July  2013 25
專輯論文Special Issue Articles
網絡新聞再界定: 市場導向下的新媒體變革
Redefining Online News: A Market-driven New Media Reform
  (4462)
作者 區家麟
Author Allan K. L. AU
關鍵詞 新聞價值、新制度論、新聞再界定、資訊科技、點擊率新聞
Keywords News values, new institutionalism, redefining news, ICT, hit-rate journalism
摘要 本研究以參與觀察方式,了解香港一家電台之新媒體部門,如何透過築建新的網絡平台,啟動變革。他們如何重新定義新聞?比較傳統的新聞選材、查證、整合過程,有何異同?並以新制度論及市場導向新聞學之概念,探討媒體創新時,有何因素牽制其路向。研究發現,新部門由於相對獨立運作,擺脫傳統的規範,能實踐創新意念,但由於缺乏新聞專業守則規範,內容受獨大的市場力量左右,資訊趨向以色情暴力及奇情為主,新舊媒體理念南轅北轍,機構文化與運作未能聚合。
Abstract This study seeks to understand, through participant observation and indepth interviews, the production routines and decision processes of an ICT innovation attempt at a dooming radio station, VOHK1. How does the new media department in a traditional radio station redefine news? How do organizational constraints and routines shape the contents? And, how do their practices of news surveillance, selection, fact checking, and assembling compare to the practices of professional journalists? This study adopts the perspective of new institutionalism to understand how underlying organizational logics govern the success or failure of reform efforts in traditional media organizations. It also examines the problem of “market-driven journalism” in analyzing the interactions among different parties in the commercial environment of information production in media innovations.

Our results demonstrate that the new media arms conquer a novel frontier of more opinionated and entertaining information that traditional media are hesitant to claim. The new portal contains an innovative interactive platform on financial investment, as well as the more “deviant” news items of sex, violence, and deviance. Stories are mostly opinionated instead of factual, and emotional instead of serious. In addition, the practitioners' news judgments are mostly hitrate oriented. Lax control of ethical, legal, and copyright issues seriously undermines its credibility, though the new portal earns its economic viability through marketing efforts.

Reform of traditional media has often encountered resistance from the “strongly connected relationships” among agencies that share professional values and uphold the traditional mode of operation. This always results in a minute or peripheral outcome. VOHK has managed to avoid the failure of most innovations in traditional media. However, it does bring innovative change and a sustainable new genre of contents, mainly due to the generous support of media owners who are willing to engage in long-term investment, a largely separate operation between the new and old hands that avoids confrontations.

VOHK's innovation brings a convergence of old and new media platforms and multimedia programs, but not the convergence of old and new staff and routines. Thus, the socio-cultural divide between new and old staff remains profound and unbridgeable. Meanwhile, VOHK is cultivating a new class of audience. The market-driven momentum from advertisers and instant hit-rate, amid an absence of journalistic norms in VOHK innovations, has pushed information production into a more “tabloidized” or “popularized” form. The convergence of old and new media is realized only at the technical level of sharing platforms on the internet, instead of the anticipated cultural and structural levels within the media organization. VOHK's effort is not a continuation but a new invention. It is not a revival but a new birth. In conclusion, success in new media innovation might not help in reviving the traditional medium.



本文引用格式

區家麟(2013)。〈網絡新聞再界定:市場導向下的新媒體變革〉。《傳播與社會學刊》,第25 期,頁103–133。



Citation of this article:

Au, A. K. L. (2013). Redefining online news: A market-driven new media reform. Communication & Society, 25, 103–133.
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