Self Sustainability & the Independent Media
I’ve touched upon this issue in past posts on occasion, but since I just happened to access Hetq Online, one of Armenia’s two main independent journalism magazines, it probably merits a post in itself. That is, there is a very real problem in terms of media outlets maintaining their editorial independence and finding their own way to reach financial self sustainability.
Unfortunately, because readership is very low, keeping a media outlet afloat without having to secure often partisan economic or political support is almost impossible in countries such as Armenia. Actually, as I used to work at The Independent in London before it was bought out by The Mirror Group, it’s something that affects the media worldwide, but it’s another matter here.
Interestingly, both Hetq Online and another online publication, Armenia Now, have had to resort to appealing for funds through their sites, but there’s an interesting dimension to this that merits mention. That is, while Hetq Online operates with a very local mindset, Armenia Now is attempting to adopt a western model, not only in terms of its operation, but also in terms of its funding.
To begin with, it’s worth pointing out that no media outlet in Armenia or the Diaspora attracts a high readership. Local newspapers are lucky if they can maintain a circulation of a few thousand, and online publications can attract a readership of only around 600-1,200 a day depending on whatever’s happening in Armenia. Even so, the latter is believed to be the most viable medium, especially when freedom of the press is in decline and journalistic standards remain low.
There is no press council in Armenia, and there is no universal code for journalists, although individual organisations are in the process of formulating their own. The institution of ombudsman does not exist either for the industry or in any individual news organisation. A poll of journalists conducted for the Yerevan Press Club and the OSCE in 2004 showed that while standards of professional ethics - on accuracy, impartiality, plagiarism, the need to refuse bribes and to resist extortion, etc - were widely valued, respondents thought that less than a third of Armenian journalists observed them. However, the vast majority believed that improvement was possible and 82.5% supported the idea of self-regulation, with the most-favoured form being a press council and the least favoured that of an industry-wide ombudsman.
For sure, of both these publications, Armenia Now understands the medium more, and almost certainly because the editors are western-trained journalists from the U.K. and U.S. — one founding editor is the Moscow correspondent for The Times, and the other is John Hughes, a veteran journalist who cut his teeth in the American press. The publication even experiments with online video, for its annual Hye Santa campaign, and unlike its main competitor, covers stories that appeal to a wide variety of readers.
Media Bistro covered the story of its establishment.
Hughes and Halpin soon came to learn that journalism in Armenia doesn’t much resemble the American or British vision of the profession. During Soviet times—when most journalists in the former Soviet Union came of age—the notion of objectivity, or of journalists as the fourth estate, an important check on government, was foreign. Expressing any viewpoint other than that of the state was a surefire way to earn a one-way ticket to the gulag. Worse, younger journalists who have learned the trade since the collapse of the Soviet system inherited many the same bad habits, in part because most media are controlled by monied or political interests, which use the media as a personal soapbox. So while the government now plays a reduced role in manipulating the media, private enterprise has picked up the slack—and then some. “There is no example of a newspaper here that has operated without sponsorship,” Hughes says.
The first step for Hughes and Halpin was to instruct their fledging would-be Western-style journalists in the foundations of a post-Soviet version of journalism. Seemingly basic lessons—such as using multiple sources for a story, avoiding the personal pronoun “I” in news stories, keeping paragraphs to less than 600 words, and making the lede the key idea of the story rather than a history lesson—aren’t at all elementary to Armenian journalists. “They know how to get information,” Hughes says, “but they don’t know how to use it, and don’t understand the responsibility of how to handle it.” And another problem is deadlines. “When you live in a country that’s as old as Noah, there’s a different sense of time,” he says.
But for Hughes, theory was only a small part of the story. “People who don’t know journalism think you can teach it in a classroom,” he says.
What’s interesting in this article is that Hughes and Armenia Now are able to analyze their readership well. Instead of confusing pageviews and hits with actual readers, they’re quite able to disect their statistics which is probaby vital in assessing whether a site can evolve and expand correctly and in the right direction. I’m really glad that they’re able to recognize this fact and thus be able to track their readership correctly. This is vital for advertising purposes, for example.
