 report
played an important role in this ‘reverse engineering’ process.
The trends were validated on plausibility through
conversations with experts. This step-by-step approach led t o the design of the immersive news environment in cycle 4.
Scenario planning provided the creators of the
Journalism2025 report a way to look outside and ahead in a
structured way [7], p. 7. The report is based on trends that
were listed by 150 people from the journalism sector. Listing of trends inevitably means listing presumptions of the
participants. The future cannot be objectively defined, so this
needs to be taken into account when valuating both the
Journalism2025 report and the immersive news environment
that was designed in this study [22], p. 29. However, these presumptions make it possible to look at the future in different
ways. This is precisely what the immersive news environment
is meant to do. By offering journalists simulations of their
work in the year 2025, developers can observe if and how
journalists would use journalism tools. This helps developers of today creating journalism tools fitting the needs of
tomorrow.
With the user-centered design of the immersive news
environment as a base, it can now be built. The news
environment could cater to the needs of the researchers in the
robot journalism project [1]. The researchers can start learning
about future needs in robot journalism. Building the news environment would also offer the opportunity to incorporate
feedback provided by the experts in cycle 4. Van der Kaa
articulated the need for incorporating technological
advancements regarding communication devices. It would be
interesting to further investigate the impact of technology on the ‘trinity’ between User, Medium and Message. By doing
so, upcoming tools and devices could be incorporated, which
in turn enhances the plausibility of the news environment
from journalists’ perspectives.
6 CONCLUSION Using future scenarios for the user-centered design of an
immersive news environment proved to be feasible. Scenarios
provide means to craft a narrative, based on an understanding
of context and environments. However, the Journalism2025
report did not directly provide feasible means to understand the user. Conversations with experts from the journalism field
yielded focus points from users’ perspectives. Transforming
certain and uncertain trends from the report into life-like
situations for journalists was found to be the missing link
between the scenario stories and the designed narrative for the immersive news environment.
7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank all consulted experts for sharing their views with me. I
would also like to thank my colleagues from the Robot
Journalism research project at Fontys FutureMediaLab [2] for their contribution to cycle 3.
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Retrieved from:
http://market.conducttr.com/experiences/hostage-rescue
d.d. April 2016. [44] NRC. (2005). Jongerenkrant Peper voor lezers met
weinig tijd. Retrieved February 2016, from:
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https://www.villamedia.nl/artikel/40.000-abonnees-voor-
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[46] Tokmetzis, D. (2012). De digitale schaduw: hoe het
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Netherlands.
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[48] Upworthy, founded by Eli Pariser and Peter Koechley.
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http://www.upcoming.nl/over_ons
[50] Blendle, founded by Marten Blankesteijn and Alexander
Klöpping. Retrieved, June 2016 from: https://launch.blendle.nl/publishers/
APPENDIX A
OVERVIEW OF TRENDS FROM THE JOURNALISM2025 REPORT [7]
1 CERTAINTIES 1.1 LEADING TRENDS (universal technological and social developments) 1.1.1 Sustained technological development [6], §3.3.2, p.15.
1.1.1.1 Algorithms are increasingly directing news consumption [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.1.2 Algorithms determine what news their users see or do not get to see [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.1.3 More and more programs that turn data into text or images, making use of templates or robot journalism [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.2 Growth of bandwidth creates more possibilities for video [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.2.1 There is a continued improvement of the quality of streaming, uploading and downloading, video on demand and virtual
reality/gaming [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.2.2 The cost of digital information transmission will continue to fall, making the storage of data (almost) free.
1.1.2.3 Live streaming of videos will also become cheap and easy [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.3 Smarter use of data [6], §3.3.2, p.16)
1.1.3.1 Push-and pull information will grow significantly [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.3.2 There will be continuing improvement with regards to the link between user profiles and tailored information [6], §3.3.2,
p.16 1.1.3.3 The options for personalizing news are becoming increasingly ingenious [6], §3.3.2, p.16
1.1.3.4 ‘Big Data’ affords more insight into social questions and offers frameworks to policymakers for better decisions [6],
§3.3.2, p.16
1.1.3.5 The quantity of data is growing exponentially resulting in more possibilities for the recognition of patterns [6], §3.3.2, p.17
1.1.3.6 The options for personalizing news are becoming increasingly ingenious. The options for personalizing advertising as well [6], §3.3.2, p.17
1.1.3.7 The yield of digital advertising is growing more strongly than that of traditional advertising models [6], §3.3.2, p.17
1.1.4 Smart devices and social media change the playing field for journalism [6], §3.3.1, p.13 1.1.4.1 Young people snack on news [6], §3.3.1, p.13
1.1.4.2 Simultaneous consumerism [6], §3.3.1, p.14
1.1.4.3 Reading times are decreasing dramatically [6], §3.3.1, p.15
1.1.4.4 Consumer needs of central importance: the future is on demand [6], §3.3.1, p.15
1.1.5 Powerlessness of governments in relation to technology giants [6], §3.3.4, p.17
1.1.6 Governments are incapable of restraining the market power of technology giants like Google [6], §3.3.4, p.17
1.1.7 There will be additional regulation in order to improve the protection of personal data [6], §3.3.4, p.18
1.2 DEPENDENT TRENDS (trends within the journalism sector)
1.2.1 Disruption of earnings models [6], §3.4.1, p.18 1.2.1.1 The bottom of existing earnings models has been eroded. Declining advertising revenue for print [6], §3.4.1, p.19) and TV
has followed [6], §3.4.1, p.19
1.2.1.2 New earning models arise [6], §3.4.1, p.20
1.2.2 Commercialization of the media [6], §3.4.2, p.20 1.2.2.1 The importance of video continues to grow [6], §3.4.3, p.20
1.2.2.2 Changing perception of the value of journalism: confidence is declining [6], §3.4.4, p.20
1.2.2.3 The public places increasing importance on transparency and accountability of journalistic organizations [6], §3.4.4, p.20
1.2.3 Unbundling [6], §3.4.5, p.22) 1.2.3.1 Unbundling has implications for the role of journalists. If people are less loyal to titles, journalists will need to become a
brand themselves and represent themselves via social media [6], §3.4.5, p.22
2 UNCERTAINTIES 2.1 LEADING TRENDS 2.1.1 Sustained technological development: pace, form & acceptance uncertain [6], §3.3.2, p.15
2.1.1.1 Will journalist put together stories from information gathered from devices or ‘things’ (The Internet of things) [6], §3.3.2,
p.15
2.1.1.2 Will media become ‘ambient’, where technology is universally present, embedded and adaptive? [6], §3.3.2, p.16)
2.1.1.3 How much resistance will there be towards algorithms directing news consumption? [6], §3.3.2, p.16 2.1.1.4 Will there be a requirement for a certain level of justification of the use of algorithms? [6], §3.3.2, p.16
2.1.2 Infringement of privacy because of smarter use of data [6], §3.3.2, p.16
2.1.2.1 Will there be an opposition movement in the Netherlands by being more cautious themselves and/ore demand protection
from government?
2.1.3 Retreating government: cutbacks and decentralization [6], §3.3.3, p.17
2.1.3.1 Will the Dutch government continue to support independent quality journalism in the future? [6], §3.3.3, p.17
2.1.3.2 Will the government continue to maintain the public system because quality and pluriformity of news and information are
essential for a properly functioning democracy? [6], §3.3.3, p.17 2.1.3.3 Will the government still wish to pay for amusement, games and sport , since they are increasingly seen as private services?
