Picture this: A newspaper reporter heads out on a breaking story with a digital video camera, a laptop with a wireless connection, and state-of-the-art audio and video editing software.
If that sounds familiar, that’s because that’s how some content visionaries see the future of journalism.
Rewind, says Jason Fry, an assistant managing editor at The Wall Street Journal Interactive. While the web offers new tools, journalism basics should not be abandoned.
“What’s the best way to grab a reader?” he asks. “Write great stuff.”
During his talk at this week’s “Newspaper Writing & Editing” seminar, Fry, 31, told seminar participants that their best defense against the noise and challenges of the Internet is to rely on journalistic values. The web is your friend, he maintains. But this friend is not an easy friend, especially if you have not paid much attention to what it is doing to journalism.
Knowledge has increased dramatically, he says, creating more voices for newspaper readers to heed. The role of the newspaper, both local and nationally based, becomes more important.
“A huge amount of knowledge and perspective can be limiting,” Fry says. “Our real key role is setting context.”
So, for example, while TheForce.net, a Star Wars fan site, may have a great deal of information for its target audience, the newspaper’s role is to make connections for its own readers and to find larger issues that such a site may miss or does not have access to.
“Our newspapers should be the trusted voices,” he says.
The major challenges facing journalism, Fry says, are the same things that make the online medium friendly to journalism:
- Not only do journalists have new, flashy tools, but they are pressured to use them in reporting and storytelling.
- The medium demands that journalists report and write more quickly, which could short-circuit quality.
- The web has increased the voices and the stories being told and may be expanding the very definition of journalism.
All of these factors place pressure on news organizations, Fry says, but most of these situations can be resolved by applying the basic tenets of journalism.
Tools Are Cool, But . . .
Audio and video are great tools to integrate into storytelling, Fry says, but they should not be a substitute for great writing. It’s the writing, he says, that keeps the online visitor scrolling. Besides, while many newspapers have high-speed connections, audio and video might not be in order for users, who may lack the technology to enjoy the total web experience.
Tip: Take advantage of such low-tech tools as message boards and chat rooms to ferret out information. These are places where the experts talk to one another. Use common sense and good journalism to identify credible sources of information.
“Use good journalism,” Fry told writers. “Verify. Verify. Verify. Make contact. See if they pass your own smell test.”
Tip: When entering newsgroups or chat rooms, where people have already created a sense of community, take time to understand it. “Do what you do in the real world. Gain their trust; engage them.”
Quality Assurance
There seems to be a big rush nowadays to beat the other guy with breaking news. The danger is the tendency to rush and post incomplete or inaccurate information, Fry says. It’s too easy to remove or replace information without alerting the reader, but by doing this reporters undermine not only their own credibility but that of their news organization.
Tip: Don’t do the “web two-step” by erasing the error without acknowledging of it. The reader knows. With each update on a breaking story, tell the reader what you knew then and what you know now. Ask yourself, “Would I feel comfortable seeing this in print?”
Tip: Before posting, if in doubt, make an additional phone call.
New Voices
We journalists are not alone. More stories are making it to the surface without the help of traditional media. Many times, they are the voices of authority on the subject.
News organizations can’t compete with the Force.nets of the world because they are not single subject entities, Fry says. They can, however, take the information a step further and explain why it matters or find the wider implications.
