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Media Matters
May 2, 2003
Users Start Grading the NPR Web Site
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
Most of the incoming e-mails, phone calls and letters are about what people hear (or not) on the radio. But increasingly, e-mails are about the NPR Web site. This is not surprising. The growth of the Internet, and specifically the NPR Web site, have made the Internet a first stop for many on their daily information highway. As people feel free to comment about NPR, it's becoming increasing normal for them to do the same about www.npr.org.
'Old' Media vs. 'New' Media?
Where do most people get their information? If they are college students, they seem to be moving away from traditional media, according to some polls. If an unscientific poll of journalism students at Bradley University is accurate, it's from the Web. Over a couple of days recently I met more than a hundred students at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. More than 90 percent said they no long bother with traditional media. It's inconvenient and too time consuming, they said. Since they are all computer literate, they get whatever news they need from the Internet.
At Bradley, mostly it's from CNN, ESPN and MSNBC. A large percentage say they usually log into NPR's Web site at least once a day. I did not get the sense they were being polite to a visitor.
That shouldn't be a surprise in one respect: most newspapers and commercial broadcasters are finding their audiences aging and diminishing at the same time.
A recent survey by Nielsen/NetRatings confirms that increasingly audiences are going to the Web. This was especially so during the war in Iraq.
More News from the Internet
CNN.com recorded more than 26 million visitors to its site in March, up 23 percent from the month before. MSNBC.com had more than 24 million (up 24 percent). At npr.org, the traffic level is more modest, -- 2.6 million visitors -- but visitors increased 29 percent.
But Americans also logged into foreign Web sites as well. Aljazeera.net had more than a million visitors in March -- an increase of 1,208 percent from the month before. The BBC World Service also had an increase -- 5.2 million visitors, up 158 percent from the month before.
More News From npr.org
Visitors (or users as they are known) to the NPR Web site say they are quite happy with the site. Many describe it as "very user-friendly" and "easy to get around." They are delighted with the access to the audio archives.
This is especially valid for listeners who have wanted to go over aspects of NPR's Middle East coverage or to listen again to something particular from NPR's coverage of the war in Iraq.
Listeners also find the level of helpfulness from the NPR online department to be better than most other online services.
Even so, they have some suggestions for the NPR Webmasters.
Online Profiles
From Ruth Kvaalen:
I have looked at the online profiles of NPR staff and do not find anything about Rob Gifford, who does such a remarkable job of reporting from the Far East. How about suggesting to the pertinent personnel that they correct this oversight.
Online Discussions
From Julie Omohundro:
I think the discussions on your Web site are an embarrassment to your organization. If you can't ensure better quality, I would recommend getting rid of them. There are already a gazillion discussion boards and chat rooms available as outlets for people who feel the need to indulge themselves in adolescent name-calling and public temper tantrums. It's hardly a public service to provide a few more.
Online Listening
Dennis Giardina finds listening online problematic:
I have listened online to archived NPR shows for many years. Lately when I have tried to listen to archived shows online, instead of having an audio player pop up and start the broadcast, a window pops up asking me if I want to save the show's file. I cannot save it or do anything with it. For example, today I tried to listen to the April 21st archived Fresh Air show. Can you please help me? If I have to install a program to let me continue to listen to archived NPR shows, let me know... I really appreciate the archived broadcasts of NPR shows and I am a supporter of my local NPR stations.
R. Anderson agrees:
NPR has the worst Web site for audio downloads that I have yet encountered. Unlike CSPAN, Charlie Rose and a number of others, it has constant breaks in the stream that make listening to a story impossible.
Online Stations
Some listeners are also dissatisfied with recent changes to the NPR Web site to locate a member station. The old system had a map of the U.S. A user could click on a state to find that state's listings with their Web links. The new system requires a location (city and state) or the call letters. Many find this less useful and want the old map back.
Making npr.org Better
Maria Thomas is vice president of NPR Online. She agrees there have been some problems with the system that downloads audio. In her phrase, "not a seamless experience." Thomas says that one of the goals of NPR Online is to provide access to the audio archives. This allows listeners to "timeshift." In other words, to be able to listen when it is convenient for the listener and not be completely dependent on when the broadcast goes to air.
Listening to NPR via its Web site requires encoding the sound. At first, NPR used Real Networks audio. Now a second encoding has been made available through Windows Media. These are the two most popular audio formats on the Web.
Thomas says the aim of npr.org is to make "listening to audio online as painless as possible." She acknowledges that other formats such as MP3 would allow users to listen with whatever audio player has been downloaded on their computers.
She says "npr.org is evaluating such possibilities," but adds "NPR also has to consider digital rights management that are associated with content and right protections."
As for the question of the discussion groups, Thomas admits there's room for improvement. The notion of offering discussion boards on npr.org is consistent, she says, with NPR's mission of being an accessible place where opinions can be heard and exchanged. Thomas agrees the "functionality" of the discussions could be improved. That will happen eventually. But for now, she says, there are other priorities for the Web site including improving the search and browse navigational elements.
Online Journalism
There are other issues as well... issues that have to do with the nature of online journalism. NPR isn't the only news organization that is grappling with this. The question of the role of the Web site becomes more urgent as the number of users rises.
A recent conference on journalistic ethics held at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., dealt with some of those issues.
For example, how similar or different should the online component of a news organization be? Should it compete with the news service, enhance it or simply reflect it? Should breaking news be reserved to the newscasts? Or can the story be first run on the Web site?
More troublesome are the commercial implications. Should ads be located on the same page as the news? What about links to buy books and music? To purchase public radio souvenirs and "tschotchkes?"
No Web site is free of costs. Yet users are often put off by the encroachments of commercialism that may be necessary to provide the service they find so valuable. For example, if an author is interviewed on NPR, should the Web site make it easy for the listener to purchase that book? What effect would that have on the choice of authors or musicians to interview? Recently The New York Times stated that it is a conflict of interest to review a book, then make it specifically available for purchase on their Web site.
What about links to other Web sites and "blogs?" Should NPR be the agent for additional sources on a story? Is that a legitimate role of public broadcasting?
The implications are broadening by the day, driven in part by the extraordinary usefulness and accessibility of the Web, much as the students at Bradley University have found.
The success of npr.org in attracting users has been one of the most successful innovations at NPR. Although there are no hard research figures yet, there is an increasing suspicion that significant numbers of new listeners to the radio first discover NPR via its Web site.
If that proves to be true, and as NPR looks to determine where its next audience may come from, the answer may be only a mouse-click away.
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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