[6], §3.3.3, p.17
2.1.3.4 Will there be new initiatives at regional and local level, including citizen initiatives, which contribute to the democratic
process? [6], §3.3.3, p.17
2.1.4 Powerlessness of governments in relation to technology giants [6], §3.3.4, p.17
2.1.4.1 To what extent will it be possible to enforce regulation for improving the protection of personal data [6], §3.3.4, p.18
2.1.5 Smarter use of data versus infringement of privacy [6], §3.3.2, p.16
2.1.5.1 Will there be an opposition movement in the Netherlands, whereby people will either become more cautious themselves about giving away their details by the using apps or other intern platforms [6], §3.3.2, p.17 or will they demand better
protection from the government? [6], §3.3.2, p.17
2.1.6 Institutions versus individuals [6], §3.3.5, p.17
2.1.6.1 Will confidence in institutions (governments, media, business life and NGO’s) recover? 2.1.6.2 Will there be an increasing division in society between those who need or prefer self organization, in which experts and
peers play a prominent role, and those who still) have confidence in the central direction of institutions and governments,
where there is regained or renewed confidence amongst the public?
o Signals of a growing divide in society are however observed [6], §3.3.6, p.18 There is a feeling of a reduced grasp on
society, accompanied by a feeling of detachment [6], §3.3.6, p.18 Large collectives are falling apart as a result, and are becoming intricate and increasingly small communities
[6], §3.3.6, p.18
There are clear differences in media use in the Netherlands between young people and older people, highly
educated and lower educated, poor and rich and racial minorities and Dutch natives [6], §3.3.6, p.18
2.2 DEPENDENT TRENDS 2.2.1 Changing perception of the value of journalism:
2.2.1.1 Will confidence decline [6], §3.4.4, p.20
2.2.2 Unbundling [6], §3.4.5, p.22.
2.2.2.1 Will traditional news media gain more confidence? [6], §3.4.4, p.20
2.2.2.2 Will people be less loyal to titles? [6], §3.4.5, p.22 2.2.3 Citizens as journalist [6], §3.4.6, p.22
2.2.3.1 Will ‘user generated content’ (information that is provided by media users) be blended with professional journalism? [6],
§3.4.6, p.22
2.2.3.2 Will the public really create and distribute complete news stories? [6], §3.4.6, p.22
2.2.4 Capacity for change for traditional journalist organizations is too limited [6], §3.4.6 p.23 2.2.4.1 Will traditional newsrooms be able respond quickly enough to the changing requirements of readers and viewer? [6],
§3.4.7 p.23
APPENDIX B
Scenario stories from the Journalism2025 report, section ‘Journalists and stories’ Wisdom of the crowd Journalists and stories
“A large section of the news is automatically generated by robots. There is a staggering number of civic journalists that
film or write content. The number of professional
journalists, by contrast, is diminishing and their role
shifting. Instead of being a source of news and reporters
they have become curators, fact-checkers, researchers and forum organisers and have an exemplary function with
regard to non-professional news makers.
Journalists on the payroll have become a rarity , which
means that only those with a truly original voice and with
superior analytical skills remain and manage to distinguish themselves. New professions, however, have emerged, such
as that of the information intermediary – freelance
professionals who help others distinguish the wood from the
trees.
Within journalism, the role of curator is gaining importance. The public is in danger of becoming overwhelmed by
tweets, data, blogs, and discussions on community
platforms. A number of journalists and journalistic
platforms, however, have been able to push back the internet
to bite-size proportions, categorising the world and sifting out the gold nuggets of news from the streams of
information. Some journalists even manage to become a
brand name, securing a loyal audience with both original
production and quality content curation. In addition, the field of journalism constitutes a key platform for debate and
social criticism, where discussions are moderated by
professional journalists. There is a great deal of service
journalism, aimed at improving the decision-making
processes of consumers. Journalists frequently operate in collectives of professionals,
consisting of programmers, data specialists and scientists in
the applied sciences. Journalistic routines have become
considerably more advanced, involving the frequent use of
data analysis and pattern recognition techniques. One of the journalist’s jobs is to accurately analyse the data, which
inevitably comes down to asking the right question.
Journalistic products increasingly are made up of discrete
components, e.g. text, video and a number of data analyses
(visualised in interactive info graphics) that can be adapted to suit user specifications. These clumps of information can
then be recombined into new stories, which on one hand
results in improved gains, but on the other hand leads to the
journalist having no control over the final product.
Professional journalists are required to be adept at using the technology that makes their work distinctive. The higher
vocational (HBO) journalism programmes have been
transformed into far more technically oriented, data
journalism, image and fact-checking courses. Some
universities offer very selective creative journalism programmes.” [7], pp. 48-50
“Basic news is covered by ‘robot journalism’, meaning
stories that are written by specially programmed software.“
“Press agencies over the last ten years have focused their
activities on checking and selecting and filtering information
from staggering amounts of image material shot by civilians
at the right place and time. This role, however, is becoming
increasingly more automated, as machine learning has resulted in computers being able to do the job cheaper,
quicker and with fewer errors.” [7], pp. 48-50
A handful ofApples
Journalists and stories
“Large media corporations (both internet platforms, such as
Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon, and global news
providers, such as Al Jazeera and China Central Television and a pan-European consortium) produce a large amount of
experience-based productions, even for the news domain.
Stories are diverse, interactive and nonlinear, and make use
of image and audio material, graphics, chat and 3D
resources in a virtual reality environment. This allows consumers to experience news events seemingly first hand
and from a variety of perspectives. Media companies have
also begun experimenting with olfactory and tactile user
experiences.
Robots have taken over the simple work previously done by journalists, with the writing or copying of press releases,
entertainment news and emergency services news being
entirely automated. The limited number of journalists that
do manage to rise above the digital cacophony subsequently
do gain substantial fame in the public eye. And although higher quality journalistic endeavours, in many cases, are
the result of the work of an extensive, interdisciplinary and
highly professional team of journalists, programmers, data
analysts, marketing specialists, actors, historians, citizens,
graphic designers, editors and producers: the public’s eye tends to focus on one single journalist.” [7], p. 44
The Shire Journalists and stories
“The public is distrustful of those in power and simultaneously of those in the field of journalism. Any
commentary is more often than not given by experts than by
journalists. Nevertheless, a number of titles and independent
journalists do manage to build up a strong reputation in the
field of investigative journalism, financing their work through crowd-funding channels.
A platform has been created by concerned citizens who can
afford to fund the work of investigative journalists. This
mechanism has evoked some sympathy from users
(spending their own money on a good cause), yet has also resulted in controversy, given that these so-called defenders
of freedom of speech in reality determine which issues are
investigated and which are not. As such the debate on the
independence of journalism has flared up again, in light of
funding and investors being key pillars of the industry. There has been a sharp decline in the number of working,
professionally trained journalists, with the employment
offered within web titles, who have small editorial staffs and
little original content, being disproportionate to the number
of jobs lost. Editorial teams at the remaining traditional news corporations (rooted in print media, radio and
television) are small and frequently outsource work to
freelancers, content and data experts. There is a great deal of
smart collaboration between editorial teams, even on an
international level, facilitated by the production of text, data and video in small chunks, which allows several stories to
be generated from the same basic material. Good quality
machine translation applications have all but removed
language barriers. Burgeoning community sites and branded
platforms have resulted in the creation of new journalistic routines and roles. A section of professionally trained
journalists focus on moderating and holding debates and
securing an audience for community sites and platforms,
resulting in the creation of a new position in journalism, that
of the community manager. There are a limited number of independent professional journalists that are able to make a
living by offering text and images through their own
websites or via paid contributions to platform discussions.
There are a number of initiatives propagating the
establishment of a quality standard for journalists (comparable to the Magnum Photos for photographers): an
elite collective that offers its stories via one portal. Most of
these initiatives die a quick, premature death as a result of
the interminable debate on who should grant such a quality
certification.” [7], pp. 46-47
Darwins game Journalists and stories
“Journalism has become a multi-facetted profession. In addition to traditional journalists who seek out injustices and
report on issues, a new role has been created for journalists
who care about their community, offer solutions to issues
and provide a forum for debate. The gap between journalists
and citizens has narrowed, with many examples of participative journalism taking place, for instance, with the
general public contributing to productions while directed by
journalists or editorial teams. There have also been instances
where the audience has suggested topics and questions to be
investigated by professional investigative journalists, resulting in collaborative productions. Finally, there is a
great deal of service journalism, which provides consumers
with information that is directly useable, primarily in the
form of apps, data journalistic applications, allowing the
reader or user to put together the desired composition of information. The age of the all-knowing bard has ended.
