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December 21, 2004
Yo, print journos--listen up!...
Tim Porter lists 10 things journalists may learn from bloggers (with my comments):
1. Get personal. While the narrative bias of journalism has some ill effects on professional practice, good first-person essayism isn't one of them.
2. Explain why you do things. The news media comprise a discourse community, i.e. a closed society with its own language and culture. How can such a community every hope to fulfill its self-professed mission of helping democracy work by remaining a mystery to most people. What is the danger of mystery? Well, people will fill in what they don't know with all manner of myths. For example: The news media are ________ (fill in your hated political ideology).
3. Focus. On a locality. On a theme. As Porter asks: What kind of newspaper would you make if your journalism was intentional and not accidental?
4. Print the truth, not just the facts. You mean they aren't the same? Of course they're not. And truth isn't even one thing. It's many things. One way to get at truth: Refer to #3 and keep in mind #2.
5. Don't just report, teach. I like this one, perhaps for obvious reasons. There's a weblog out there somewhere--I can't remember the name--that links to Rhetorica with this description: Pedantic, but in a good way. I have a really good example of such journalism from my local paper. I moved to Springfield last June. In August, we voted on several state and local issues--one of them a measure to approve the funding for a new coal-fired electric facility. The coverage of this issue by the Springfield News-Leader was so good--so pedantic--that I felt fully competent to cast an informed vote. Now that's good journalism.
6. Get local, very local. See #3 and #5.
7. Give readers access to source material. This is difficult to do in print. But the web makes this a breeze for newspapers that care to enter the 21st century. No brainer.
8. Add multiple RSS feeds to your web site. No brainer.
9. Add email addresses to your stories. You mean there are newspapers that still aren't hip to this practice? Geez. But you know there's a reason for this. Many reporters--boomers and older--absolutely hate to hear from the reading public. The old mindset (still with us) is that reporters know more than their readers. I find this trait very amusing and frustrating. But I think it may be changing.
10. Finally, adapt. Well, yes. And #10 drives the nine before it. But #10 also leaves me with a nagging little knot of despair in the back of my mind. Newspapers haven't been so good at adapting recently for many reasons.
Go read the whole thing, including the column Porter is reacting to: What Mainstream Journalists Can Learn From Bloggers by Steve Outing.
Posted by acline at December 21, 2004 2:35 PM | | Spotlight