Peter Morello
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies
University of Missouri, Kansas City

Media convergence is not quite yet living up to the high expectations set during the noisy heyday of the “dotcom” boom five years ago. However, a quieter and decidedly low-budget revolution is fundamentally changing the way traditional news organizations and universities team up to gather and disseminate information.

Network KC, a cost-effective professional media and university partnership, was launched three years ago (www.networkkc.org) and serves the metro Kansas City area. Members include The Kansas City Star, KCPT Public Television, KCUR Public Radio, KPRS FM – a radio station catering primarily to African-American listeners, and www.backchannel2.org, a student-run Web site for the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Network KC is one of the country's first experiments in media convergence on a citywide scale. Its mission is to improve the quality of public discourse in metro Kansas City, particularly among Kansas City’s under served communities. Each partner shares content and audiences. Cross-promotion is an important component and each partner, traditional and new media, relies on potential “cross-over” audiences. Two commercial stations in the Kansas City area, ABC affiliate KMBC-9, and CBS affiliate KCTV-5 have collaborated with Network KC in the coverage of state and local elections in 2002 and will again in 2004.

The largest two partners of Network KC, the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Public Television (KCPT-19) are examining national data which point to continued trends in the fragmentation of traditional audiences and the shifting of the audiences, especially younger groups, to new media sources of information and entertainment.

According to www.newmedia.com “72% (an increase of 2.5% per year since 2001) of Americans log on annually spending 11 hours per week (up 2 hours per year since 2001) browsing news and entertainment as well as for communications. Nearly 60% of all U.S. households have Internet access (up 13% since 2001).”

More specifically, 51% of all public schools have Internet, while only 40% of inter-city schools are able to offer access. 80.1% of the universities and colleges offer Internet access. According to the UCLA Internet Report at http://www.ucla.edu “99% of all 16 to 18 year olds use the Internet. While 87% of all 19 to 24 year olds and 83% of all 25- to 35-year-olds are users.”

As for the statistics of Americans using the Internet as a news source, The National Center for Education Studies, www.nationalcenterforeducationstudies.edu finds “hours spent by Americans watching television in general is suffering a deep decline in favor of the Internet. The Internet ranks high among users as an important source of information. In both 2001 and 2002, 60.5% of all users considered the Internet to be an extremely important source of information. When new users are added into the equation the numbers rise to 91% currently.”

Internal data collected by Network KC, including The Kansas City Star and KCPT, show these same national trends in the Kansas City metro area, with its bi-state urban population (in Missouri and Kansas) of about two million. Metro Kansas City is a microcosm of the United States in terms of mass-media audience fragmentation and the slow but notable shift from traditional to new media.

These trends are, of course, significant because they illustrate that viewing, reading, and listening habits of audiences are not only changing, but as research conducted by the Pew Foundation in 2004 indicates, a growing number of Americans are losing their overall taste for news. Fewer people say they enjoy following the news and fully half pay attention to the news only in times of emergency. More Americans, than ever, admit they watch the television with remote control in hand, ready to dispense with what they perceive as uninteresting news or information.

Yet, as reflected in Network KC data of metro Kansas City residents, Americans will watch/listen to or read a story in one medium and then, if inclined, will continue to pursue their own interests in that particular story using another medium. In Kansas City, traditional and new media partners have found that the key to keeping their own audiences is to create a portal to other local media (the partners,) thus creating a degree of consumer loyalty through layering.

Much of the adaptation in convergence that is quietly taking place in Kansas City and in other markets experimenting in new media partnerships was projected by Professor John Pavlik in 1998. “In New Media Technology: Cultural and Commercial Perspectives,” Professor Pavlik listed key points in the evolution of new media journalism.

1. A possible redefinition of news based upon the development of real-time news information.
2. A new definition of what it means to be a journalist, whereby editors may soon have to function as compositor, productions quality control supervisor, and to an extent, production managers.
3. A re-conceptualization of the audience in terms of specialized interests.
4. The advent of personalized news on demand and delivered through the information highway on the Internet."

There are some reports on traditional and new media partnerships like Network KC experimenting in convergence and documenting the steps they are taking and the lessons learned. While these case studies have enhanced our understanding of convergence, a more systematic and comprehensive study of the current landscape is greatly needed.

