SuperMedia

Journalism is changing. 

Page views for newspaper websites increased 52 percent in the first half of 2006, according to the New Media Institute.  In the same time period, more than 55.5 million people a month visited newspaper websites, on average. The Institute also reported that 35 percent of all Internet users in July of 2006 visited a newspaper website.  The numbers could go on and on, or rather, up and up.

As the statistics suggest, readers are moving online quickly. So whether journalists like it or not, media is shifting to the web. This shift is addressed by Charlie Beckett in “SuperMedia: Saving Journalism so It can Save the World.”  Beckett evaluates the rapidly changing world of journalism and suggests the answer to gaining readers and fixing newsrooms’ economic woes is using Networked Journalism.

He sums up his thoughts about Networked Journalism well when he says:  “Networked Journalism is about the journalist becoming the facilitator rather than the gatekeeper” (52).

While most editors and journalists are evaluating New Media in every day terms, Beckett looks at how New Media will change journalism in the long run. Networked Journalism doesn’t change the way journalism works, Beckett explains in the book, but adds to it. The system becomes more relaxed and not so structured.  Old Media and traditional forms of journalism aren’t going to disappear all together, but they are going to evolve into a more involved form of journalism, not only by allowing the mainstream population to be part of sharing news but also by getting news to readers quicker and in a variety of ways.  Beckett even takes his explanation a step further and says that newsrooms will have to consider whether they separate citizens from journalists.

The idea that readers might eventually become journalists is insightful because it is so far from where the newsrooms are today. However, I think there always needs to be a distinction between readers and journalists. Although Networked Journalism can improve accuracy and fairness to a certain degree, New Media and the Internet also make it much easier to be inaccurate and unfair. As Beckett says in his book, anyone can shape the media. That’s great and true, but it also means more people can use these tools to distort the truth. While journalists should consider utilizing readers and citizens more often, it is also essential that journalists become better at using credible sources and determining the difference between credible and unreliable.  Using the Internet to attract readers does not always mean we should use the Internet in our reporting. Sometimes we should, after careful and skeptical evaluation, and other times we should follow the traditional reporting methods.

I think a lot of Networked Journalism is explained simply by moving traditional reporting methods to the Internet. I don’t think New Media and Old Media should be separated thoughts. Separating the two makes using New Media seem daunting and scaring. Rather than think we have to start using Networked Journalism, I think it’s more about evolving traditional journalism. It’s moving traditional journalism online.

 In addition to the usual methods, journalists should use blogs, wikis, Facebook, YouTube and the myriad of other social media tools because Beckett’s right, that’s the best, easiest, and only way journalists can reach the mainstream public today. More people are spending time online than ever before. According to a “Huffington Post” article, 96 percent of millennials have joined a social network, social media has overtaken porn as the No. 1 activity on the web and the fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55 –to-65-year-old females. Fewer and fewer people read books and the printed newspaper. The only way journalists can reach readers and return to a thriving media is by shifting journalism online. This doesn’t mean getting read of old media and all of the sudden making reader’s reporters, just moving journalism to a different location.

This process is occurring slowly, whether it’s intentional or not. A journalist’s job is to attract readers. So if readers are online, journalists will put there information online. A New Media Institute study confirms this fact.

According to the Institute, more newspapers are reaching 25 –to-34-year-olds through its website. For instance, “The Washington Times” saw a 60.2 percent increase. “Tampa Tribune” saw a 36.7 percent increase. “Boston Globe” saw a 32.8 percent increase, and “The Seattle Times” saw a 31.9 percent increase.

Beckett explains in his book how we can take this a step further. He says that using Networked Journalism can bring more content to the reporting process, bring the audience back to the process and bring moral and political value to the process. In effect, speeding up what newspapers are slowly trying to do.

In the book, Beckett also touches on how Networked Journalism can help the media convey culture, people and humanity. Using terrorism and the Muslim population in Britain as an example, Beckett explains how conventional media keeps people from getting a full picture the people around us. Networked Journalism can convey multiple messages, he says (129).

This aspect – using technology and the online world to reach different cultures – is one of the most crucial aspects in Networked Journalism.  A journalist should hope to reach the world and to report accurately and fairly about the people in the world. Journalism should not only strive to bring news but also strive to help readers better understand people and culture.  If Networked Journalism, which is essentially using social media tools, can help reporters and editors reach people across the world and not just the people in their surrounding city, then reporters and editors should take advantage of the benefits Networked Journalism can offer.

Wrapping up his book, Beckett says: “Networked Journalism offers the possibilities of ‘closing’ the distance between people, even on a global scale. It does this not just through the technology of communications, but by more contextualized reporting that gives voice to the subject. Instead of simply reporting upon ‘the other,’ we are able to report ‘with’ people who are separated from us by geography, class, or other social factors” (166). 

