Journalism as a bridge between people and state, government and private corporations.
University of South Florida St. Petersburg
Journalism and Media Studies
Edgardo Dangond
ARP
Spring 2012
Committee:
Dr. Robert Dardenne, chair
Dr. Mark Walters
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
2
What is the problem that needs to be solved?
Traditional media has become an end in itself, not a medium. What this means is
that journalism is being practiced to achieve the goal of media, which is to generate
profits for shareholders. Ultimately, journalists and their craft have become just an
element in the process of media business. Consequently, journalism is subordinate to
media which, in my opinion is the main problem journalism is facing today.
What is the solution I propose?
One possible solution to this problem would be to give professional journalists a
means to practice their craft while being autonomous, transparent and accountable. And
this is what myJournalists.com is all about. A network that helps journalists publish
stories, connect to their readers and earn revenues for advertising sold by the stories
they publish. But that revenue will be received primarily for the journalists, not by
myJournalists.com. The journalists only pay a small percentage of that advertising
revenue to the myJournalists.com, which provides the technology and the advertising
sales. Registration in myJournalists.com will be free, but journalists will have to prove
that they are professionally trained.
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
What is myJournalists.com?
myJournalists.com is a network that manages connections between journalists
and readers. Even though myJournalists.com initially only includes a website, It is not
just a website; it is a network that is scalable to include applications for several
platforms. These platforms could Windows, Android and Mac. Applications developed
for these platforms will allow for our content to be distributed on all of the devices these
platforms support like personal computers, smartphones, tablets and television sets,
just to name a few.
Myjournalists.com website is designed to help journalists connect to their
readers. It will allow journalists to publish multimedia stories while, at the same time,
allowing readers to subscribe to the stories, and journalists, they find interesting and
relevant. In the end, journalists will be able to have a direct connection with their
readers, which might allow them to generate traffic for stories that might not be covered
in traditional media, or that might not be covered as thoroughly as they could be
covered by independent journalists.
myJournalists.com advocates for autonomous, accountable, transparent and
long-term coverage of stories based on connections to people. We should appeal to
people with stories about issues that affect their everyday lives. More than just news,
we want to offer stories with context, analysis and in-depth coverage.
3
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
4
Where does myJournalist.com come from?
I conceived the idea for myJournalists.com in 2006. I wanted to find a way to
combine my knowledge of information systems and web application development with
my passion for journalism. For three years, I worked on the concept for a network to
connect journalists, readers and stories but it wasn’t until 2010, when I enrolled on the
Journalism and Media Studies Master’s program at USF St. Petersburg, that I started
realizing what this network should be. Before starting the program, my project was
about just a network and a business model. Thanks to all of the knowledge and the
experiences acquired over the course of the program, now the main focus of my project
is journalism. This defined the name of the project which, luckily, was available as an
internet domain name: myJournalists.com. The name reflects exactly what I want to
achieve: giving readers the possibility of connecting to journalists they trust which, in
turn, will give journalists the possibility to build a readership of their own.
myJournalists.com should work for the journalists, the journalists should not work for
myJournalists.com.
With this in mind, and in a time when the proliferation of new media outlets is
making it harder for people to decide who can they trust, myJournalists.com offers a
new approach to the practice of journalism, with the intention of helping people reshape
the way they perceive their world. Having the opportunity to choose independent
journalists and creating a relationship with them might help people get stories from
credible sources and, at the same time, they will be able to get serious coverage for
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
5
stories that they might not usually find in traditional media. Additionally, this connection
between readers and journalists would offer independent journalists a way of creating
income by generating traffic for their stories.
Conceptualization and Design
Since myJournalists.com was going to be built from scratch with a proprietary
technological platform, the process began with the selection of the technological
platforms to be used for the databases and for application development. I decided to
use SQL Server, Microsoft’s relational data base system, as our database environment.
For the development of the applications I decided to use Microsoft’s ASP technologies.
Once the development environment was determined, I was able to deal with the design
of all of components of the project. These were: Database, graphic design and user
interfaces. I include a brief description of each of these elements below.
1. Database Design
The design of the relational database was critical because the database is the
heart of the whole project. The objective was to have a database that would allow us
to grow and adapt to all the changes in technology. Since the database holds all of
the information about the connections between journalists and readers, along with all
of the content for the site, it should not only be robust and scalable to support growth
in traffic but also should allow us to adapt by adding support for any new platforms
we might need to add in the future. The database design required approximately 50
hours.
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
6
2. Graphic Design
The design of the logo and the layout of the interface were also very
important. The objective was to have a very clean and simple design to achieve two
main objectives. First, we needed to have a logo that was clear, easy to read and
that helped our potential users remember not only the name of our media outlet but
also the internet address where they can start a connection with us. Second, we
needed a user interface that was also simple and easy to use. I used the colors from
the logo to create a lay out that was clear and easy to understand. The graphic
design took approximately 20 hours.