Thanks to the internet, everyone has free access to the
source material. Within the field of journalism, objectivity
has been supplanted by transparency , meaning openness
about one’s own views and methods and providing as much transparency as possible about the sources used.” [7], p. 52
APPENDIX C
- CODED TRENDS - origi nal scenario story
Wi sdom of The Cr owd 1
2
I ntroduction: the world of 2025 3
The world of 2025 is dynami c, enterprising and tech mi nded [1] [2] [3]. The economy runs on a vast amount of start-ups 4
and independent entrepreneurs, pop-up Internet businesses and ingeni ous inventors, who collaborate via ever-changi ng 5 ( virtual) networks. The Internet wi th its myriad potential has facilitated a continuing shift toward a sharing and co-operative 6
economy [4] , wi th participation, proactive citizenshi p, collaboration and sharing formi ng core val ues of society. There are 7
many effective platforms linking supply and demand, partial ly consisting of communi ty sites [4], commer cial ly driven 8
pl at forms (like Marktplaats, Ai rbnb and Uber in 2015) and peer-to-peer networks on whi ch products and services are 9
created collectively, e.g. mobile phones, open source software and de-central ly generated energy that is dist ributed via 10 smart grids [5]. 11
Large sections of society are now convinced that technology and power are closely intertwi ned [6] , whi ch is why 12
t echnol ogy is approached more and more from a political and human rights perspective in debates on communi ty websites 13
and traditional and social medi a. Issues such as use of personal details and the accountability of algorithms have become 14
matters of national importance [7] [8]. The influence of large conglomerates such as Google, Amazon and Facebook has 15 decreased [9] due to the growi ng frustration about privacy viol ations [7] and insuf ficiently transparent algorithms. They 16
have all been sidelined in favor of effective bot tom- up and open source alternatives, primari ly set up by social 17
entrepreneurs wi th idealistic objectives [8] . A solid inf rastructure now exists for crowdfunding and crowdsourcing [4] [2] . 18
Journalism and the crafting of stories, in this burgeoning age, is increasingly movi ng toward an industry of individual 19
artisanship [10] . News is provided from every nook and cranny: by professional journalists, via social medi a and via 20 communi ty websites [10] . As such there is a great demand for people to filter through this flood of information to determi ne 21
what is important and what is not [11] . 22
The state has wi thdrawn from its facilitating role [12] [13] and is no longer a key player in the fiel d of journalism, rather it is 23
t he net neutral ity watchdog [9] : Internet providers may not del ay or block the services or applications of their competitors 24
wi thout cause. Thi s has benefited innovation in the fiel d, wi th more competition between Internet providers and an 25 i ncrease in opportunities for small content and application devel opers [14] [13] . 26
The government is the guarantor of privacy on the web [9]. Or ganizations must explicitly apply for permi ssion online to be 27
abl e to use people’ s personal details and must ‘forget’ that person if requested, meani ng that al l stored details must be 28
del eted [7]. Meanwhile, consumers have begun collectively organi zing themsel ves far better and their interests have come 29
t o bear more wei ght than those of the developers and distributors [4]. 30 The division in society, between the social ly engaged and inactive groups, however, represents the darker side of this 31
worl d [8] [15]. The di vision, more specifically, is between the peopl e who have a social network (real or virtual) at their 32
di sposal and those who do not : between those who are able to participate in a highly digitized society and those who find it 33
t oo compl ex [12]. The knowl edge gap is reinforced all the more by highly di vergent informat ion acquisition strategies. Due 34
t o the overwhelmi ng supply of text and images [1], large sections of society find it very difficult to decide what is true or 35 i mportant and whose opi nion to trust [16]. It is this group that fal ls by the wayside more and more. 36
Cr eative industry 37
The creative sector in the field of music, apps, games and film is hi ghl y dynami c: there seems to be no end to the number 38
of small enterprises and self-empl oyed entrepreneurs collaborating and churning out creative content in ever-changi ng 39
configurations [1] . Parties are able to collaborate in a smart and transparent way, using modul ar and open source 40 devel opment plat forms (like Gi thub in 2015), resulting in films, games and journalistic productions [1] [17] [3] . The results 41
of these collective development endeavors of ten seem to have far more applications than previously conceived [6] , 42
maki ng collaboration a challengi ng, efficient and beneficial undertaking. Many devices, apps and programs are geared 43
t oward individual and smart production of images, audio and virtual realities [1] [18] . And this take place en masse, with 44
people di stributing their work on sharing platforms, generally without a commer cial purpose, although the development of 45 a popular app or viral video may always result in five mi nutes of fame, attract advertisers, and allow someone to earn a 46
year’s sal ary in just a few days [19]. 47
A number of Dutch publishers have succeeded in claimi ng a position at the di stribution end by buying up small, innovative 48
ent erprises [14]. Most large publishing compani es, however, have become obsolete due to their archaic, sluggish and top-49
heavy constructions [14] . 50 Technology 51
Devi ces are increasingly becomi ng smaller and more powerful, so too are connections becomi ng faster and better, with 52
screens and control panels becomi ng easier and more intuitive to use [6] [1] . As a result, consumers have increasingly 53
easi er access to high-grade content . A lot of technology is geared toward facilitating the qui ck and smart creation of 54
content , by users themsel ves [1]. For exampl e, Smartphones that can be modularly constructed by users and handy 55 vi rtual reality sets that al low users to create productions, or games that collectively al low users to build thi ngs (e.g. 56
Mi necraft) [1] [3]. 3D printing has become more popul ar than ever due to the easy availability of user-friendl y patterns for 57
every product under the sun: from Lego and Pl aymobil to summer rai ncoats. The 3D printers in the local print shops never 58
st op runni ng. 59
News organi zations and journalists, including non- professionals, have ever more tool s to create digital content , such as 60
vi rtual reality and 3D simul ations [20] [18]. Basic news is covered by ‘robot journalism’ ; meaning stories that are written by 61 special ly programmed software [1] [18] [21]. 62
News corporations 63
The landscape of journalism has become severely fragmented [3]. There is a highly extensive range of on-demand video 64
content available as well as a large supply of live st reams [1]. News, both text and image by both professional and civic 65
j ournalists [10] [3] [18] , is largely dissemi nated on the Internet : on Twi tter, on independent, civic communi ty sites [4] and 66 commer cial Internet platforms. The lat ter group is partial ly owned by traditional publishing companies, start-ups and 67
partial ly by larger players like Google, who no longer domi nate the scene [22] . Successful news organizations have 68
become companies that are able to offer tai lored and localized [5] news via smart al gorithms [1] , in whi ch content is clearly 69
mor e then a monotone message and consists of various components: video, text, audi o, images and/or data that can be 70
r ead or viewed on a multitude of pl atforms or devices [20] [18] . Journalism seems to be organized along the lines of the 71 gl obal production network of the gami ng industry in 2014. An international journalism network has been created [11], 72
populated by participants includi ng traditional publishers, bl oggers, independent journalists, providers of user- generated 73
content and news consumers [14]. 74
The limi ted number of magazines and newspapers still in circul ation are primari ly read by people over the age of 60 [19] . 75
The unbundl ed supply of stories [23], whereby users no longer buy a whole newspaper or magazine or watch an entire TV 76 show [24] , seems to be reasonabl y successful and in any case demonstrates that a story truly must offer added value for a 77
consumer to pay for it [24] [19]. Press agencies over the last ten years have focused thei r activities on checking and 78