Despite the shoestring budget, the site’s readership—attracted entirely via word-of-mouth advertising—lives in 74 countries, and the site draws 7,000 visitors each week. That’s not a figure that will cause venture capitalists to come a-knocking, but it’s enough to make ArmeniaNow.com the most-read publication about Armenia produced in the country, and probably in the world. (Because most local papers are little more than newspaper-length paid ads, and because a 25-cent newspaper is a fairly large expenditure in a country where earning $100 a month is considered decent money, Armenian newspapers don’t have very large readerships.) The site has also been recognized as a leader in terms of journalistic standards: After just nine months online, it won ten awards in a national journalism competition, twice as many as any other publication.
Hetq Online, however, is very different, not just in terms of it approach, but also in terms of its content. Unlike Armenia Now, there are no regular columns or sections, but you’d probably not expect there to be in a publication that mainly contains investigative pieces on trafficking, corruption, the environment and other issues which are considered of significance to international donors and which are relevant to Armenia’ international obligations.
Hetq online has been published in Yerevan since 2001 by the Association of Investigative Journalists NGO. In 2003 the organization re-registered as the Investigative Journalists NGO. Initially publishing content in Armenian, Hetq Online has also been publishing its articles and investigations in the English language since 2002.
The Hetq online newspaper is updated every Monday and articles are later republished by Aravot, Haykakan Zhamanak, Azg and 168 jam newspapers as well as the Czech-based “Transitions Online” online magazine. Students from the Department of Journalism at Yerevan State University also receive practical experience by working with Hetq online.
You might expect that their readership would be lower because it doesn’t have a sports or other general interest sections, and is certainly far more hard hitting than most other publications, but it appears to be approximately the same. However, they definitely don’t understand the difference between a hit and a reader, and I think that the readership figure they give is misleading although undoubtedly as a result of not understanding how to analyze their statistics correctly.
Today, for example, in Hetq Online’s appeal for donations, readership is put on the front page at 110,000 a month, while the appeal itself confusingly puts it at 58,000. It is unlikely that either is correct, as the publication’s own visible statistics counter from the main circle.am site puts the actual number at 23,101 last month. Armenia Now, incidently, had 17,402. The most popular news site, A1 Plus, attracted 43,962. However, as the latter is a daily news service, the comparison probably isn’t fair.
Incidently, the number of readers in all three examples are for all their respective language editions combined, and all are quite respectable given the reality the media finds itself in here. Hetq Online might have a slight advantage in that many of its stories are republished in the local print media, but there’s no doubt that Armenia Now has more appeal for advertisers, and not least because it is accurately monitoring and breaking down its true readership.
So, faced with this reality and the need to get independent information out of Armenia, what are the two main online magazines to do in order to keep their heads above water? Well, for first, international donors and NGOs fund articles on topics of specific concern at a given time. Trafficking is one, for example, and the environment is another. Advertising doesn’t affect the situation much, although it should, and of the two, only Armenia Now seems to be taking the matter seriously.
What’s also significant about this publication is that it is also working closely with the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX) in order to reach some kind of self-sustainability. This really seems to be the right approach, and probably has more to do with the western mentality behind the publication than anything else. I’m not sure if it can work in a country where even the TV stations are not financially viable, but it’s certainly the most logical approach, and one that deserves to come to fruition.
The primary mission of this four year project, implemented by IREX and funded by USAID, is to foster self sustainability in the Armenian media sector. The main element of the program is designed to assist commercially viable targeted independent media outlets through the provision of loans. However the CMSPA also includes elements that contribute to the development of the banking sector, promote economic development, and improve the profitability and business acumen of targeted media outlets. The project includes a comprehensive cooperative targeted media development initiative that will encourage the development of cooperative network synergies and move targeted media outlets towards loan qualification. The IREX project has at its core, elements that will insure that:
1. Targeted media outlets qualify to receive loans and repay them according to a schedule.
2. Targeted media outlets improve their profitability and expand their audience.
3. Targeted media outlets improve the professional quality of their product and provide diverse programming and information relevant to the public’s interest.
