Computer Supported Collaborative Work trends on Media Organizations: Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

Abstract

There is a growing concern in the financial world regarding the lack of resources for the sustainability of media related enterprises. The increasing cost of computing resources and data storage have crucially established the deployment of cost-saving and high-effective technologies. The aim of these technologies should be the support of teamworking. The work environments of the media organizations typically remain stable despite the development of internet. Our purpose was to investigate journalists’ and media professionals’ beliefs regarding Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and groupware effectiveness in work routines, based on their experiences. We used a mixed method analysis in the participants’ sample. The participants were randomly selected senior and junior journalists/media professionals, head officers, chief editors and assistants, in two groups of 11 and 12 participants each. In conclusion, the need to improve our understanding of groupware in journalism practice has been recognized, not least because of the risk of “technology illiteracy”, unemployment and isolation. Simply importing training techniques from non-journalistic disciplines has not resulted in improved news publishing.

Media Studies, Audiovisual Media Communications, and Generations: The Case of Budding Journalists in Radio Courses in Greece

“…This situation leads us to the conclusion that new journalists need to acquire, more than ever before, necessary and specific and/or combination multiple-multimodal skills through the curriculum. Thus, beyond the necessary quadriptych skills (journalistic, investigative, data, and computational skills), the new journalists need to have (a) Journalists' ICTs skills (i.e., basic skills, web publishing skills, web 2.0 skills, and webcasting skills) (see Veglis and Pomportsis 2014;Veglis 2013); (b) data journalism skills (see Veglis and Bratsas 2021;Charalampos Bratsas and Veglis 2018;Veglis and Bratsas 2017;Veglis 2013); (c) growing media skills; and (d) cognitive skills (e.g., know-how in situ) (see Sidiropoulos et al 2019;Blumberg and Brooks 2017;Sidiropoulos and Veglis 2017;Salomon 1972). To achieve this, the curriculum in media studies education should amplify and apply educational effectiveness in technology-enhanced learning (Nicolaou et al 2019), and there should be relevance to the media industry as well as to the modern and visual-centric way of our life, as mentioned in corresponding research (see Hafeez and Nauman 2020;Mellado and Alfano 2020;Nicolaou and Kalliris 2020;Nicolaou et al 2019;Bennett and Kidd 2016;Carpenter 2009;Haig 2005), in order for students/learners in media studies at all educational levels and disciplines (including adult education) (a) to be able to cope successfully with the new job requirements in this virtual (digital) world for a sustainable future of the knowledge society (Griva et al 2020;González-Salamanca et al 2020;Nicolaou 2020;Quinn-Allan 2010); and (b) to have and/or build a successful professional practice and career (Griva et al 2020;D'yakova and Sechkareva 2019;Griva et al 2019;Mellado 2019;Gisbert and Esteve 2016;Veglis 2013;…”