|
JollyJournalist.com
Yes, journos can smile. Try it! |
It's easy to be caught up in the current
doom and gloom surrounding the news industry. So -- call us naively optimistic, but --
Nico Luchsinger,
Nicolas Kayser-Bril, and I have created
JollyJournalist.com. Here, you can tell the world why you think that right now is a good time to be a journalist.
To start, we've listed 10 reasons why journalists today should be cheerful:
1. The power of organization without an organization. Social networks allow journalists to find collaborators with similar interests and commitment to similar goals, as well as complementary skills -- regardless of location or professional status. The "news team" no longer needs to reside within the same four walls. And the team can change with each story.
2. Write what you want and build a personal brand. Your editor doesn't like what you have to say? Start a blog and post it there. If it's interesting and well written, the world will notice.
3. Be the paperboy. That's actually better than it sounds. As a journalist, you can now manage the distribution of your content -- and so can your readers.
4. The death of churnalism. News is consumed in such a way that commodity-style wire content can be delivered at zero marginal cost. There's no need for rewriting. Journalists can focus on fact digging and analysis.
5. Information like it's Christmas. Google lets journalists get information without having to go to the library. Most importantly, scholarly data and free-access databases offer the critically minded thousands of references to build an argument and add value to an issue.
| RELATED RESOURCES |
Read more E-Media Tidbits.
Get E-Media Tidbits as an RSS feed:
* Copy this link and add it to your feed reader
Subscribe to receive E-Media Tidbits by e-mail:
*Sent Monday-Friday, 5 p.m. | |
6. Whistleblowers at arm's length. Sites like
Wikileaks have made it easy for people with sensitive information to bypass censorship and reach journalists. This means more insider information gets to the newsroom.
7. Real-time fact-checking. Interviewing a politician who's bluffing you with tons of statistics? Ask her to quote the source and confront her with Google on your 3G cell phone.
8. Ask people who actually know something. Browsing blogs or academic work gives you access to hundreds of contacts in just a few clicks. Your conventional address book isn't nearly as valuable as it used to be. (OK, political journalists not included.)
9. Interview the world for free. Free VOIP telephony services such as Skype mean free interviews for freelancers. What's more, asynchronous e-mail interviews mean you can get answers from New Zealand while sitting comfortably at your desk in Europe or the U.S. (or anywhere).
10. Feedback that's not from Mom. Reading comments, searching blogs, or watching Twitter let you see what others are saying about your work or your area of expertise. You know when you do well. And when you need to improve.
...For your colleagues in other countries, there is also a French version and Czech version of the site.