4. Armenia’s media market is consolidated through the formation and support of networks.CMSPA will offer targeted media outlets a broad range of assistance designed to move media outlets towards self sustainability and loan qualification. The program will foster initiatives that will improve broadcast distribution infrastructure, advertising performance and audience research. Through its active involvement in the economic development of the media sector by using both ratings and providing network opportunities and in cooperation with other programs activities, loans and assistance programs CMSPA intends to help create a more profitable operating environment for everyone.
Like they say, better to teach a man to fish, and it’s unfortunate that media outlets aren’t always revealing the source of their income because nearly all the media has to rely on often invisible donors in order to survive. No wonder, then, that both Armenia Now and Hetq are soliciting donations online via their web sites at http://www.armenianow.com and http://www.hetq.am.
For sure, as parliamentary elections in May will be followed by the presidential election in 2008, we need it desperately. It’s also amazing to consider that with so much supposed economic growth in Armenia almost every media outlet is dependent on handouts wherever it might come from. On the other hand, Armenia Now is the only one that appears to be trying to break this vicious reality.
Good luck to them, I say.
Well, good to know that Hetq read my site. They’ve since corrected the discrepancy in the 110,000 and 58,000 figures on the two pages.
Interestingly, I was thinking about the number of readers earlier, and it has to be said that Armenia Now really understand how to analyze their statistics properly.
What I mean by this is that monthly figures are misleading in that one person will revist the site throughout the month and thus be counted every time they do.
Actually, the same is true for daily and weekly statistics, but a weekly breakdown will be more accurate than a monthly one.
Anyway, regardless, the number of readers is still very low for any Armenian site, including this one, but that’s a reality we all have to face.
It’s also an issue that most web sites have to deal with — that is, the accurate analysis of access statistics.
Without it, attracting and targetting advertising or planning expansion of a site is impossible. Certainly, I remember the obsession with accurately assessing “impressions,” and so on when I was working in London in the mid to late 90s.
Probably it’s worth linking to the Wikipedia page that details what many of us who have worked with online media know, but which many others don’t.
It’s why I am always monitor my statistics and try to analze “unique visitors,” and within that “returning visitors” as well as pageviews or pageloads. Certainly, the number of “hits” is a big mistake to concentrate on as it also counts images and so on.
Yesterday, for example, my StatCounter showed I had 521 pageviews, not including .css or .js files as the counter only counts itself, which were accessed by 252 unique visitors, not including me. Of that, 92 had visited the site before.
Incidently, Circle.am use an understandable methodology for monitoring access to media sites in Armenia at:
http://www.circle.am/?go=catalog&cat=news
Comment by Onnik — January 9, 2007 @ 10:32 pm
Talking of analyzing data to assess the effectiveness of any online resource from Armenia, there was this interesting story earlier in the year. Coincidently, it also shows that Armenia Now must be taking the matter of promotion of their site seriously. I say this because not only are they analyzing their statistics properly, they’ve obviously been busy marketing their brand in terms of raising its profile online.
Glad to see someone is taking the issue of assessing the worth of any site — and how to promote it properly — seriously. It’s vital if anyone is going to invest in e-commerce, for example, and that must include the online media because relying on handouts should not be the way.
Comment by Onnik — January 10, 2007 @ 3:45 am
Dear Onnik,
First of all, I would like to thank you for an interesting issue of website statistics.
Let us focus on media.
I don’t really know about your knowledge of Russian, but I think you can find smb to hel with translating these links for you.
Those links are statistics for russian statistics service called Rambler Top100, that is used on A1Plus an Azg sites.
A1plus - http://top100.rambler.ru/cgi-bin/stats_top100.cgi?540341
Azg.am - http://top100.rambler.ru/cgi-bin/stats_top100.cgi?203604
Being a Technical Director of PanARMENIAN Network (http://www.panarmenian.net), I can tell you that we have 3000-3200 visitors per working day, ~2000 on Saturdays and ~1000 on Sunadays (December data, September, October and November are nearly the same).
We are using Google’s Analytics service to collect visitors data, and if you are interested, I can show you all the statistics we have.
Actually I’m open to share this information with any other media resource on the equal basis.
As for report of Mr. Vahanyan, I have to say that it is something very special. The main trouble of this report is that he is not telling to the public ways of data collection and its analysis, he only gives out the results.
Evenmore, in 2005 we asked them to provide more information on data collection technologies and were given no answer at all.
