Posts tagged journalism

It’s not just what you print that makes you an authoritative and trusted source for news, but what you don’t print.
Unnamed Reuters reporter mentioned in this Guardian piece: http://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/29/cyberwar-spun-shoddy-journalism

Always ask questions

One of the fun things about journalism (to me) is the opportunity of find out more about why or how something happens. While Google has been performing this function well most of the time, I often enjoy reading a good, well-written and well-edited backgrounder on an issue that is currently in the news.

The BBC News’ “Who, What, Why” is one such series. After rebels seized the city of Timbuktu in Mali, this article “Who, What, Why: Why do we know Timbuktu?” served as a good backgrounder on how the place Timbuktu came to represent a place far, far away in the English language.

Then there was a story about a cat that survived a 19-floor fall in the US. The question became: “Who, What, Why: How do cats survive falls from great heights?”. Some people might say such a topic is frivolous, but I say, never stop asking questions!

I came across this fantastic collection of photos by Irish photographer Seamus Murphy in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago. As we mark the 10th anniversary of the war, I thought this gallery was a good example about how life is continuing amidst the conflict and violence.  More on Seamus Murphy here and his planned documentary project here.

I came across this fantastic collection of photos by Irish photographer Seamus Murphy in Afghanistan a couple of weeks ago. As we mark the 10th anniversary of the war, I thought this gallery was a good example about how life is continuing amidst the conflict and violence. 

More on Seamus Murphy here and his planned documentary project here.

How to write a good journalism job application

Commonsense advice, but good nonetheless, and applicable across all industries, not just the media.

“Why most journalism job applications are ‘disappointingly poor’ - and how to ensure yours isn’t

There’s an awful lot written about how to apply for journalism jobs - but most of it comes from the applicants’ perspective. Instead, today we have a piece from a senior B2B editor on their recent recruitment process, and why most of the applications that came in were lacklustre at best.”

The best par is probably right at the end:

“After all, being a reporter is about being able to get a foot through the door, make an impression, collect information and present it to a reader in a concise, distinctive way. A job application is a chance to show an employer that you have these skills by telling a compelling story about yourself. Why miss it?”

Read more here.

Nobody will pick them from the doormat wondering how the world has changed from the day before. They will be badges, evidence of their readers’ cultural or political tastes, with an artisanal-cheese kind of price that turns them from a habit into a hobby.

This quote, by veteran British newspaper man Ian Jack, is, of course, about newspapers. Much has been written about the possible demise of the print medium, which has been the source of some of the best journalism in the history of the news industry.

Jack’s op-ed in The Guardian is worth a read. It’s well-written and honest, and reflects on some of the strengths of newspapers - which will be lost if and when they die. 

He brings up some good points, for example about distribution:

“If one big publisher, say News International, withdrew from the pooled distribution arrangements then the increased cost for the rest could be fatal.”

And also about the possible demise of serious, especially investigative, journalism:

“Serious reporting could be the most serious casualty, because it’s expensive and present estimates of digital income won’t cover the costs of foreign correspondents and a well-staffed newsroom; philanthropic owners or a drastic reconfiguring of editorial budgets will certainly be required.”

Good analysis and well worth reading for those interested in the news industry. You can read the leader here, the special report here and listen to the audio podcast here: theeconomist: This week’s cover. The internet is taking the news industry back to the conversational culture of the era before mass media.

Good analysis and well worth reading for those interested in the news industry. You can read the leader here, the special report here and listen to the audio podcast here:

theeconomist:

This week’s cover. The internet is taking the news industry back to the conversational culture of the era before mass media.

Myths about the future of journalism

This five-point list by The Washington Post is an excellent wrap of the problems journalism is facing or is not facing.

1. The traditional news media are losing their audience.
2. Online news will be fine as soon as the advertising revenue catches up.
3. Content will always be king.
4. Newspapers around the world are on the decline.
5. The solution is to focus on local news.

I certainly have seen No.4 in my travels around developing countries. It’s exciting to see whole new sections of society gain access to media as education becomes more accessible and literary rates rise.

If you want to employ a proper journalist rather than a cheap web monkey, the SEO stuff really is secondary.

Now, I know talk about the divide between print and online/digital journalists has been discussed over and over again since … well … since the internet came about. So it’s been quite a few years. Yet comments like the above are still held in newsrooms today.

Kevin Anderson (who I was very fortunate to meet at Digital Directions this year) has written on this particular issue in his latest blog post — and he has one piece of advice for digital journalists subject to such treatment in the newsroom:

If you’re in a poisonous work environment like this, constantly having to defend your work, just leave. It’s a judgement call, and every place has its politics, but if you’re sidelined, marginalised and disrespected, you owe it yourself and to journalism to take your skills where they’ll be put to good use.

As Riyaad Minty, Al Jazeera’s head of social media, said at Digital Directions, there is no old or new media, just media. He was, of course, talking about Al Jazeera’s coverage of the ongoing protests in the Middle East and North Africa, and how the photos, videos and informations shared by protesters in these countries played a central role in helping to tell the story about what was happening on the ground.

You can read Anderson’s blog posts on the “cheap web monkey” comment here and here.

As a side note, I’m not sure why some journalists are so exclusionary about their industry, as Adam Tinworth (whom Anderson cites) notes, but I would argue that they should be more inclusive instead. In the past week, the media has been scrambling to understand how a nuclear power plant works, and then explain the risks of a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi facility. Such coverage would have been severely handicapped without the fantastic graphics/interactives/multimedia put together for online, print and broadcast illustrating the design of the reactors.

So is it fair to say that journalists = only reporters? Photographers, editors, sub-editors, copy editors, layout subs, designers, producers etc — they all work in, and for, the newsroom. Their work helps a news organisation tell a story well. So why exclude them?

As I see it, it’s wrong to write about people without living through at least a little of what they are living through.
Ryszard Kapuściński (via felixandalex.com)

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Journalism - does it have a future?

I have to say I really liked this year’s Andrew Olle Lecture by The Guardian’s editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger. 

It was titled “The splintering of the fourth estate” and if you don’t feel like listening to it (above), you can read it in full here.

So what was it about? Rusbridger himself summed it up on Twitter as “Before you decide whether, as a news organisation, to beat or join social media, first make sure you understand it.”

He made this observation, which I have to say is true of many in the industry: 

But first we have to understand what we’re up against. It is constantly surprising to me how people in positions of influence in the media find it difficult to look outside the frame of their own medium and look at what this animal called social, or open, media does. How it currently behaves, what it is capable of doing in the future.

So how does one understand social media?

Firstly, I think, journalists have to go beyond being fearful of it, slamming it as the irrelevant playground of the unwashed masses, and reacting to it rather than being proactive and having a bit of fun with it.

As Rusbridger said:

But a failure to experiment is more dangerous than trying new things.

I do think there’re lots of problems with today’s media - and that will be the subject of another blog post when I finish reading Nick Davies’ excellent book Flat Earth News - and of course, The Guardian, unlike other newspapers that have to answer to shareholders, can experiment more as it owned by the Scott Trust.

But there’s no harm being optimistic about the future of the news media industry and trying to figure out how to make it financially viable while remaining true to its ideals.

Note: True to the spirit of the lecture, The Guardian has posted the text on its “Comment is free” online opinion section, where it has attracted more than 100 comments. A fair few of them are critical but well-written and worth a read too.