sel ecting and filtering informat ion from staggering amounts of image mat erial shot by civilians at the right place and time 79
[ 10]. This role, however, is becomi ng increasingly more automat ed, as machi ne learni ng has resulted in computers being 80
abl e to do the job cheaper, qui cker and wi th fewer errors [5] [1] [21] [3] [18] . 81 Public broadcasting 82
The public broadcasting landscape has changed considerably. Government funding has been decoupled from form or 83
medi um [12], with every medi um wi th an editorial statute or professionally trai ned producer becomi ng eligibl e to apply for 84
pr oject-based funding if they can convincingly prove the existence of an immi nent democratic deficit. Whi te spot surveys 85
ar e regularly carried out determi ne whi ch groups of peopl e where are insufficiently informed to take part in the democratic 86 pr ocess [8]. Such locations then host government-sponsored news proj ects that are carried out in collaboration wi th local 87
parties. On communi ty sites, meanwhile, the debate on the extent to whi ch thi s is sufficient in providi ng every citizen in the 88
Net herlands wi th a basic suppl y of news rages on [8] [4]. 89
Onl y one public broadcasting station still remai ns, whi ch is used by the state to dist ribute general information [12] . The 90
st ation broadcasts several editions of the news daily, provides information on (domestic) disasters and teaches the el derly 91 how to use di gital medi a. TV broadcasters no longer broadcast on linear cabl e television, but broadcast digital ly. They al so 92
operate large communi ty sites of whi ch some are more successful than others [10] [12]. 93
Journal ists and stories 94
A large section of the news is automat ically generated by robots [1] . There are a staggering number of civic journalists that 95
f i lm or write content [10] . The number of professional journalists, by contrast, is dimi nishing and thei r role shifting [16] [14] . 96 I nstead of being a source of news and reporters they have become curators, fact-checkers [11], researchers and forum 97
or ganizers and have an exempl ary function wi th regard to non-professional news-makers [16]. 98
Journalists on the payroll have become a rarity [14], whi ch means that only those wi th a truly original voice and with 99
superior analytical skills remai n and manage to distinguish themsel ves [23]. New professions, however, have emerged, 100
such as that of the information intermedi ary -- freelance professionals who hel p others di stinguish the wood from the trees 101 [ 16]. 102
Wi t hi n journalism, the role of curator is gai ning importance. The public is in danger of becomi ng overwhelmed by tweets, 103
dat a, blogs, and discussions on communi ty pl atforms [8] . A number of journalists and journalistic pl atforms, however, have 104
been able to push back the Internet to bite-size proportions, categorizing the world and sifting out the gold nuggets of 105
news from the streams of informat ion [16]. Some journalists even manage to become a brand name, securing a loyal 106 audi ence wi th both original production and quality content curation. In addition, the fiel d of journalism constitutes a key 107
pl at form for debate and social criticism, where discussions are moderated by professional journalists [16]. There is a great 108
deal of service journalism, aimed at improving the decision-making processes of consumers [4] [11]. 109
Journalists frequently operate in collectives of professionals, consisting of programmer s, data special ists and scientists in 110
t he applied sciences [11] [3]. Journalistic routines have become considerabl y more advanced, involving the frequent use 111 of data anal ysis and pattern recognition techniques [6]. One of the journalist’s jobs is to accurately analyze the data, whi ch 112
i nevitably comes down to asking the right question. Journalistic products increasingly are made up of discrete 113
components, e.g. text, video and a number of data anal yses (visualized in interactive info graphics) that can be adapted to 114
sui t user specifications [5] [11]. These clumps of informat ion can then be recombi ned into new stories, whi ch on one hand 115
r esults in improved gains [24], but on the other hand leads to the journalist having no control over the final product [19] . 116 Pr ofessional journalists are required to be adept at using the technology that makes their work di stinctive [3]. The higher 117
vocational (HBO) journalism programs have been transformed into far more technically oriented, data journalism, image 118
and fact -checking courses. Some universities of fer very selective creative journalism programs. 119
Revenue models 120
The most successful journalism entrepreneurs in this world are able to make money in a variety of ways and by using a 121 r ange of revenue model s [19]. Income from mi cro-payments for (occasionally commer cial) content is suppl emented by 122
donations, pai d lectures, wi th larger projects that are financed through crowdfunding [19]. Journalism enterprises also use 123
a blend of revenue models: mi cro-payments for specific content and subscriptions to personalized content [5] [18] . 124
Consumers’ wil lingness to pay for news tai lored to their personal situation and location seems to be significantly greater 125
t han for general news [5]. This is equally true about their wil lingness to pay for high quality financial news. Consequently, 126 most successful businesses work with good algorithms to personalize and regi onalize news [5] [6] . The use of various 127
r evenue models demands a hi gh measure of flexibi lity of these organizations [25] as well as a high level of risk tolerance. 128
New di gital players are bet ter equipped in this regard than publishi ng compani es rooted in print medi a [14] [18] [3]129
References
[1] Sustained technological development, [Leading] & [Certain], Journalism2025, § 3.2.2, p.15.
[2] Sustained technological developments: pace, form & acceptance, [Leading] & [Uncertain].
[3] Brouwers, B., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[4] Do-It-Yourself Public Trust, [Critical] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, § 4.3, p. 26.
[5] Smarter use of data , [Leading] & [Certain], Journalism2025, § 3.3.2, p.16.
[6] Radical Acceptance of Technology, [Critical] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §4.2, p. 25.
[7] Infringement of privacy because of smarter use of data, [Leading] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.3.2, p.16.
[8] Institutions versus individuals, [Leading] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.3.5, p.17.
[9] Powerlessness of governments in relation to technology giants, [Leading] & [Uncertain] , Journalism2025, §3.3.4, p.
17.
[10] Citizens as journalist, [Dependent] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.4.6, p.22.
[11] Tokmetsis, D., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[12] Retreating government: cutbacks and decentralisation, [Leading] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.3.3, p.17.
[13] Nauta, T., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[14] Capacity for change for traditional journalist organisations, [Dependent] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.4.7,
p.23.
[15] Mevissen, M., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[16] Changing perception of the value of journalism, [Dependent] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.4.4, p.20.
[17] Commercialisation of the media, [Dependent] & [Certain], Journalism2025, §3.4.2, p.20.
[18] van der Kaa, [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[19] Disruption of earnings models, [Dependent] & [Certain], Journalism2025, §3.4.1, p.18.
[20] Smart devices and social media change the playing field for journalism, [Leading] & [Certain], Journalism2025, §
3.3.1, p.13.
[21] Op het Veld, R., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[22] Powerlessness of governments in relation to technology giants, [Leading] & [Certain], Journalism2025, § 3.3.4,
p.17.
[23] Unbundling, [Dependent] & [Certain], Journalism2025, §3.4.5, p.22.
[24] Unbundling, [Dependent] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.4.5, p.22.
[25] Kroeg, R., [confirmed], [Expert Consultation], Personal communication.
[26] Smarter use of data versus infringement of privacy, [Leading] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025, §3.3.2, p.16.
[27] Reluctant Acceptance of Technoloy, [Critical] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025 § 4.3, p.25.
[28] Do-It-For-Me Public Trust, [Critical] & [Uncertain], Journalism2025 § 4.3, p.26.
