Digital first newsroom: Analyzing journalism convergence and transformation of The Straits Times’ online news practices

Abstract

成立172年的《海峽時報》，在新加坡2015年國會大選時迎戰非 主流網路新聞媒體，大幅度調整跨平台多媒體新聞實務及數位工作流 程，以維持新加坡最大英文報領先地位。本研究以「數位優先」和「新 聞匯流」觀點，分析此傳統報業在轉型中的網站新聞呈現，並調查它在 數位新聞工作流程和實務的調整。研究方法除了網路觀察《海峽時報》 選戰新聞，也深度訪談參與數位新聞產製的編輯和記者。結果發現： 《海峽時報》以「數位優先」原則整合新聞產製流程、調整組織，並確立 數位新聞以「即時部落格–社群媒體–網路新聞–報紙報導」標準化流程 發稿；該新聞團隊頻繁利用Telegram整合新聞系統及WhatsApp手機即 時通訊，協調跨平台新聞編採與產製。此外，《海峽時報》大選新聞創 新跨平台、多媒體互動新聞敘事，它也成立專業小組優化影音新聞品 質，有效提高點閱率，而大數據也成為編輯新聞之參考依據。本文也 討論匯流時數位新聞多工和專業分工效應。

During Singapore’s 2015 General Elections (GE2015), The Straits Times (ST), the country’s highest circulating newspaper established 172 years ago, adjusted its multimedia journalistic practices and digital workflow greatly, in order to compete with alternative news media and achieve its multi-platform and multimedia news goals. This study takes the “digital first” and “journalism\nconvergence” approaches to examine transforming newspaper’s website presentation and ST’s adjustments in journalistic practices and digital workflow.\nIt used web observation of ST’s GE2015 online news and conducted in-depth interviews with editors and journalists involved in online news production. The results show that ST’s integrated news production process prioritized “digital first” as the principle for internal restructuring, and established multi-platform news standardized process: latest news on live blogs, then updating social\nmedia, followed by official web news release and in-depth print news stories.\nST news team frequently utilized Telegram integrated news system and WhatsApp to coordinate transmedia news covering, editing, and production. During GE2015, straitstimes.com produced innovative transmedia storytelling and highly interactive multimedia news content. Also, straitstimes.com launched a professional video news team to improve visual content quality for\nincreasing viewership. Web data analytics has become references for editorial judgment. Finally, convergence impacts of digital news multiskilling and professional work specialization are discussed.