13. Engagement-Driven Integrated Digital Newsrooms

In its most conventional set-up, the news media could be seen as a proactive group of academia disseminating information to a wide range of audience. While in its traditional sense, this relationship was rather one-sided based on the parti-pris placing the audience in the role of an oblivious receiver; however, we now challenge this very arrangement and argue for it to be rather archaic in nature and not so relevant in current times. With mediums of broadcasting transcending television, radio and print media and finding their way into various social media platforms, the audience now no longer remains a mere passive recipient. As a result of platforms giving a chance to express, the audience is not shy to present their opinions, views, criticism and appreciation. Furthermore, the advent of the internet in the lives of the masses has made sure that the reach of the audience is almost at par to that of the editor. Like all disciplines, journalism in today’s era is shifting, evolving in ways to bridge the gap between the giver and the receiver wherein the roles of the two are no longer stagnant and often intertwined. The redefining of this status quo calls for a landmark change in the way journalism is carried out. Apart from gaining access and multiple perspectives on a range of topics, it is also a chance to capitalise on the already involved audience, by giving meaning and direction to their involvement in the interest of bettering one’s own style of journalism. Thus, the future of news looks promising in developing frameworks which involve the ever-eager audience in this new media landscape. Through the course of this chapter, we attempt at analysing and deconstructing the possibilities of engagement-driven integrated newsrooms in the twenty-first century, by developing an understanding of it in current times and reassessing audience engagement in digital newsrooms. The latter portions of the chapter would engage with the sourcing, production, assessment, distribution and conceiving, and engagement (SPADE) model and its relevance in modern newsrooms.