APPENDIX D
- SYNOP SI S-
WI SDOM OF THE CROW D LI ST OF CHARACTERS 1. 1. 1. 1 JOURNALI ST: Sam 1. 1. 1. 2 MENTOR: Renée 1. 1. 1. 3 SHAPESHI FTER: Fr ank, the entrepreneur and CEO of NewSense 1. 1. 1. 4 SHADOW: Whi te spot surveyor 1. 1. 1. 5 TRI CKSTER: The desire to get some rest 1. 1. 1. 6 HERALD: Anne
BACKSTORY I t looks like the start -up is agai n in the top 5 of most promi si ng busi ness entities in the Net herlands. Just like it
has been for the past few years. Cooperation between parties is sti ll the way to lead the compet ition. Wi t h vast technol ogi cal advancement s at your side, there is no end to what vi rtual cooperative rel ationshi ps can mean i n meet i ng your (busi ness) goal s. As long as you have that al l so impor tant DI Y ment ality that is. If you
don’ t , you’ re out . Your actions wi l l influence and inspi re ot hers to co-create wi th you. Keep thi s in mi nd when wor ki ng at a news outlet . Wi th government s layi ng low as mer el y facil itators and technol ogy gi ants havi ng lost l arge parts of the power they once used to have, it is no tel ling who wi l l be the public’ s favorites. Be aware
t hough. Many start-ups fal l just as qui ck as they have risen. What used to be congl omer ates like Facebook det ermi ni ng what news is, it is now the communi t ies that are call ing the shots. Keepi ng them cl ose mi ght be j ust the advi ce you’l l need. (Future Scenario Wi sdom of The Crowd, lines 3-11) Soci ety is approaching technol ogy from a political and human rights perspective now. The power is where the technol ogy i s, so it seems. Many express their thoughts on responsible use of privacy-sensitive data and al gorithms in the medi a and on communi ty plat forms. Privacy viol ations by the tech gi ants are punished wi th people turni ng thei r back on them. Open source alternatives and bottom- up structures are en vogue now. Especial ly social entrepreneurs wi th idealistic obj ectives can count on the support of the crowd. (Future Scenario Wi sdom of The Crowd, Lines 13-20) Journalists have evolved as in craf tsmen and -- women. They are crafting stories by sifting through vast amounts of i nformat ion and turning that info-junk into journalistic gems. News seems to come from everywhere so journalists are not t he only ones tel ling stories. Communi ty websites and social medi a chatter at ful l speed. (Future Scenario Wi sdom of The Cr owd, lines 22-26) When it comes to journalism the governments plays hardly any part. One of the few things the government still feels obliged to is being the net neutral ity- and privacy watchdog. They demand fair play from Internet providers and online busi nesses. No messing about with blocking content delivered by competing parties, and no use of personal data wi thout consent. Consumers have come a long way in that sense: their interests are better met , than those of developers and di st ributors. (Future Scenario Wi sdom of The Crowd, lines 26-35) Not al l citizens can keep up. Some find all this Do-It-Yourself, Al ways On mentality too much to handl e. Some are simpl y not able to gather the needed information. They cannot tel l who’ s right and what’s important. As a result many fal l of the accelerating, proverbi al bandwagon. (Future Scenario Wi sdom of The Crowd, lines 37-43).
ACT I I NTRODUCTION
NARRATOR Ti me flies. Don’t you thi nk? Seems like yesterday that we were worried about I nstant Articles on Facebook, disrupting our earning models. That we used Per sonalization and Bildung as our buzzwords. That it promi sed to be our Summer of Vi rtual Reality. Oh, sweet and dear 2016. Look at us now. It’s two-t housand-and-twenty-five… Technol ogy has advanced for sure. It has affected t he way we look at news. Or should I say infected? Vast amounts of data and medi a are mai ntained and stored wherever we can. Who wil l use it al l? We, the people, with al l our devices? Roami ng around to find, what? The truth? Don’t make me laugh. What’s that? Oh, yes, the journalists. Maybe they wil l shed the needed light . Believe me, as long as they wil l able to do so, they will. The f orces at pl ay mi ght interfere, however. You know that already. You’ ve seen the news.
PROLOGUE Sam goes through a normal morning routine. Reading online newspapers, scanning through social medi a accounts.
SAM ( reads an article)
Fi nd out why journal ists at start-ups are best off I t looks like the start-up is again in the top 5 of most promi sing business entities i n the Netherlands. Just like it has been for the past few years. Cooperation bet ween parties is still the way to lead the competition. Wi th vast technological advancements at your side, there is no end to what virtual cooperative r elationshi ps can mean in meeting your (business) goal s. As long as you have t hat al l so important DI Y mentality that is. If you don’t, you’re out. Your actions wi ll influence and inspire others to co-create wi th you. Keep thi s in mi nd when wor king at a news outlet. Wi th governments laying low as merel y facilitators and technology giants having lost large parts of the power they once used to have, it is no tel ling who will be the public’s favorites. Be aware though. Many st art-ups fal l just as qui ck as they have risen. What used to be congl omerates l ike Facebook determi ni ng what news is, it is now the communi ties that are call ing the shots. Keeping them close mi ght be just the advice you’ll need.
THE ORDI NARY WORLD Sam i s having one last coffee, before starting work. On the table, next to the computer is a new smartphone. It came in a f ew days ago, and Sam still has to get used to it. The package in whi ch the phone was delivered also contained a note and a keychain.
THE CARD READS Good to have you wi th us. Frank
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE The phone softly lights up while Sam was put ting down the coffee mug. There’s a message, apparently.
- EXAMPLE OF DI ALOGUE- FRANK
Sam, hi, this is Frank. Listen, I got this bi g batch of files. Do me a favor wil l you. Si ft through this flood of information (24) and find out what’s important , and what ’s not. Fi nd a great story for NewSense, yeah? I’ve put the files in the r epository. Bye!’ ’
Sam touches the computer to activate it. The logon screen appears.
SYSTEM (text) Pl ease provide your ID by choosing an option below: [ 1] Scan code with your phone [ 2] Provide your keychain [ 3] Type your password
REFUSAL OF THE CALL Sam takes the keychai n and places it on the touchpad. The system unl ocks and the NewSense dashboard appears.
- EXAMPLE OF DI ALOGUE-
SYSTEM (text) Hi Sam. You have three messages. Do you want to know who contacted you whi le you were away?
SAM. Hi , yes, thank you
Sam touches the computer to activate it. The logon screen appears. SYSTEM
(text) Anne woul d like to speak to you. It’s urgent . Do you want me to call Anne now?
SAM No, I’ll do that later
SYSTEM (voice) Fr ank has sent you a batch of files. Do you wi sh to downl oad the batch from the r epository?
SAM Yes, pl ease.
MEETI NG WI TH THE MENTOR Sam i s studying the dashboard. There are many functionalities available, but not many of them look fami liar. Sam finds the
but ton that says ‘communi cator’. A tap on the but ton opens up a dial ogue screen. A little square gif-portrait of Renée is shown. Sam opens a di alogue screen.
SAM Hi Renée, how are you?
RENÉE Hey Sam! Are you doi ng ok? Just wanted to check in.
SAM I was just listening to my messages. Can you tel l me how to open a repository? Fr ank sent me some files.
RENÉE Sur e. Just try to find the Files Folder in the upper left corner of your dashboard. What are your plans for today? You know Frank wants us to deliver news fast but good.
SAM I am fol lowi ng up on tech start-up article. But now I first need to look at the files Fr ank sent me.
RENÉE You do that . See what you can find. Contact me when you need me, ok? Oh, and use the tools. They’re handy! Bye!
Sam finds the files folder and opens the downl oaded batch. The folder fills up wi th docs, pics, data files, contact lists, pdf’s… Sam starts a routine of gathering, anal yzing and sel ecting. Scanning text documents, then analyzing a .pdf wi th graphs, f ol lowed by browsi ng through hundreds of pictures. Where is thi s leading to, what is it about? Sam needs help and opens t he toolbox on the dashboard. From the list Sam chooses no. 2, the ‘summari zer dashboard’. It sounds handy, just like Renée said. ACT II CROSSI NG THE FIRST THRESHOLD
THE COMMUNI CATOR ( shows a message from Frank in a chat wi ndow) t he editorial team gathers in 1 hour. Wi l l you be ready to pitch a concept for your story then?
SAM (typi ng) I ’m not sure
FRANK Hmm, why not? What is keepi ng you? I need you to deliver a story, Sam. Our l oyal fol lowers are depending on us. If you need hel p talk to Renée ok? Bye!
