March 03, 2008
Larry Dailey from the University of Nevada-Reno discusses how to be effective journalists in an interactive world.
What is the job of a journalist? Is it to inform? To educate? Well, yes and no. Larry Dailey said many newspapers focus too much on the informing part of the equation, and not enough on the back and forth between user and provider. In this back and forth, education and practice, journalism can become an interactive playground, not just a talking head.
“Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions,” said Mark Twain. According to Dailey, the world of journalism needs to focus more on the play aspect of the writing and informing process, but in a controlled and productive manner. How can we keep the pages and online content from spinning out of control into an unfocused, anarchistic mess? Well, by creating an interactive website that is responsive and has a scientifically-based process that shows and tells you how your content is being received.
Journalists are supposed to be serious. Or so we’re told. Seriousness = credibility. But when does a serious journalist become a close-minded content provider? Well, I think this happens when they stop trying to reach young and new readers, and instead write the demographic off as “lazy” and “tuned-out.” Youth are not allergic to news and information, but they don’t digest it the same way you do. They need it in many different forms, instantaneously and in a format they can respond to. That is not being tuned-out. Actually, it is being tuned-IN.
By Susan Grant, 03/03/08 at 1:45 pm
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March 03, 2008
Check out this online website for ideas on how to use online content to create valid news stories: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org
Now, this may be a shameless plug because I worked there this past summer, but I can honestly say I am proud of the content and execution of this website. It is a non-profit based in downtown San Diego, and the editors and reporters are dedicated to fair and accurate content that uses new media in an excitingly fresh way. Scott Lewis’ blog (SLOP blog-Scott Lewis on Politics) is fantastic, and the daily cafe forum has hosted big names in San Diego politics from Mayor Jerry Sanders to the President of the Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego chapter. Enjoy!
By Susan Grant, 03/03/08 at 1:34 pm
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March 03, 2008
On Sunday, March 2nd, after circling around the mobs of people in town to watch the Los Angeles Marathon, I made my way to the Westin Bonaventure Hotel on Figueroa Street. For nearly 9 hours, I listened closely to full-time journalists, many with MSM newspapers like the Des Moines Register, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oregonian discuss how they are tapping into the growth industry that is online journalism. Today’s digital journalist (aka information broker) is likely to be a non-journalism graduate, someone with a niche market understanding or expertise in something that others value. MSM typers have to compete with the Google News, Craig’s List, Yahoo! News and YouTube users who are not beholden to their city newspapers.
This wasn’t the death of the newspaper conversation crowd. I was impressed by how the traditional journalists and editors viewed their roles in the communities they serve. They recognize that there is prominent role to be played here—that of representing a record of our lives for future generations, and of illustrating what intelligent discourse looks like through thoughtful staff editorials, letters, and op-ed pieces. Allowing any Johnny or Jane come lately to step forward as a self-defined journalist can be hazardous to the public health of a nation. It is still the role of the traditional media to coax, coach, and inspire good writing, both in news and editorial fashion.
As a professor of communications at a state university where I regularly teach opinion writing, I was comforted by the value that the journalists placed on accuracy and respectability. I tell my students that it is okay to attack ideas, but not each other. No name calling or personal attacks are tolerated and call me a fuddy duddy but I also reject cliches, foul language and slang in their writing. There is far too much casual and lazy talk with each other, thanks to the instant message, text me, and photo caption generation at hand. I still want and need information service companies, what we used to call the town newspaper, to serve as an institutional link to good journalism as well as a change agent to how better to connect communities.
By Nancy Snow, 03/03/08 at 11:26 am
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March 03, 2008
Ocean MacAdams of MTV News,freelance writer Rahaf Harfoush and Minneapolis Community Organizer Chaka M’kali discuss how to reach the younger, more tech-savvy crowd.
As a 27-year old, I believe I am the demographic that the two dozen editors here at this conference (mostly of the above 45 crowd) are trying to reach. Although, I myself feel very separated from even the undergraduates at USC. Nowadays, even a 5-year age difference can create a gap of technology knowledge the size of Lake Michigan. So how can the editors and publishers of the world keep up? Well, the first step is by attending conferences such as this one. The second step is to hire young talent, take a chance on someone with a little less resume padding and a little more innovation and ideas.
