The ICONN NewsStream is the news service of the Intercollegiate Online News Network.
The NewsStream stems from the idea that ICONN member news websites have agreed to share their originally produced content with other members. Members who use the content of other members are obligated to give appropriate credit and include links back to the original sites where necessary.
The idea of the NewsStream came about in early 2011 and is still under technical and conceptual development. The basic aspects of the NewsStream are
- A centralized website where all of the content from all ICONN sites is gathered and organized
- Selection of content (stories, photos, audio and video) that is of more than local interest
- Enhancement of selected content through intelligent and web-oriented editing (e.g., making headlines more SEO friendly)
- Streaming that enhanced content out to member websites
Two of the immediate and obvious benefits of the NewsStream are
– that it gives member websites fresh content on a regular basis;
– that it offers the opportunity for individual collegiate journalists to have their work appear on sites beyond their local news website.
The benefits of the NewsStream go beyond these, however. The NewsStream offers a conceptual way of tying the network sites together. No longer are sites working in isolation. They are contributing to one another, and we see infinite possibilities with this idea. For instance, all of the sites of a collegiate football conference might gather together to combine their coverage of a season of the sport.
The NewsStream offers an opportunity for the network to speak with a united voice, particularly where issues of free expression or freedom of information are involved.
The NewsStream may eventually manifest itself in a variety of ways. For instance, with the NewsStream in place, there is a possibility that it could produce a daily audio or video feed of collegiate news, drawing on the content of the member websites. The NewsStream also offer enhanced advertising possibilities for ICONN and its members.
