The New Front Page: New Media and the Rise of the Audience
A provocative, timely account of the changing face of journalism from a pioneer of the new-media revolution
For a long time, media organisations have controlled the news, treating their audiences as products for advertisers. Yet as journalism has moved online and behind paywalls, the public is demanding more say in how the news is created. They are using blogs, Twitter, and Facebook to share stories, and selecting their sources to create their own 'front page'.
In this lively, biting critique, media commentator Tim Dunlop explores the rise of the audience, and how unprepared the mainstream media has been for this changing balance of power. Drawing on his experiences as a prominent political blogger, he argues that the future of meaningful journalism -- the sort we need in order to be informed citizens -- will increasingly rely on journalists and editors taking the audience into their confidence and working with them, rather than against them.
The New Front Page is a passionate plea on behalf of those tired of being talked down to by the fourth estate. Perceptive and illuminating, it asks audiences and media to work together to hold the powerful to account, and to produce the sort of news and analysis that enriches public debate.
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"Provides a challenge to responsible citizens and a rebuke to bean counters who can't tell the difference between consumers and customers, and who confuse clicks with engagement."
--Adelaide Advertiser
"A lively treatise...Tim Dunlop understands the quandries [facing the mainstream media] better than most...His book perceptively analyses how the Internet has diluted the power of the media proprietor and given the audience more prominence."
--Australian Book Review
"A timely and increasingly relevant book...Dunlop is well placed to describe how digital technology has transformed traditional print media."
--Sunday Age
"Dunlop draws on his own experiences to examine the ways technology has transformed society's storytelling and how new media can be used to incite change and facilitate a greater range of perspectives. And he offers solutions."
--William Yeoman, The Weekend West
"Stop Press! Blogging pioneer exposes traditional media arrogance and hypocrisy! ...An essential guide to understanding our insurgent new media."
--Lindsay Tanner, former politician and author of Sideshow
"Tim Dunlop writes perceptively on the Australian blogging landscape as one who was there at the beginning and who has also been both inside and outside the MSM walls. His experience and knowledge provides a much needed history of Australia's blogs that also reveals how blogging was regarded by the major media networks. He also looks ahead to where the future lies for a media that needs more than ever to engage with an audience while also continuing to play its vital role of holding governments to account. Dunlop's account is deeply researched and written in an easy and engaging style that suggests he wants this book to be the start of a conversation--and it is a conversation those interested in the media will want to have."
--Greg Jericho, blogger and author of Rise of the Fifth Estate
"A fascinating and engagingly written account of how digital technology has changed Australian media forever"
--Katharine Viner, editor, Guardian Australia
"A fascinating book. Tim Dunlop is a pioneer of blogging in Australia, and he weaves his personal adventures with substantial research to explain the ride we're all on--a news media revolution and the increasingly antsy "audience" demanding to be involved and engaged. Dunlop writes with humor, passion and insight about the potential--and the pitfalls--of the digital age of news."
--Gay Alcorn