In early 2001, KCPT and The Kansas City Star originally launched a new media initiative aimed at examining and tapping into their growing Internet audiences. The Department of Communication Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City was invited to join to help bolster collaboration between the media organizations and the university. UMKC had easy access to the thousands of students and other 18-to-30 year old age group, demographics important to Kansas City’s traditional media. KCUR Public Radio and KPRS, with its ties to Kansas City’s large African-American community, also joined.

After a series of consultations and an assessment of need, it was decided to form a traditional and new media partnership in Kansas City. Network Chicago, another project in convergence with Chicago's PBS and NPR affiliates, was an early model. The goal was to form a cross-media partnership to engage metro Kansas City residents, especially young adults, in public and community affairs. Network KC also sought to cross-promote project activities in all partner media outlets, providing Kansas City residents with in-depth coverage and broader understanding of local, national and international issues. From an organizational standpoint, the public would benefit by having four news organizations and a university working together to deliver information in the form perspective media audiences would find most comfortable.

Since Network KC’s founding, each partner has collaborated quarterly on an issue of critical importance to metro residents. On April 8, 2001, "People and Spaces" was the first cross-media topic of the network. A front-page story in the Kansas City Star (Sunday April 8, 2001) kicked off cross-media coverage by examining efforts to expand an environmentally friendly downtown. KCUR and KPRS radio looked into underused Kansas City parks. KCPT investigated the failure of downtown to attract business and the public. Back Channel, the interactive Web site for young adults, created and supported by the students at the University of Missouri, Kansas City explored how young adults view green space and hosted a town hall meeting. To date, Network KC has produced 13 episodes, including episodes on Living with Disabilities, Kansas City after 911, coverage of the 2002 Congressional Elections, the Lewis and Clark Expeditions, and Nutrition for Life. The latest episode, “The New Americans” was launched on April 10, 2004. “The New Americans” coincided with the PBS Network broadcast of the national “New Americans” series.

Most of the people-power and hardware needed to form the network of Network KC were already in place. Once students learned to combine content with the digital technologies, while maintaining solid journalistic standards, they were able to produce innovative programming. Convergence also meant continuing the cycle of experimentation. Although the vehicles of delivery differ (Internet and traditional mass media and are in a state of change,) the same basic principles of journalism apply.

Both Backchannel and KCPT produce video pieces for the programs that are then streamed from a Quicktime server in both broadband (high resolution) and dial-up (low resolution) formats. The Kansas City Star delivers its text content in standard HTML hypertext while the radio affiliates (KCUR, KPRS) deliver audio pieces is streaming Real Media formats. Network KC is hosted on the KCPT site but receives content and information from all four of the partner's servers.

Across the four-college University of Missouri system, many journalism educators advocating convergence argue that teaching in the multi-platform format will benefit students by compelling them to absorb the latest technologies. Others are concerned that new unproven technologies tend to lead students away from the basic principles of journalism.

The Pew Foundation, in 2002, profiled a number of success stories of convergent news operations. Media General's Tampa, Florida facility was probably the first to successfully bring all three print, broadcast and online staffers under one roof entitled the "News Center." As part of Media General's convergence efforts, journalists from the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV, and Tampa Bay Online came together to share news content. On a daily basis, TV reporters produced their stand-ups and wrote bylined newspaper stories as well. Newspaper reporters wrote their stories and then appear before TV cameras for talk-back debriefings with TV anchors.

According to Aly Colon at the Poynter Institute for New Media Studies, the motivation behind Media General's plan for media convergence is clear. New media proponents saw possibilities for converging their news holdings and thereby multiplying the number of platforms through which they could distribute the news content simultaneously. Put simply, one newsroom, three times the journalists, one brand name, and three different modes of communication. So far, the results have been impressive. The “TBO” has been conducting workshops on how to create seamlessly convergent journalism and was described by Mike Wendland, visiting faculty member at Poynter, as “the poster child” for the convergence trend. In May 2002, findings on Network KC were presented at a convergence workshop at the Poynter Institute. Program directors Lillian Dunlap and Mike Wendland stated that Network KC was an “excellent example of early convergence conducted on a citywide scale and a valuable research tool.”

Network KC started out as and remains a low-cost operation. All partners use media assets already in place, and with massive budget cutting confronting three of the partners (KCPT, KCUR and the University of Missouri, Kansas City,) no additional funds are being used to support the partnership or to produce content. For the past three years, students at the University of Missouri, Kansas City have produced Back Channel on a zero budget. While Network Chicago was forced to suspend its services due to costs, the commitment of the partners to keep Network KC operational remains strong.

