The tradition in news organizations is to believe their work is definitive. The corollary of that belief is that others' work is inferior. The product of that belief is to dismiss, disregard and even discredit anyone else's work.

The new ethic, though, is quite different. The news organization exists in an era of easy access to abundance. There is no pretending any longer that others aren't producing some of the same journalism --- or even beating you to the story.

For some time now many organizations have been linking out, curating content online for users and recognizing that there are many elements worth consuming --- and, thus, they ought to be consumed readily without arduous searching.

Ryan Sholin posts in BeatBlogging.org some key arguments for news organizations to link:

1. We owe it to readers to give them as much as we can.
2. Linking out is a key to being a citizen in the digital sphere.
3. It's the best way to link with the community in your town.
4. We don't know everything, but know where to find what we don't know.
5. It makes our jobs easier.

 


Comments

Glenn Assheton-Smith
06/23/2009 20:28

Hi Kirk.

Just came across your blog, and very interested to read your thoughts on the changing news industry.

Your comments really hit home with me. "Linking" is the essence of the Web. The web is "built" on the hyperlink. My feeling has long been that companies and organizations that "leverage the power of the hyperlink" are embracing the power of this new media, while those that fail to leverage the hyperlink will, over time, lose their relevance in this medium. The power of the "link" to associate, to create context, to enable non-linear processing of stories and information, to allow conversation to flesh out multiple viewpoints of a story, it too powerful not to be leveraged. Anything else, ultimately is just a monolog, not a genuine "conversation".

I suppose it's the nature of the blog format to leverage this outlinking capability, but compare this http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ to this http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Entertainment/Businesses+lend+hand+school+project/1723620/story.html ... and there's just no questions which story is a conversation, and which story is a dialogue (BTW, I enjoy Paula Simon's writing, but it's the relevance of the style I want to contrast).

Am I missing something Kirk? Why is the traditional newspaper business so reluctant to "engage" its audience? Is this a cultural thing? A business model thing? I'm curious.

Thanks, and really enjoying reading your blog.

Regards,
Glenn

Reply
Glenn (again)
06/23/2009 20:39

Sorry, the links didn't display properly in my previous comment. Let's try that again ...

Compare the deep-linking style of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/">Glenn Greenwald's reporting</a> to this example of <a target="_blank" href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Entertainment/Businesses+lend+hand+school+project/1723620/story.html">traditional newspaper article on the web </a>

Hopefully this displays better.

Regards, g

Reply
Glenn (again)
06/23/2009 20:53

Hmm, not sure how to get hyperlinks to display in a reply. So, the links are:

1 - Glenn Greenwald's blog:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald

... pick any story you like, and

2 - A traditional "no hyperlinks allowed" web article from a traditional newspaper:

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Entertainment/Businesses
+lend+hand+school+project/1723620/story.html

Again, the difference is striking.

Reply

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