Chaka M’kali is an example of someone who will be shaping the media in the future. His focus is on community outreach programs and empowering youth. This may seem separate from a daily paper, but this isn’t true for much longer. The fact is, the youth he is empowering are the journalists and bosses of the future and the content users of today. Editors would be wise to listen to what they have to say.
Ocean MacAdams, said he considers MTV News a “gateway drug” for viewers. They go to his news site to get the rundown of news, and then they move on to other sites to get more information for the news stories they care about. MTV News started out primarily covering music but has now evolved as the channel grew. Now it is really about pop culture, politics, race, gender, sexuality and more. “We don’t have to cover hard news,” MacAdams said. “We do it because our audience cares about it.” I have to believe this is surprising to the editors here at the conference, although I hope not. It is frustrating to constantly hear that the youth of today are disinterested in culture, politics and the world around them. This kind of thinking needs to stop, and once it does I wouldn’t be surprised if the newspapers of this country were the stronger for it.
Rahaf Harfoush (http://www.rahafharfoush.com/blog/) considers iGoogle and Google Reader as ways to organize the millions of stories, information, video and blogs people are bombarded with every day. I consider it an example of the many different ways users are now self-editing their content and making it appeal to their own personal self-interests. As an individual, this seems liberating, but I can see how the idea of readers picking and choosing from hundreds of papers can make newspaper companies tremble in their boots. Harfoush recommends digg.com (http://digg.com) to help aggregate news into a more digestible format.
Harfoush was asked by one of the editors if she felt like she was a good representation of youth today. She didn’t think Harfoush was normal, she thought she was a geek. This is ludicrous. Harfoush pointed out that the majority of youth are going online, and sites like Google and digg.com are how they view and search out news. MacAdams added that 60 percent of the people that come to MTV News, get there through other news and online sites. Personally, I think assuming 20-year-olds do nothing but watch local television and play X-box is exactly the type of mentality that are destroying newspapers today.
MacAdams also pointed out that while large newspapers are struggling, college papers and local papers are thriving. This is very true, and really shows the shift from a large, omnipotent voice of a paper to a eclectic, evolving conversation present in online media sites and blogs.
What about the digital divide? As the world gets smaller through new technology, what happens to those who cannot afford to have a computer and online access? The gap seems wide, perilous and all-consuming. Michael Williams asked the editors to ask what their companies could do to help this problem (i.e. product giveaways, technology grants). What remains to be seen, however, is how low-income populations will play catch up in a world advancing at light speed. It is hard for me, and I was fortunate to grow up without economic strains.
Harfoush mentioned the generational gap present in the workforce today. When you have 20-year olds on Blackberries during meetings and looking at Facebook during the day, does this mean they are less productive during the day? I think you have to look at how much more work output people of my generation are expected to produce, and for the most part we always live up to that task. I see in my parents the work ethic that putting in a 60-hour work week means you are successful and a good worker. For people of my generation, the number of hours you work a week is not nearly as important as what you produce during that time. Why sit in a cubicle and stare at the wall, waiting for someone to call you back when you can find 1,000 different ways to get a hold of someone else or see what other news organizations are doing.
But what about when comments on a website are constantly aggressive? How does this come across to other readers who come to the site? MacAdams said there are some restrictions that need to be upheld, there needs to be a clear code of conduct as to where the line is and why it shouldn’t be crossed. I worked for a website this summer, and we had a very large reader forum that we were very proud of. However, when someone said something we considered to be slanderous, we removed it. It didn’t happen often, and we always emailed the person and explained to them why their comment was being removed. I think this extra step is important, because some people don’t realize how harsh what they are writing is, and others need to be reminded that a news website is STILL A NEWS WEBSITE, and needs to be professional.
By Susan Grant, 03/03/08 at 11:19 am
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As the newspaper world evolves, so do the roles of the opinion section and its writers. Blogger 
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