1. User Interface Design
Once I had a graphic design to work with, I started the design of the
application itself. Here it was important to consider all of the possible interactions
between the different users (administrators, journalists and readers) to determine all
of the scripts that would be needed and the relationships between them. The design
of every user interface included the definition of the parameters it would accept, the
databases it would access and/or modify and the forms needed to capture or display
information. Additionally, all of the functions that would mediate between the user
interfaces and the databases also had to be designed. The menus had to be
designed to be able to offer options for browsing all of the elements of the
application. The design of the application and its user interfaces took approximately
60 hours.
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
7
Development
After having all the designs ready, I was able to start the actual development.
The development included the creation of scripts that included HTML, Javascript and
ASP code. Scripts were created for each user interface. The database layer of the
application was also coded at this point. This database layer consisted of ASP functions
that manage the interactions between the application and the database. This database
layer also handles the security functions that prevent hackers from accessing the
databases through the application’s web forms. The development of the application took
approximately 120 hours.
Description of the Application
As I mentioned before, the project will be initially deployed using the web as the
main platform, but it is scalable so it offers the possibility of including phone and
desktop applications in the future. It will be developed as a client server application that
will use dynamic web pages to interact with databases that will hold the information for
both users and stories.
Dynamic web pages will allow us to create the web pages as they are requested
by users. This development environment will also allow us to offer multimedia content
including pictures, video, audio and text. In addition to the multimedia content, we will
be able to offer a demographic dimension for the stories by combining the information
from the users subscribed to them and the information from those stories. This
demographic information will be used to generate charts and maps that might help
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
8
better understand the impact a story has on the community. All of the information will be
saved in relational databases..
Information System Outline
One of the main features in Myjournalists.com is the registration process. Accounts
created in the system are not approved automatically. The goal is to have professional
journalists, so those who create accounts in the system will be screened and the
activation process might take between at least 48 hours because their credentials will
be verified. The objective is to set Myjournalists.com apart from citizen journalism and
hyper local news sites, offering readers stories that follow professional journalistic
standards and that are carefully researched and verified before being published.
Once users have registered in the system, they will be able to use one or more of
the following three elements: The content management system, the advertisement
server and the reader’s interface.
1. Content Management System (CMS)
The CMS will allow journalists to create stories and manage their
relationship with readers. It will give journalists the possibility of adding text,
audio, images, videos, animations and keywords to their stories. Once a story is
created, journalists will be able to add follow ups, which will be stored as
independent elements, but connected to the original stories. Journalists will also
be able to see a list of all the readers that are subscribed to their stories. Through
this list, journalists will be able to see all the comments posted by readers for a
specific story and respond to those comments. Journalists could also use those
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
9
comments as information for a story, but those comments will not be published
without his moderation.
2. Advertisement Server (AD Server)
The Ad Server allows the creation of campaigns for sites, or for ads to be
shown all across the system. Campaigns can be created according to all the
demographical and geographical information provided by readers. For example,
we would be able to offer advertisers the possibility of publishing ads for a
specific group of people (men between 30 and 50) in a specific location (the
Tampa Bay area) at a specific time range (between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.). Those
ads could be shown to readers browsing a specific journalists’ website, or to
readers browsing any website, but located in the Tampa Bay Area. We would
have a great flexibility to create advertising campaign in our system. Additionally,
we will have the option of using external ad networks, which would allow us to
generate income without having to deal with the advertising sales process.
3. Reader’s Interface
The reader’s interface allows readers to browse the stories and to
subscribe to any story, or journalist, they feel the need to follow up closely. Once
they subscribe to a story, they establish a connection with the journalist and can
send comments and testimonials related to that story. They could also choose to
receive email notifications when the stories they subscribed to have follow ups.
The main page for each reader includes the stories they have subscribed
to, the main stories published by the journalists they have a connection with
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
10
(these stories would not be selected specifically for the reader, they would be
shown because the reader has a relationship with the authors), stories suggested
according to the reader’s preferences and browsing history. Their home page will
also notify them of any new developments on the stories they subscribed to.
Readers would also be able to form communities around stories. Once a reader
subscribes to a story, he will also be establishing a connection to the other
subscribers of that story.
Another important element of the reader’s interface is the network home
page. In the network home page we can have stories from all the affiliated
journalists. This network home page will offer reader stories from all over the
world, along with the stories they have subscribed to, giving them the opportunity
to evaluate the work of journalists they don’t already know.
In conclusion, the system will give both journalists and readers a way to
manage their relationships around stories and, most importantly, it will give both
an opportunity to establish that relationship for a longer period of time than what
can be achieved today through traditional media. This longer relationship, along
with the reader’s ability to become part of the stories, might make
myjournalists.com a very interesting option for both journalists and readers.
Status of the Project
I finished the development phase of myJournalists.com was on April 15. I carried
out the alpha testing for the application and I am preparing to enter the beta testing
phase during the summer. We expect to finish the beta testing phase by July 31, so we
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
11
can make any adjustments resulting from that testing phase before the end of August. I
hope to be able to enter the production phase by September, 2012
Snapshots
Below I include some snapshots of the application.
Start Page
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
12
Registration Page
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
13
My Stories Page
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
14
Story Editing Page
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
Profile Editing Page
15
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
Search Results Page
16
Edgardo Dangond – myJournalists.com
Message Inbox Page
17