From Matt Thompson at the Reynolds Institute at University of Missouri comes a very sound series of questions for journalists in an era of overload. I thought it would make a strong post at year's end on the way in which we need to ask ourselves about our craft as we proceed in an environment of taxing information for consumers.
His 10 questions include:
1. . Are we making our community feel better-informed or merely distracted?
2. How important is this for our community to know and why?
3. Are we chasing the larger story, or just the latest story?
4. Are we synthesizing information, or merely aggregating it?
5. How are we serving those who know [nothing | a lot] about the topic?
6. Have we provided a clear trail through our coverage?
7. Are we using 1,000 words where a picture should be?
8. How good are our filters?
9. Will our coverage find its audience where and when they’re ready for it?
10. How are we managing our own info overload?
ReadWriteWeb has assembled a list of predictions from its cohort, and some of the ideas for 2009 are surprising. From the Global Human Capital Journal comes a study all media should evaluate: How Barack Obama's campaign team leveraged Web 2.0 to build support for his candidacy. Any understanding of new media has to involve redefining authority and influence. Dan Gillmor, the online journalism pioneer now powering the Center for Citizen Media, has published one of those required-reading-to-set-the-mind-clear packages. One of the most challenging, among many challenging, frontiers in newspapering at the moment is the comics section. Mark Cuban, the dot-com entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner, has proposed a novel approach to deal with the economic stresses of newspaper sports journalism. It has been an extraordinary year of developments in journalism, but the Pew Research Center for People & The Press may have saved the most interesting for last. Edward Roussel, the digital chief of the Daily Telegraph of London, generates a strong essay for Nieman Reports that identifies 10 paths for newspapers. In essence, the message is get with it or get out of the way. Joe Mathewson of the Medill School at Northwestern University makes an argument in Editor & Publisher for U.S. newspapers shifting to a non-profit model, either through the donation of shares to a foundation or having a foundation buy the paper and repay debt through revenue. |
![]() I am the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief at Self-Counsel Press, an Adjunct Professor and Executive-in-Residence at the Graduate School of Journalism at University of British Columbia, and the
Executive Director of the Organization of News Ombudsmen. In 2008 I launched themediamanager.com to chronicle media change, then media ethics, standards and freedom. I was recently the mayoralty candidate in Vancouver for the Non-Partisan Association. I am the former CBC Ombudsman of English Services and have held the senior editorial roles at CTV News, The Hamilton Spectator and Southam News. I was the founding Executive Editor of National Post, Managing Editor of The Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Bureau Chief and General News Editor at The Canadian Press, and host on CBC Newsworld, among other media roles. My social networking includes activity on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. I also write for a for-fun-only music site, rockzombies.us Archives
January 2015
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The Canadian analytics firm Sysomos has published new data on nearly 100 million posts it reviewed and it shows
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