Sam tries to figure out what al l the files are about . There seem to be some classified reports from a white spot survey conducted by the government. There coul d be a story in there… the photos in the file show a bunch of selfies and pi ctures f rom restaurants and plates of food. Sam can’t find a connection between the data files. Sam woul d need some mi ni ng t ool to find outl iers or significant numbers. It’s too hard to analyze the data just from a spreadsheet . AN HOUR PASSES Sam does not yet have an idea for a good story. Then Sam gets a phone-call: it’s Renée. Wi th some tips from Renée on t ools to use Sam is back to analyzing the files. Wi th the help of the tools Sam finds a lead. Sam qui ckly writes the new st ory idea in the Editing Pl atform. Just in time for the IN-meeting wi th the editorial team.
THE COMMUNI CATOR (shows a message on the dashboard) Pl ease join the IN-meeting wi th the editorial team.’ ’
Sam accepts the invite, provides the keychain ID, and is then taken to the team meeting screen. TESTS, ALLIES & ENEMI ES I t looks just like Skype. Next to photos of the other participants there is a chat -box. It says that Sam joined a meeting with Fr ank, Renée and two peopl e Sam does not know. Sam hears someone tal king.
COLLEAGUE I ’m doing thi s story on a newl y formed communi ty in the south. Ci tizens are collaborating on the fabrication of mi ni modular constructed operating system to connect to lapel pi ns and ear buds. So far nothing new. But the story is i nteresting because rumor has it that Xi aomi is interfering. There is much debate on this among the journalists at the virtual co-worker plat form. I’m trying t o find out the details
FRANK
Sounds good, but make sure that you run it through ALDO to auto-fact-check everything. Maybe use the interview bot to get some citizens to talk.
COLLEAGUE Ok, wil l do
FRANK (quickly turns to Sam) Hey Sam, wel come. Gi ve us your story!
Sam tel ls about the suspicious file that was found in the data set. It seems to handle about a white spot survey the government recently carried out…Fr ank interrupts by saying that he doesn’t think thi s story wil l resonate wi th the readers of NewSense.
FRANK
You are supposed to take on the role of curator, Sam. Sift through the data ‘till you find that gol den nugget. You want to become a brand name as a journalist, don’t you? Get to work!
Fr ank leaves the meeting wi thout saying anythi ng el se. Sam receives a PM from Renée, it says: ‘ ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find somet hing’ ’. Renée and Sam tal k a while on the phone. About the data, the photos, the contact lists. Renée helps Sam back on track. There’s a bl eep. Sam receives an incomi ng message. ‘ ‘I got to go, Renée. Talk to you later. I’ve got an incomi ng call.’ ’ By the time Sam is ready to take the call, the bleeping stopped. There is a recorded message comi ng in on the dashboard.
STRANGER St op digging in my survey data, Sam. The government officials wil l notice it. I wi l l help you to put the pieces together. But I want somet hi ng in return. Send me a PM.
Who was that? Sam tries to connect the phone number to a person in of the lists from the batch of files. There it is, a name, a picture, everything! Sam found somet hing to work with. A box flashes in the bottom right corner of the dashboard.
SYSTEM (text) At NewSense we always make sure to offer high quality service journalism. Our t ools will hel p you to achi eve that .
THE ORDEAL
SAM (frustrated) Yeay, yeah. Go away. Gi ve me some rest! There needs to be a fol low up story on the tech start-up, Frank wants an exceptionally wonderful story on what -ever… I just need some time to think!
Wi t h the Renée’s advice in mi nd Sam manages to get some data through the al gorithm-tool called ALDO. It gives Sam t ime to lean back for a while. The system spits out thi s text file wi th highlighted sections. Sam connects the dots and starts t ypi ng.
When the dashboard informs Sam that the deadline is near, it is not even a probl em. Sam submi ts the story to the OUT-editing team. Sam di d not even notice that there was a message on the phone from a friend: ‘ ‘I know how much it means for you to keep cool and take five. You told me to remi nd you ;) If you need to, contact me. I can sneak out for a chat from my wor kstation at Code-a-Phone.’ ’ THE REWARD
SYSTEM (voice) Whi l e you wait for the team of editors to respond, you can use publishing tools f or optimi zation of your story. You can consult the help section for our pr ocedures.
SAM Ok, ok!
Sam clicks on the needed tools. There’s a program guidi ng Sam through. ACT III THE ROAD BACK
SYSTEM (voice) You can now review the output of the tools and/or review your personal
performance. Wi l l you Accept or Decline?
SAM
Accept SYSTEM
(voice) Thank you. Pl ease provide your ID to store your performance data. The info wil l be used to cal culate your salary.
SAM (sighs) Pf ew!
THE RESURRECTION RENÉE
(calls on the phone) Wel l , what a job, eh?
- END OF SYNOPSI S -
APPENDIX E
- STORY ELEM EN TS- f or the four different scenarios
Wi sdom of the Crowd Handful of Apples The Shire Dar wi n’s Game
JOURNALI ST Pr ofessional journalist at news start-up. Takes on t he role of curator of news.
Pr ofessional journalist at ni che news title, that met i culously reports on privacy violations by the bi g conglomerates
Fr eelance journalist that i s hired by a traditional news corporation. Al so communi ty manager of communi ty website.
Ser vice journalist at j ournalism plat form that creates data journalistic apps
SHAPESHI FTER (‘ boss’)
Entrepreneur and CEO of NewsSense
Weal thy idealist that st arted niche news outlet Act ivisions
I nitiator of Communi ty pl at form Fellowshi p
CEO of service j ournalism plat form Or i gin
SHADOW Whi te spot surveyor Technician at public br oadcaster
Board member of the el i te collective that wants t o gi ve out quality st andards
Empl oyee at trusted Dut ch news brand
HERALD Fri end, digital illiterate Fri end, tactile UX and Ol factory expert
Fri end, share public veggi e garden
Fri end, works at national mor ni ng paper
CONFLI CT The journalist is put under pressure not to r eveal a cover up of the r esults of a white spot survey, carried out by the government to determi ne whi ch groups of peopl e wer e insufficiently i nformed to take part in t he democratic pr ocess.
The journalist st ruggles wi th a conscientious obj ection towards the gat hering of personal dat a at Activisions. The j ournalist thinks about l eaving the company but does not want to gi ve up t he fame and loyal f ol lowers.
The journalist is put under pressure to support an initiative on t he establishment of quality standards for j ournalists. The journalist st ruggles to remai n aut onomous in the public debate.
There has been a f al sification of i nvestigation data by a t rusted Dutch news br and. The journalist st ruggles wi th publishing t he case-files, although t he new journalistic mor al di ctates t ransparency instead of obj ectivity.
TRI CKSTER (‘ desire’)
Want s rest, peace of mi nd
Want s to be in the spotlight
Want s to stay close to personal beliefs
Want s to stay true to t raditional journalistic st andards
MENTOR Experienced co-worker Experienced co-worker Experienced co-worker Experienced co-worker
APPENDIX F
- SCRI PT-
WI SDOM OF THE CROW D
LI ST OF CHARACT ERS
MENTOR: The { j ournal ist }’s hel per
( TYPE: wi zard of oz)
SHAPESHI FTER: The one managi ng & payi ng the {journal ist }, is a two - faced character .
( TYPE: pr edef ined)
SHADOW: Lur es {journal ist } to conf l ict si de Y
( TYPE: pr edef ined)
TRI CKSTER: Embodi es {j our nal ist }’s desi re for change
( TYPE: pr edef ined)
HERALD: Fr i end. Gui des {jour nal ist } to conf l ict si de X
( TYPE: pr edef ined)
UNKNOWN
COLLEAGUE:
NON- PERSO N CHARACTER ( NPC)
LI ST OF ELEMENT S
{ j ournal ist } Test person, a journal ist .
{ sessi onl eader } Per son leadi ng the sessi on from behi nd the scenes.
[ j our nalist _name] Real name of the testper son.
[ j our nal i s t _phone]
/ [phone]
Pr epar ed smar t phone that is provi ded to the test person.
[ j our nalist _phonenumber ] Tel ephone number of the prepared phone.
