As more and more journalists seek new kinds of jobs (due either to shrinking newsroom opportunities or just plain curiosity), many wonder whether “real” journalism can be done outside of traditional news organizations. That is: Could a journalist take a job that might look like marketing or public relations (judging by the type of organization doing the hiring) and yet perform work within this role which is journalistically sound in its execution, ethics, and intent?
…Flashback to 1999: Remember the Cluetrain Manifesto? This groundbreaking call to action urged marketers to use emerging online media in human-friendly, authentic ways. In other words, to stop trying to shove unwanted “messages” down people’s throats, and to actually talk with and listen to real people.
Australian blogger Michael Specht has created a deck of presentation slides with all of Cluetrain’s 95 Theses. Some of these may be worth considering as you’re trying to salvage your journalistic soul in unfamiliary media territory…
Why should journalists read Cluetrain? It’s one way to subvert the priesthood mindset so common in traditional journalism.
When reading Cluetrain, just mentally convert all the “market” references to “communities,” consider that “companies” can mean “news providers,” and recall the social/community mission of journalism (which appears to have gone missing in some news orgs at times). Then, several of the Cluetrain theses might resonate with you. For instance:
- Markets [communities] are conversations.
- Markets [communities] consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
- Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.
- Markets [communities] are getting smarter, more informed, more organized. Participation in a networked market [community] changes people fundamentally.
- There are no secrets. The networked market [community] knows more than companies [news providers] do about their own products [or activities, or agendas]. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.
- To speak with a human voice, companies [news providers] must share the concerns of their communities.
- Companies [news providers] that do not belong to a community of discourse will die.
- Paranoia kills conversation. That’s its point. But lack of open conversation kills companies [news providers].
- However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now online perceive companies [news providers] as little more than quaint legal fictions that are actively preventing conversations from intersecting.
- To traditional corporations [news providers], networked conversations may appear confused, may sound confusing. But we [communities] are organizing faster than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.
…Even if you plan to keep working solely for traditional news organizations, this kind of insight can help you figure out how to maintain relevance, and perhaps sustain your journalistic career.
(Thanks to Doc Searls, one of Cluetrain’s authors, for the tip.)