Convergence on a citywide scale at low or no cost remains a viable option for urban areas willing to forgo the risks associated with online new technology. The following are recommendations for establishing a traditional and new media partnership in your city.

1. Determine your city’s new media needs and what level of cooperation your university or department can sustain with the local media. Much effort will be spent on linking the technology and editorial sides on campus and in the local media. There usually is no shortage of enthusiasts who will rave about your great idea. You will of course need more than goodwill to create a working partnership. To sustain enthusiasm and staying power, you must convince upper level university administrators, company heads and other decision-makers on the need for and the worth of your project. Find people who will buy into your vision. Broad-based institutional support will increase your partnership's chances of succeeding. Make your project part of your university's mission. Convince traditional media in your city of the value of participation. Although projects on convergence and other great ideas often lack structure or clear outcomes…proceed.
2. One potential pitfall for Internet partnerships like as Network KC is maintaining a congruent Internet identity or “look and feel” for the site. Since most media organization have already built up an Internet presence, any potential partnership will have to deal with how the project integrates existing websites. Various advance tools (Javascript layers, Flash cookies, Frames) can be used to ease the users in navigation from page to page while maintaining the integrity of a linked site. The long-term solution is to integrate the partnership site with all the partner organizations through a developed cross-marketing strategy and the shared use of common design elements.
3. The benefit of creating a “partnership” rather than “the fully converged” allows flexibility of using advanced and unproven technologies without pressure of sustaining the business. As an experiment, city-wide partnerships should not be afraid to fail by trying new online technologies. Experiments like Network KC can prove to be a valuable testing ground for the media partners own websites. Standard technologies like web logs and News Forums can be tested against the existing sites' own programs while new more cutting edge push-type technologies like Antagonomy can be tested in experimental environment before integration to more mainstream productions.

When www.backchannel2.org was created by the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Missouri Kansas City, three areas of collaboration with the local media were considered. Each can be viable for a university considering a new media partnership with local media.

1. Collaboration in online projects allows for a low cost, accessible format for students and educators and media professionals to work with. The skills and experiences of media professionals can provide information or insight to a student’s approach to critical thinking. They can focus on a particular educational objective or they may be integrated with other elements of fiction or entertainment. Online productions for traditional and new media partnerships, are not necessarily geared toward media education. Nevertheless, they encourage examination of a specific medium and constitute an invaluable support to learning. In the case of media specifically designed for education, restrictions are sometimes imposed by the educational institutions. Partnerships like Network KC can unleash considerable creativity and foster new styles of production. With a fusion of technology, youth culture and influence of university and urban life, students often achieve a high standard of production bearing the mark of creativity that the partners in the professional media neither have time nor budget for.
2. Direct interventions by media professionals in educational activities can include conferences, workshops or media events, involving young people, teachers or other educational personnel. Some media organizations have teams of professionals available on demand contributing their services. For university scholars, this professional contribution can be examined as a component of applied research.
3. Support given by media professionals to students can be done on campus or within the media organization itself. It can include technical assistance, or student production of broadcast reports or newspaper articles, or local media use of content produced by students.

For traditional and new media partnerships on a citywide scale to succeed, local interest groups and communities must take ownership. Local residents, especially young adults not affiliated with a university, need to take part in shaping the project. The public is better served if communities are brought in at the beginning. Great ideas often percolate at the local level. Universities and research organizations like Internet2 prove their value by engaging communities of ordinary citizens. Unlike federal, state/local agencies and non-profit organizations, universities can afford to and must experiment. The following is a compilation of significant data of Network KC for national research on examples of citywide traditional and new media models of convergence.

Network KC Executive Summary

Starting date: Nov. 5, 2002 Ending date: April 29, 2004

Totals:

Averages:

Number of pages viewed per day: 237
Number of pages viewed per visit: 15
Length of visit: 1 hour, 8 minutes, 39 seconds
Number of visits per day: 16
Number of visits per week: 112
Number of visits per month: 487
Number of unique visitors per day: 5
Number of new visitors per day: 5
Number of repeat visitors per day: 3
Visitor repeat rate: 61.7%

Busiest month: March 2004
Busiest day of the week: Tuesday
Busiest time: 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Month-by-month log files for top pages (pdf file)

Technical Assistance: Sean McKenna, Adjunct Professor, University of Missouri, Kansas City & Martin Hernandez, Kansas City Public Television. (KCPT-19)