[ comput er ] Pr epar ed comput er that is provi ded to the test person.
[ type of message] Message i n the form of phone- cal l, voi cemessage, system di al ogue box,
communi cat or message or inst ant message.
[ SYSTEM] Pr epar ed sof twar e on comput er , appears as dashboar d wi t h si mu l at ed
and act ual funct ional ities.
[ Accept ] /[Decl i ne] Choi ce the jour nal ist can make. Dependi ng on the scenari o ei ther voi ce-
or cl ick act ivat ed.
[ COMM UNI CATO R] Pr epar ed sof twar e on the comput er to si mul at e inst ant messagi ng, chat
and di al ogue screens vi a dashboar d.
[ teammeet i ng-int erface] Skype- l ike int erface for conf erence cal l ing and chat .
[ Edi t ing Pl at form] Si mul at ed news edi t ing sof twar e / Cont ent Management Syst em.
[ st or y subj ect ] , [s t o r y
subj ect mot i vat ion]
Subj ect of a story fi tting in the storywor l d. Cont ent di f fers for each of t he
f our scenari os.
‘ ‘I’m doi ng thi s st ory on [story subj ect ] and it is int erest ing because [st ory
subj ect mot i vat ion] .’ ’
[ ALDO f unct ion] A ( si mul at ed) funct ion of the robot journal ism al gorithm t ool .
[ stor y critique] The way a st ory get s critici zed by [SHAPESHI FTER] .
[ j our nalist rol e] The r ol e a jour nalist has in soci et y. Rol e di f fer s for eac h of the four
scenari os.
[ posi tive feedback] Pos i t ive message t o mot i vat e {journal ist }
[ act ivi ty] When { j ournal ist } is act ive on the [comput er ] .
[ conf l ict ] , [si de x] , [si de y] A conf l ict that fi ts in the storywor l d of the scenari o, and has two opposi te
ki nds of argument s/ mot i vat i on.
[ name o f j o u r n al i s t i c
pl at f or m t he j our nal i st
wor ks for ]
Name of the news or gani zat ion the {journal ist } wor ks for.
[ desi re] A hi dden, personal desi re or wi sh wi thi n the {journal ist }. The rol e of the
[ TRI CKSTER] .
[ payment s] / [fee] / [sal ary] The way t he {journal ist } get s pai d for hi s wor k.
PROL OG UE
{ j ournal ist } agreed to partici pat e in sessi on. {journal ist }
r ecei ved a keychai n wi th dat a stick from t he
{ sessi onl eader }. {The journal ist } provi ded the
{ sessi onl eader } wi th [journal ist_name] and
[ j our nalist _phonenumber ] . The {journal ist } has
[ j our nalist _phone] and [comput er ] wi th hi m/ her .
THE ORDI NARY WORL D Scene
0 Beat
1 { j ournal ist } goes through nor mal mor ni ng rout ine.
Newspaper , soci al medi a account s on [comput er ] and/ or
[ phone] . Al l cont ent is predef ined. What wor l d is
{ j ournal ist } livi ng in? The Backst ory unf ol ds.
THE CALL TO ADVENT URE Scene
1 Beat
1 { j ournal ist } recei ves a [type of message] on
[ j our nalist _phone] .
[ SHAPESHI FTER] : ‘ ‘{journal ist },hi , thi s is
Fr ank. I have thi s bat ch of files. Do me a
f avor, wi l l you, si ft through thi s flood of
i nf or mat i on and find out what ’ s impor t ant
or not . Fi nd a great stor y for [name of
j ournal ist ic pl at form t he journal ist wor ks
f or] . I’ve put the fi les in the reposi tory.
Bye!’ ’
Ant icipated behavior Use [computer]/ [ call][BOSS]/ I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 1
Beat 2
{ j ournal ist } uses the [comput er] . A logon screen appears.
[ SYSTEM] : ‘ ‘Pl ease provi de ID by choosi ng an opt ion
bel ow:
[1] Scan code wi th your phone
[2] Pr ovi de your keychai n
[3] Type your passwor d’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [1] / [2] / [3]
Ant icipated trigger 1. 2.1 1. 2.2 1. 2.3 I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 1
Beat 3
{ j ournal ist } is logged on. A dashboar d is present ed.
[ SYSTEM] , [type of message] :
‘ ‘Hi {journal ist }. You have three messages.
Do you want to know who cont act ed you
whi l e you wer e away?’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ] /[Decl i ne]
Ant icipated behavior Accept/ Decline I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
REFUSAL OF THE CALL Scene
2 Beat
1 [ COMM UNI CATO R] , [ type of message] :
[ MENTOR] :’ ’Hey {Journal ist }, how ar e
you?’ ’
A conver sat i on takes pl ace bet ween {j ournal ist } and
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
[ MENTOR] who wi l l hel p to progr ess in {sessi on} .
Scene 2
Beat 2
[ SYSTEM] , [ type of message] :
‘ ‘[HERALD] woul d l ike to speak to you. It’s
ur gent . Do you want me t o call [HERALD]
now?
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ] /[Decl i ne]
Ant icipated behavior Accept/ Decline I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 2
Beat 3
[ SYSTEM] , [ type of message] :
‘ ‘[SHAPESHI FTER] has sent you a bat ch
of fi les. Do you wi sh to downl oad the
bat ch from t he reposi tory?’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ] /[Decl i ne]
Ant icipated behavior Accept/ Decline I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 2
Beat 4
[ SYSTEM] , [ type of message] :
‘ ‘[MENTOR] want s to know your pl ans for
t oday. Pl ease cont act [MENTOR] t hrough
t he communi cat or.
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ] /[Decl i ne]
Ant icipated behavior Accept/ Decline I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
MEETI NG WI TH THE MENT OR Scene
3 Beat
1 { j ournal ist } can cl ick on several items on t he dashboar d.
{ j ournal ist } can:
[ 4] Fi les Fol der
[ 5] Int ervi ew Bot
[ 6] Tool box
[ 7] Out l ook
[ 8] Edi ting pl at form
[ 9] Tweet deck
[ 10] Communi cat or
[ 0] Logout
{ j ournal ist } starts journal ist ic process: gat hering,
anal yzi ng, sel ect ing. {jour nalist } goes through files on
[ comput er ] .
THERE ARE 4 STORYLI NES THAT CAN BE
‘ UNLOCKED’ :
A. HI DDEN TREASURE STORY
B. STANDARD, EASY STORY
C. EMOTI ONAL STORY
D. FRAUD STORY
Ant icipated behavior Cl i ck on button [0],[4] -[10]/ Do nothi ng on [computer]/ Use [journalist phone] I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 3
Beat 2
{ j ournal ist } opens [communi cat or] to cont act [MENTO R] . Ant icipated behavior Cl i ck on [10]
{ j ournal ist } can use tool s that hel p find a st ory. These
ar e in the tool s section [6] .
1. Eyebal l er
2. Summar i zer dashboard
3. Aut ot agger
Ant icipated behavior Cl i ck on [1] -[6]
4. Debugger
5. ALDO r obot
6. Chat bot
7. Si mpl i fier
Each t ool sel ect ion trigger s a si mul at ed run of the tool
t rough a movi e. Af ter that the resul t of the tool -run is
shown i n a section of the dashboar d, under [Resul ts]
but ton that appear s.
I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
CROSSI NG THE FI RST THRESHOL D
Scene 4
Beat 1
[ type of message] from [ SHAPESHI FTER] :
‘ ‘The edi torial team gat hers in 1 hour . Wi l l you be
r eady to pi tch a concept for your story then?’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [yes] /[no]
Ant icipated behavior [ yes]/[no] I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 4
Beat 2a
I f [yes] :
[ type of message] from [ SHAPESHI FTER] :
‘ ‘Ok, good. You can leave your ideas in the [Edi ting
Pl at form] . Tal k to you in an hour, bye!’ ’
Ant icipated behavior Open [8] Editing Pl atform/ Nothing/carry on I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
Scene 4
Beat 2b
I f [no] :
[ type of message] from [ SHAPESHI FTER] :
‘ ‘Hmm, why not ? What is keepi ng you? I need
you t o del iver a story, {journal ist }. Our loyal
f ol lower s are dependi ng on us. If you need hel p
t al k to [MENTOR] , ok? Bye!
