Ken sands Visits George Mason University

Innovation Editor of Congressional Quarterly, Ken Sands, spoke to George Mason University Communications students on the evolution of journalism through the Web. 

Sands began his presentation by showing students visuals of early forms of on-line journalism.  The differences in page display were very apparent, as many students noticed.  Older forms of news-sites were very plain, lacking pictures and linking only to small ads and small sites. 

These changes have been important to the development of modern day news sites, Sands said, “You all may take this stuff for granted.”  These modern sites are run by MSM, or Main Stream Media. 

MSM is now trying to create web-original content that must, according to Ken Sands, incorporates many aspects:

• Immediacy—there must be a sense of newness to a website.  Users must believe they are receiving the most recent and updated information.
  

• Interactivity—there must always be a dialogue between the website and its users. This dialogue can be maintained through forums, bulletin boards, live-online discussions and databases.

• Multimedia—Videos are important for news sites as they allow a more personal connection between the user and the web site.

• Database utility—Visual representation of data will create better journalism and increase the value of the news.

Sands instructed students on the transition between old web news and today’s MSM.  He emphasized the term aggregation and how it has become a kind of “one-stop information shop.” 

In ending his presentation, Sands discussed social networking, such as Facebook and Myspace, which he said, “to me, this is the web, this is the Internet.”