The Guardian: Case Study Example
- In 1995 the Guardian did not have a website or any sort of web presence but were starting to think that they should and it could also be a way in which will make them more money.
- Their main business was print media. They would circulate about £400,000 daily.
- There was a large one way communication from a large media institution to a mass audience.
Today, The Guardian does not just offer print media, it offers a large range of different media platforms to its audience, with a few examples being print, video, blogs and social networking.
2011
The Guardian Website:
- 36 million unique users per month
- It is number 1 in the world for user interaction
New Media: Blogging
This was a new phenomena for journalists as they traditionally had a one way relationship with readers, but blogging meant that audiences could give feedback and comment their opinions.
An example of a live blog is on the Sport Blog of The Guardian Newspaper.
Martin Johnson resigns as England manager – as it happened.
His blog gave updates from minute to minute and people were updating comments sharing their opinions about the story.
Podcasting is another new media. This is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication.
Use of social media:
Articles, etc. have links to all major social networking sites to encourage quick sharing.
Here is an example:
Here, it shows the share box, this is where articles can be transferred to many different social networking sites making it highly accessible to many users.
User Interaction
The Guardian are inviting user comments and interaction in order to reach and engage with an audience.
The Guardian have particularly dedicated and regular users of their specialized pages. e.g. The culture page which users visit regularly, they are more regular contributors and they can talk to each other.
User interaction could be the reason to why website hits are going up and newspaper circulation figures are gradually declining. People like the idea that they can put forward their opinions and can talk to other users and this is a major institution in media which can increase in size.
The future of Media?
- All journalists to have devices such as mobile phone cameras which can take and send videos to a weblink which they can access within minutes of uploading at the Guardian office.
- Guardian Smartphone App has moved to monthly subscription from a one off payment. This could lead to more subscription services and more incentives for people to download this app. It also considers what they are doing and what they could be doing to make their products and services 'better than free' as Kevin Kelly would put it.
- More convergence with other media/media services?
Clay Shirkey would suggest that this is what is happening. For example, different media coming closer together.
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