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ABC News 2015, Paris attacks: Eyewitnesses describe terror that unfolded, ABC News, viewed 8 May 2016. <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-14/paris-attack-in-quotes-victims-describe-terror/6941448>

The article uses first hand witness accounts of the attacks in Paris to present its audience with a picture of the events as they unfolded. At the beginning of the article is a small section detailing the number of people killed, along with the location of the attacks. This piece of more objective journalism acts as the article’s introduction, giving scale to the attacks and setting the rest of the piece in context, informing the reader of what is to come. The remainder of the article consists of photographs from event’s aftermath, as well as direct quotes from eye-witnesses, which describe the attacks and detail their experiences on the ground.

This article may be construed as quite subjective, as the images and quotes have been deliberately selected in order to curate a particular image. The article attempts to relate the events of the Paris attacks, as well as the city’s subsequent tone, through the use of highly qualitative descriptions from those that were there during the event, including such passages as ‘bullets in heads, blood everywhere, dead people everywhere. Right now it feels like it’s not real, that it’s a bad dream, a nightmare.’ The absence of evaluative supporting commentary from the article’s writer does however lend the piece authenticity, and reliability as a source, as it consists of quotes from eyewitnesses.

Whilst the article is not overly useful in procuring the particular details of the events in Paris, it is beneficial for the audio essay in that it proffers personal insight into the attacks and provides examples of the types of audio commentary that will be able to be found to aid in setting the tone of the piece.

Dimmick, J; Chen, Y & Li, Z 2009, ‘Competition Between the Internet and Traditional News Media: The Gratification-Opportunities Niche Dimension,’ Journal of Media Economics, vol. 17, issue 1.

This article examines the use of online news media, compared with the use of news in traditional news media, to explore the way in which changing news technologies have effected traditional media sources, and how the public’s interaction with them has also changed. It examines the effects of displacement that digital news media outlets have on traditional media sources, and furthermore looks at possible ways this shift may be remedied, and both mediums enhanced, by looking at distinctions in the way each form of news is utilized and interacted with.

This article further informs the argument present within the audio essay, which explores how changing technologies have effected the distribution and reception of news, whilst furthermore offering methods of change and projections of future developments, which could be useful to incorporate, or otherwise used to inform the piece generally.

Some of the findings present within this article are limited, as, despite being supported by other papers on similar topics, some of the article’s results are based upon a telephone survey conducted within the Columbus, Ohio, metropolitan area, with just 211 respondents; which presents bias within the results, as the sample size is relatively small, and impacted by the socio-economic influence of the limited area surveyed.

Dueze, M; Bruns, A & Neuburger, C 2007, ‘Preparing for an Age of Participatory News’, Taylor and Francis Online, vol. 1, issue 3.

This article is useful in detailing the changing way in which news media is created; now as the product of a multitude of sources and viewpoints, offering a diverse and complex view of subjects, when compared to the relatively small number of sources that go into the creation of traditional news content. The article details the way in which news media is changing and evolving as new technologies create new ways of sharing, and therefore accessing, information.

This article will be of great use in the audio essay, as it speaks to the question precisely. Whilst it does not contain any research pertaining to the way social media and online sources were used during the Paris attacks, which is the subject for the essay, it does however contain theory that can be applied to the events, as the attacks in Paris may be used as a case study through which to understand theories produced by the research in this article.

It is a piece of comprehensive research, drawing its findings from a range of differing case studies produced in a number of different countries, and the products of varying social climates. The information presented by the article can therefore be assumed to have a fair amount of credibility as the research is adequately thorough.

Fenton, N 2009, ‘News in the Digital Age,’ in The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism, Routledge, UK.