Anyway - I appreciate your interest to this topic, and open to answer any question you have.
Ruben Muradyan
Vice-President
PanARMENIAN Network
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 10, 2007 @ 3:54 pm
Ruben,
My understanding is that the research you mention had to do with search engine placement and not actual accesses to a site or readers. I don’t doubt Pan Armenian.net gets a lot of readers, and especially as you’re a daily news service and not a weekly online magazine.
The 2,000 figure is highly believable given that the PanArmenian.net site is more pro-government than A1 Plus which isn’t far off the 1,500 figure which would give you at least 60,000 readers a month, although some would still be returning visitors rather than 60,000 individuals. At most, that’s 90,000 individual accesses, but not individual readers.
Personally, I can believe that a daily news service multi-lingual site can attract 1,500-3,000 readers a day. Mostly that would be individuals although one person might access a news site more than a few times a day. However, I don’t believe that a weekly online magazine from Armenia can attract more than 7-10,000 a week which is pretty much shown by Armenia Now and Hetq Online’s circle.am stats (rather than server side hit counts).
Comment by Onnik — January 10, 2007 @ 4:30 pm
Dear Onnik,
When I say about the stats of PanARMENIAN Net, I was talking about stats, that are counted by a special Google service that is called Google Analytics.
Moreover - ArmeniaNow and A1Plus are using Google Analytics too, so it is very easy to compare our results. I will be happy if ArmeniaNow staff will show enough common sense and brave to do this comparison, instead of claiming themselves “the most-read publication about Armenia produced in the country, and probably in the world”.
I’m damn serious about this issue.
A lot of organisations (including very serious ones - like USAID) are asking in private talks about the self proclaimed “First place” of ArmeniaNow.
I always reply - let’s look at the statistics, but of course nobody from the “non-computer” world cares about any stats and figures.
I’m quite sure that somebody (I believe that he/she is on the top of ArmeniaNow) is widely misinforming people in IREX, USAID, donor organisations, etc. on a matter of their statistical analysis.
Once more - I can dig a lot to get statistics for most armenian news sources, and of course provide mine, if there will be an interest for this.
Moreover, seeing your interest to this issue, I will be happy, if you prefer to cover this issue more thoroughly, to support you with lots of information. I promise you my open-mind approach, and readyness to cooperate on preparing this material.
Another question is the pro-government position of PanARMENIAN Net and its impact on visitor figures.
Do you think, that beeing pro-government increases visitor count?
Or does it change Google behaviour?
No way.
I’m sure that the only way to be popular in the news business is to provide good content.
The content that people search and seak for.
Me, personally and the PanARMENIAN Net in general, always welcome this approach.
Ruben Muradyan
Vice-President
PanARMENIAN Network
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 11, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
Well, I’d agree that the stats given in that article seem a little higher than Armenia Now’s circle.am stats, but only by a litte and it was December that I checked which is a quiet period for the Armenian media and also a time when Armenia Now anyway focus less on news but more on Hye Santa.
However, I’d say that PanArmenian.net are not a “publication,” but a news service, so that quote about being the most widely read publication seems technically correct, although circle.am suggests that Hetq is more popular, but again, only by a little. Perhaps we need a transparent and independent media rating system for online sites, something which I’m grateful to cirlce.am for, although not every site is registered.
I am sure of two things, however. Firstly, that yes, the number of readers quoted by some publications are misleading. Secondly, daily news services such as PanArmenian.net and A1 Plus are going to get significantly more readers than a weekly or monthly online publication simply because of the frequency of information, especially when breaking news happens.
Last two points. I don’t know anything about Google Analytics so would be interested in learning more. Secondly, re. being pro-government, I think many of the most avid readers of online news in the Diaspora want that kind of stuff but that’s only a gut reaction on my part. Certainly, from looking at most Diaspora-based sites, that seems to be the case, although I haven’t done any research on it.
On the other hand, I check a variety of sources on a daily basis, including yours, so plurality is key, I guess.
Comment by Onnik — January 11, 2007 @ 3:47 pm
RE: Google Analytics
Google analytics is a service that counts statistics of your site activity.