Ant icipated behavior None/communi cate with [ mentor]/carry on I f neither >> scene 2, beat 1
delay << max. 1 h. >>
i f exceeded
[ type of message] from [ MENTOR]
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
Scene 4
Beat 3
{ j ournal ist } wri tes story out l ine/ idea in [8] Edi ting
Pl at form and pr esses [accept ]
{ j ournal ist } provi des st ory by [accept ]
Ant icipated behavior Open [8] Editing Pl atform > [submi t]
Scene 4
Beat 3
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] :
‘ ‘Pl ease joi n the IN- meet i ng wi th the edi tori al team. ’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ] /[Decl i ne]
Ant icipated behavior [ Accept]/[Decline]
Scene 4
Beat 4
I f [accept ] :
[ teammeet i ng-int erface] opens.
[ SYSTEM] : ‘ ‘Pl ease provi de ID by choosi ng an opt ion
bel ow:
[1] Scan code wi th your phone
[2] Pr ovi de your keychai n
[3] Type your passwor d’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des [1] / [2] / [3]
Ant icipated behavior Ant icipated trigger 4. 4.1 4. 4.2 4. 4.3
Skype- l ike set t ing
[ shar ed screen] , [voi ce] and [wr i tten text ] di al ogue box.
Participate in [teammeet ing-i nterface]
Scene 4
Beat 5
I f [decline] :
[ type of message] from [ MENTOR]
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
TESTS, ALLI ES & ENEMI ES
Scene 5
Beat 1
{ j ournal ist } ent ers the teammeet i ng.
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] :
‘ ‘You joi ned a meet i ng wi th [UNKNOWN COLLEAG UE] ,
[ SHAPESHI FTER] , [UNKNO WN COLLEAG UE] and
[ MENTOR] .
{ j ournal ist } hears [pre- recorded conversat ion] bet ween
shapeshi f ter and unknown col leagues.
[ UNKNOWN COLLEAG UE] ‘ ‘I’m doi ng thi s story on
[ stor y subj ect ] and it is int erest ing because [story subj ect
mot i vat i on] .’ ’
[ SHAPESHI FTER] : ‘ ‘Sounds good, but make sur e that
you r un it through ALDO t o [ALDO f unct ion] and [ALDO
f unct ion] .’ ’
[ UNKNOWN COLLEAG UE] ‘ ‘ok, wi l l do’ ’
[ SHAPESHI FTER] : ‘ ‘Hey {journal ist }, wel come. Gi ve us
your story’ ’
Ant icipated behavior St ay in team- meeting i nterface/leave
Scene 5
Beat 2
{ j ournal ist } pi tches st ory idea (voi ce).
[ SHAPESHI FTER] : ‘ ‘[story critique] . I don’ t thi nk thi s wi l l
r esonat e enough. You ar e supposed to take on the rol e
of [journal ist rol e] here. ’ ’
[ SHAPESHI FTER] l eaves [teammeet i ng-int erface] .
Ant icipated behavior St ay in team- meeting i nterface/leave
Scene 5
Beat 3
[ MENTOR] t ypes to {jour nalist } through teammeet i ng
i nt er face.
[ MENTOR] pr ovi des [posi tive feedback] .
[ MENTOR] makes sur e to find out wi th what st ory
{ j ournal ist } wi l l cont inue (1- 4).
{ j ournal ist } provi des [1] , [2] , [3] , [4]
Ant icipated behavior
St ory [1] , [2] , [3] , [4]
Scene 5
Beat 4
Al l leave [teammeet i ng-i nt erface]
Scene 6
Beat 1
{ j ournal ist } wor ks on wr i ting story in [8] Edi ting Pl at form
{ j ournal ist } provi des [act ivi ty] in [edi ting-pl at form]
Ant icipated behavior Act ivity in editing platform
Scene 6
Beat 2
[ SHADOW] [ type of message] to {journal ist }.
[ SHADOW] pr ovi des [conf l ict ] wi th det ai ls [conf l ict ] [si de
Ant icipated behavior Look through files on computer
Y] . delay << max. 0, 5 h. >>
i f exceeded
[ type of message] from [ MENTOR]
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
Scene 6
Beat 3
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] :
‘ ‘At [name of journal ist ic pl at form t he journal ist wor ks for]
we al ways make sur e to of fer hi gh qual ity [journal ist
r ol e] . Our tool s wi l l hel p you to achi eve that .’ ’
delay << max. 0, 5 h. >>
i f exceeded
[ type of message] from [ MENTOR]
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
Scene 6
Beat 4
What ’ s app message f rom [ HERALD] : provi des
[ TRI CKSTER] ar gument for [conf l ict ] [si de X]
‘ ‘I know how much i t means f or you to [desi re] . You t ol d
me t o remi nd you ; ) I f you need to, cont act me. I am at
[ heral d wor kpl ace] .
Ant icipated behavior Act ivity in editing platform/ lookup contact list
delay << max. 1 h. >>
i f exceeded
[ type of message] from [ MENTOR]
Ant icipated behavior Conversation/ Aski ng questions/ Aski ng help/ Not hing (no answering)
THE ORDEAL
Scene 7
Beat 1
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] : ‘ ‘The time of deadl ine
appr oaches. Pl ease submi t your story to the OUT t eam
of edi tors.’ ’
{ j ournal ist s} submi t s story
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] : [accept ] /[decline] ?
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ]
Ant icipated behavior Submi t story using the interface f rom the dashboard. Ant icipated trigger Accept
THE REWARD
Scene 8
Beat 1
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] : ‘ ‘Whi l e you wai t for the
t eam of edi tors to respond, you can use publ ishi ng tool s
f or opt imi zat ion of your story. You can consul t [hel p
sect i on] for procedur es.’ ’
Ant icipated behavior Cl i ck on tools from the list/consult hel p section/no activity
THE ROAD BACK
Scene 9
Beat 1
Syst em wi l l gi ve feedback on hi s per formance: feedback
f rom edi torial team and out put from used t ool s
[ SYSTEM] [ Type of message] :
‘ ‘You can revi ew t he out put of the
Ant icipated trigger Accept/decline
t ool s and/ or revi ew your personal
per f ormance.’ ’
[ SYSTEM] [ t ype of message] : [accept ] /[decline] ?
{ j ournal ist } provi des [Accept ]
{ j ournal ist can revi ew per formance.
[ SYSTEM] : ‘ ‘Pl ease provi de your ID to store your
per f ormance.
Your inf o wi l l be used for [payment s] / [ fee] / [sal ary]
Choose an opt i on bel ow:
[1] Scan code wi th your phone
[2] Pr ovi de your keychai n
[3] Type your passwor d’ ’
{ j ournal ist } provi des ID met hod [ 1] / [2] / [3]
Ant icipated trigger 9. 1.1 9. 1.2 9. 1.3
THE RESURRECTI ON
Scene 10
Beat 1
[ MENTOR] [ t ype of message] :
‘ ‘So{j ournal ist }, how di d it go today?’ ’
A conver sat i on bet ween {j ournal ist } and [MENTO R] .
[ MENTOR] ai ms t o figure out what went wel l and what
was di f ficul t or uncl ear. [MENTOR] ends conver sat ion.
RETURN WI TH THE ELI XI R
{ sessi on leader } cont act s {jour nalist } to end the
sessi on.
The sessi on get s revi ewed and document ed.
APPENDIX G
- Impr essi ons of user-journey and dashboard -
Eefje Op den Buysch
Thesis Master Information Studies – Human Centered Multimedia
University of Amsterdam – Faculty of Science