This chapter of The Routledge Companion to News and Journalism makes up one part of a highly diverse book which covers a multitude of aspects relating news media, its history, and the changes and challenges it faces in the new age, as Natalie Fenton puts it, the ‘digital age.’ This section of the book is not only about the way in which news media has changed over the years, but also talks about the various other forces; cultural, social, economic, that have contributed to and influenced this transformation. It is a more in depth look at the reasons behind the shift from traditional to digital media than presented by many of the other articles viewed, and furthermore studies the effects of the changing media landscape, breaking down the aspects of advancement; interactivity, diversity, speed and the expanse of the online environment, to discuss the changing way in which news is constructed, by whom, and whether this is a good thing. Whilst discussing varying arguments pertaining to this, the author ultimately concludes that, while digital media holds great potential, its infancy as a news platform means that content is often driven or influenced by other forces, such as advertising, marketing, design, technical, budgets and time, as online news platforms struggle and compete against one another in the digital space, and that because of this, news is not yet better off for the technical transformation it has undergone in the digital age.

This article is useful, as it presents as slightly alternate argument to some of the other articles looked at for the purposes of assessing the changing environment of news media. It is approached from a differing viewpoint from those previously looked at, as it examines the underlying causes of the shift in news media platforms, whilst also looking at the way in which the pace of this change has influenced how news media is now presented to the audience, whereas other articles have looked simply at the correlation between the change in news media presentation, and the differences present in the content produced here as compared to that presented by traditional media sources. While this article does stray from the topic of the audio essay slightly, it will provide good background for the article, which will bring depth to the topic discussed and better inform the argument overall.

Published in a reputable source, this piece is highly credible, as added to by the vast amount of research that it has curated to produce the chapter. Whilst the piece is very reliable because of these reasons, it does not undertake any original research, but simply pulls information from a variety of differing sources to support the argument that is being made by the author. This may constitute a form of bias. Furthermore, as this is just one chapter within a large book of diverse opinions, some other chapters may present alternate arguments to those presented here, as they are produced by different viewpoints.

Johnson, T & Kaye, B 2004, ‘Wag the Blog: How Reliance on Traditional Media and the Internet Influence Credibility Perceptions of Weblogs Among Blog Users,’ Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, vol. 81, issue 3.

This article discusses changing views towards traditional news media sources, as it explores the relative levels of credibility users assign to weblogs and internet content, as compared to traditional news sources such as newspapers. It furthermore looks at the differing natures of weblogs and traditional media, commenting on the presence of bias, and the differing forms of bias within each media type (personal or corporate, respectively), and how these effect users’ views towards each news form.

The article is useful as it reiterates some of the findings of ‘With Facebook, Blogs, and Fake News, Teens Reject Journalistic “Objectivity”,’ which thus adds to the credibility and consequent usefulness of both articles, and as a result, bolsters the arguments presented in the audio essay, whilst lending the piece a more in depth perspective on the topic.

As the study is based upon asking weblog users online whether how they viewed traditional versus web-based media, there is evident bias in the findings, as results may have been significantly different if newspaper users were asked which form of media they found more credible, and therefore preferred. More so than the ‘With Facebook, Blogs, and Fake News, Teens Reject Journalistic “Objectivity”’ study however, this article makes adjustments in its research, controlling for demographic and political factors, thereby ensuring a more accurate depiction of trends within its results.

Marchi, R 2012, ‘With Facebook, Blogs, and Fake News, Teens Reject Journalistic “Objectivity”,’ Journal of Communication Inquiry, vol. 36, issue 3.

This article examines the changing way in which news is accessed and disseminated, concurrent with changes in news platforms caused by the advent and growth of online technologies. Further, it also examines shifting trends in the types of news media people are accessing most often, and their relation to similarly shifting media technologies.

This article is very useful to the topic of news media looked at in the audio essay, as it provides clear examples of the way in which evolving media technologies have changed the makeup of news media, and furthermore forced its transformation in order to be relevant within the online landscape.

Published in a peer-reviewed journal, the article is generally credible. Its research was conducted primarily through interviews with teenagers, those who have grown up with both traditional and new form digital media technologies, thereby accruing results from those who have equal access to either form of news media. However, while they do sample from a diverse group of teenagers, with varying social, economic and racial backgrounds, the results are based upon a sample size of just 61, which is relatively small when compared to the vast amount of people that access news worldwide. Hence, the capacity of the article to serve as a definitive indicator of shifting trends within the field of news media is limited.