It is something like Circle, but with very sophisticated features. Although it is not public, so you cannot put information from Google analytics and create somth like a rating.
For further info visit http://www.google.com/analytics/, especially http://www.google.com/analytics/media/report_tour/feature_tour.html .
So it is very effective and very reliable source for statistics.
PanARMENIAN Net, A1Plus, Yerkir and Yerkir Video, ArmeniaNow are using Google analytics to collect, analyse, process visitors data.
That’s why I’m telling you about the Google Analytics as standardised way to understand and compare visitor activity.
On the other hand, I have successfully cheated Circle.am ratings, and I’m quite sure, that anybody, that have some programming experience and understanding of web-technologies can repeat it. So let me be honest - I never rely on Circle.am.
Not because it is cheatable, but because it is a rating, not a statistics service.
RE: Publication
Onnik, I think you understand very well what had I really meant, what did I really said and why am I concerned on such kind of misinformation.
Im pretty sure, that such spread of misinformation will bring us into a deadlock. You are telling me, that it is correct, when ArmeniaNow names itself No.1. But it is more of a self-promotion, than of a real picture.
ArmeniaNow is misinforming MediaBistro people, and nobody blames them for it.
ArmeniaNow is misinforming donor organizations, and again nobody blames them for it.
Isn’t it the best illustration of a very specific journalist and marketing ethics?
I think it is.
Thank you very much for this conversation, Onnik.
I’ve found out a few things, that were new and very interesting for me.
Ruben Muradyan
Vice-President
PanARMENIAN Network
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 11, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
I still think Armenia Now is an online PUBLICATION while PanArmenian.net is an online NEWS SERVICE.
Comment by Onnik — January 11, 2007 @ 7:31 pm
The Armenian media is so… how can I say. They don’t know what “credit” means, and by not crediting the source they discredit themselves.
Onnik, I am glad PanArmenian.net is reading your blog, because I want to ask them to mention the source every time they write something. Well, I mean do a little bit of research and mention the actual source. Otherwise they many times summarize a news item and publish it as their own.
The Mardin mass grave story, that originally was sent from Turkey and posted on my blog and later an edited version was provided to and published by Hetq, was republished by Asbarez, Yerkir and many many other Armenian publications. Most of these did not credit Hetq or even the author of the article - Ayse Gunaysu. Then PanArmenian.net republished it, I believe from Yerkir and credit the latter as the “source.” Then, when the news item from PanArmenian got posted on several forums, Turkish deniers jumped in and proclaimed the source as Dashnak propaganda, not realizing that the author was Turkish activist Ayse Gunaysu from Istanbul.
Another example was the case of Stallone’s announcement of wanting to finally fulfill his dream of shooting “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.” He said this to The Denver Post, and this agency was not credited in ANY Armenian reports (well, with the exception of my and iArarat blogs’ posts). The Armenian TV announces it as though as they did the interview, PanArmenian writes it as though as they did the interview (and I know how all of them got the news in the first place - that e-mail included a link to the Denver Post), and then I am told from Yerkir Media TV that Stallone’s announcement was a fabrication of an Armenian news agency.
Now, wouldn’t PanArmenian become more credible if it reported, “Stallone has informed in an interview with U.S.-based The Denver Post….”
I mean this is really simple, and makes their publications much more credible.
ArmeniaNow was mentioned in this discussion, and is usually seen as an agency that credits and is, therefore, credible. But they have now (kind of really really late) posted an article on Stallone at http://armenianow.com/?action=viewArticle&AID=1934&CID=2021&IID=&lng=eng, which quotes the Armenian TV as the source, although the latter got the news from The Denver Post (well, at least from the e-mail- that mentioned the Post at least once- they got from the Armenian Workshop a few minutes after the news was posted on the Post website) .
I mean, please. These plagiarized reports - that want to pretend being the original source - are becoming incredibly incredible. Maybe it is not the intention or they don’t have the means to get the original reports… Well, if the case is the last one, why do we need these kind of media then?
(I guess this is a regional problem, since the media of Armenia’s neighboring countries sometimes gets way worse – but let’s care about our work at first)
Comment by Blogian — January 13, 2007 @ 8:32 am
Onnik, it is interesting that you mentioned Yerkir Media TV. Although living in America I don’t have access to the broadcast of Yerkir Media TV, I have watched several programs on DVD. I was amazed that they actually broadcasted a story on the eviction of Byuzand Street’s residents in “Hin u Nor Qaghaq” program by my sister. I have watched the program very many times, even though it makes me heartsick. The program seemed like a follow up story on a Hetq article that Arpi did several months ago. I think the TV program was more pro-residents than even the investigative report.
I mean this kind of program would never air on H1, Armenia TV or the other channells. Even in America it might not air because it didn’t interview government officials to present “the other side” of that tragedy. I have been asking my sister whether Yerkir Media TV has ever asked her to do a certain kind of program (pro-Dashnak) or something like that. Absolutely not and she doesn’t do it in any case by not being an affiliate of any political party. One of her programs (that was a sort of follow up that Onnik you and her did for Hetq the Kond Mosque story) was about Kond and showed the Mosque and even mentioned of the former Muslim residents of the place and how they left to Azerbaijan. I mean, here is supposebly an ultra-nationalist sponsored media outlet airing a program that laments the possible final destruction of Kond’s Muslim heritage due to plans of reconstruction and development and even more, suggests that preservation of this beautiful structure might help Armenia with tourism industry.
I don’t really get the idea of this kind of freedom of thought behind the Dashnak party’s TV station, but it is certainly a good sign. I don’t watch their daily news reports, so no comments on those.
Comment by Blogian — January 14, 2007 @ 9:11 am
Like I’ve said again and again on this site, although I don’t like the way Yerkir Media TV got on the air at the expense of A1 Plus, it has brought with it better news reporting than on H1 or Armenia TV.
On those stations they just broadcast propaganda that is not even subtle, and seem to think that paying for the largest set makes the audience believe them. Well, it doesn’t, and just represents a very narrow and mistaken world view.
It also shows no respect for its audience. Yerkir Media TV, however, do and I think a lot of credit goes to Gegham Manoukian for for that, as I said in the comments to another post. I just hope they remain as good for the elections.
Interestingly, if the elections are falsified to an extent which makes the ARF-D unhappy, Armenia has something that it didn’t have the last time there were protests after the elections. It has a TV station that will give airtime to real news while Armenia TV and H1 will continue to broadcast lies.
If that does happen for Armenia TV as it did in 2003, this time round the Diaspora MUST call Cafesjian to account and make him change because he is arguably now contributing to all that’s wrong in Armenia.
By all means start a TV station, but for god’s sake make sure it broadcasts news and not Soviet-era style propaganda dressed up this time around in girls wearing too much makeup and men wearing flash suits.
Ironic that while one station — Yerkir Media TV — looks to be taking a more professional approach in terms of covering the news, another — Armenia TV — owned by an ethnic Armenian from the “democratic West” is still following the model of pre-independence propaganda and misinformation.
Funny old world.
Comment by Onnik — January 14, 2007 @ 5:05 pm
2Blogian
Dear Sir,
I think that it is better to pay more attention on subjects you read and analyze. PanARMENIAN Net initially paid credit for that news item to Public TV of Armenia.
I would kindly ask you to write directly to me (pascal@panarmenian.net - corporate address), in case of every wrong credit and any kind of copyright issues.
Ruben Muradyan
Vice-President
PanARMENIAN Network
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 15, 2007 @ 11:51 am
I suppose the answer to that is PanArmenian and Public TV are one in the same, no? Just that one uses the Internet, one uses the television airwaves. I’ve always kind of considered that H1, PanArmenian and President.am are all somehow indirectly or directly linked, not that this really matters as everyone is somehow linked in Armenia. Maybe there’s no formal agreement, but my understanding is that there’s an informal one unting H1, PanArmenian, and I suppose the Ministry of Defense as I’ve heard of at least one case of someone doing their military service with PanArmenian.net, which I think you’ll agree is not normal for a media outlet. Anyway, you appear to have used H1’s internet connection to post your last comment, so I suppose most of the information you’re reporting is coming from their journalists. Is that the case or do you have your own staff of writers?
Comment by Onnik — January 15, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
Dear Mr Ruben Muradyan, Sir,
I know that you work for the Public TV of Armenia and I know that PTA and Panarmenian.net have the same decision making body behind it, and I think this is perfectly fine and logical.
This study many other studies like this one prove, that in the western media internet is increasingly becoming the main source of information for many people. Moreover, TV News have this capacity of “blurring” things they don’t really want to say or show, or passing over it by attracting the viewers’ attention by the wealth of video, text, graphics and sound, that media like the internet and newspapers are less inclined to doing. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why people, after having watched the TV news go to the website of that particular TV company and look for the story for a more accurate picture. I have had the chance of discussing this issue in Armenia, as well as in UK with some BBC World news editors a couple of years ago when they were just thinking about launching blogging services on their sites.
Now the main website of the PTA is not very usable on this regard. There is a definate philosophical side to it - which I understand. Public TV is the face of the country, hence its website is serving like “visit card” or a means of presentation, rather then a functional purpose like that of the BBC or CNN website. The news on PTA website is barely noticable, and although it is done in some fancy Flash format (I presume), it doens’t work on many blowsers: like on Konqueror or Lynx or Pocket Internet Explorer and majority of Java Mobile Browsers. Panarmenian.net for me - is the source that comes to fill in that gap.
But then (and this is my own opinion not based on any studies) - if the main purpose of newsviewers increasingly is becoming that of trying to further explore information they heard about somewhere else (i.e. on PTA for your case)- the reliabiliy issue, the issue of “direct sources”, citations and hyperlinks becomes a vital one. Referencing the user back to TV - the unreliable media, plus the type which you can’t really go check and see if it was there - is not exactly a relyable means of doing it. When vieiwng a Panarmenia.net article I always have this feeling that something is missing… so I start looking for the same information about other sources - and that is not a winning policy for an advanced medium like the Panarmenia.net - which was the first to adopt XML/RSS/WML and many other technologies like that. I understand, that being a highly capable programmer you tend to look at the technological side rather then content - but belive me - content is the key!
Comment by Observer — January 15, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
Dear Observer and Onnik.
First of all I’m proud to work for Public TV Company of Armenia.
It is public information and I thaught that you know about it, because there was a few occasions when I was doing some official statements on H1 projects, etc.
Please do not forget - PanARMENIAN Network is NGO with goals and structure that are fully described here http://www.panarmenian.net/about/eng/ .
JFYI I, hereby state that:
1. PanARMENIAN Net and PTA are not the same at all. We do not share sources of information, we do not share editorial policies.
2. As for connection to MoD. In 99-01 I was serving my military service in Ministry of Defence, and of course I have a lot of friends and servicemates there. But in no way PanARMENIAN Net is sharing editorial policy and something like this with MoD. Additionaly there’s nobody who is doing his military service in PanARMENIAN Network.
3. We have our own staff of writers, and I would like to invite you to our premises to meet me and our editorial staff.
4. We rare use H1 materials. And we are very serious on credits we pay for our sources.
My apologies for short reply - I’m very busy these days.
But I really wonder about the quantity of gossip that is connected to PanARMENIAN Net.
Anyway - I’m open for your questions.
Really I prefer to answer questions instead of beeing the main subject for rumours.
And finally I would like to invite you to have some coffee on week-end in Mocca, or any other place you prefer. I’m sure there will be a lot of things to talk about.
Best regards
Ruben Muradyan
Vice-President
PanARMENIAN Network
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 15, 2007 @ 8:40 pm
Hi Rouben,
I thought — or was told anyway — that AramX is or was undertaking his military service at PanArmenian.net.
Anyway, as for the invite, when Observer gets back into the country in March, why not? Although I can’t speak for him, I’d be interested after getting through the January and February cold.
Meanwhile I’m hibernating.
Cheers.
Onnik
Comment by Onnik — January 15, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
Yeah… thanx for the invite - if its still valid by the time I get back to Armenia I’d love to meet why not?
Comment by Observer — January 16, 2007 @ 1:40 am
Dear Onnik,
I anm very busy those days - so I have almost no time for blogging.
I have to say that you are completely wrong with Aramx.
Let’s leave the rest for coffee meeting.
Comment by Ruben Muradyan — January 17, 2007 @ 6:20 pm