Although it might be important to use Networked Journalism in response to how society is changing, it is even more important that journalists look at Networked Journalism as Beckett explains it – a way to close the gap between us and them. Networked Journalism has the ability to connect people across the world and potentially bring cultures together.

That’s something every journalist should strive for.   

Becoming an editor

I was geekishly excited when I made the quick decison to take Advanced Editing, a senior capstone course at UF.

I wasn't going to take classes at all. But if I took this class in the summer, I could take two capstone classes. The other is Applied Journalism, a workshop-style class that produces "Orange and Blue" magazine.  Although it was a quick six weeks, I learned quite a bit in Advanced Editing.

One of the biggest things I learned was that I am a writer. I like editing, though. I like being able to pull apart a story and figure out its meaning. I like knowing parts of speech and definitions and grammar. So, don't get me wrong - I still loved this class. But I found that I prefer writing to editing.

I supposed this confirmed something I've been ignoring. I really want to not only write feature stories, but I also want to write books, not necessarily be the executive editor at some big magazine company in New York City, the dream job I held on to through high school and much of college.

That said, I've learned being an editor and a writer can go hand-in-hand in many ways. Being a good editor will make me a better writer. Besides that, just because I'm an editor doesn't stop making me a writer.

There are important distinctions, though, between writing and editing. As I've learned in class, editors help writers become better writers, and they make sure a story is fair and accurate.

I've learned that editing goes beyond reading a story and fixing what you see wrong. Editing a story is a process that you build on. Editing is taking a story apart word by word and line by line to ensure it flows, it's grammatically correct, it's accurate, it's fair, it's attention-getting, it's news appropriate and a myriad of other things.

Not only did this class help me hone by AP Style and grammar skills, but it helped me realize that I should be balancing other type of judgment decisions, such as keeping a writer's style in a story and rewriting stories, which was one of the hardest challenges I had in this class.

I'm excited because this class taught me the skills I need to continue to be a good editor and to improve as an editor.

I think editing is something that can always be improved on, but it's something that, to a certain degree, needs to be taught. I also think that only by editing over and over again can you learn the art of being a good editor, something I have the opportunity to do as I continue my career.

Reading, Reading, Reading...

Ah, reading. If there is anything journalism students hear over and over and over again, it's the importance of reading.

As many of my journalism professors have said, every good journalists reads. To be a good writer, you must be an avid reader.  Sadly, I find it's the easiest thing to skip in a busy schedule.

It's logical, though. How are writers (specifically me), supposed to improve if they don't read other writing?

So, you ask, what do I read? 

I've become a feature writer, rather than a news writer. It didn't necessarily start that way, but I soon found that I had no desire to pursue anything other than writing. I like stories that allow me to be creative, and stories that tell of something or someone special and stories that make a difference.  Because of that, I try to read a lot of feature stories. I read the news, but I only read it to be informed of the world around me.

One of the series I like is The Neediest Cases  in the New York Times. The Neediest Cases stories are about different New York families that are helped by the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The feature stories written about the families are similar to the stories I like to write, so I enjoy reading them not only for pleasure but also to learn.

I also try to read The New Yorker. I like to read some of their essays and feature stories when I can, although I don't get the chance very often.  I keep up with Christianity Today, as well.  Not only do I really like there stories (for myself, mostly), but I also want to work at a Christian magazine when I graduate.

For news, I read the USA Today. I don't really look at anything else, except the Wall Street Journal occasionally.  Like I said, I read the USA Today to stay informed, and it's easier for me to persuade myself to sit and read the news than to sit and watch the news.

I also prefer to read books rather than a bunch of articles. I have a long list of summer reading books, which includes British classics, American favorites, historical books (like David McCullough's "1776") and literary journalism. There's more literary journalism on the list than anything else.

I think reading is something that's sometimes taken for granted. I think it's very easy to skip a day's reading, especially considering everything each of us has going on in our lives. However, I also think if we make a commitment to read every day, then we will see our writing improve tremendously.

Journalism in a digital world

I'm usually a traditional kind-of girl. I don't mean I don't like change. I do. I just prefer writing and traditional editing to some of the new forms of media. But I've recently been enlightened.
 
Why, you ask?  Because every conversation I've had about the classes I'm taking this semester has gone something like this:

"How's summer going? You taking classes?"
"Yeah," I reply. "It's not too bad. I'm taking Advanced Editing."
"Editing," they say, rather surprised. "You mean like photo or video editing? Cool!"
"Um... no, like writing editing," I say, rather awkwardly.
"You mean words? Oh..." they respond, with a that-still-exists? look. 

No joke. It's happened about four or five times so far this summer. For a brief few minutes, I almost felt lame for writing and editing stories. But, I suppose what they say is true.  The digital world is taking over. No longer (as we all already know) can we get by with just writing and editing. We have to take videos, pictures and the whole lot of it.

So, I suppose I should jump on the bandwagon. I'm actually excited about getting on it.

The role of networked journalism and digital media is something most journalists are understanding and beginning to apply more often.  I think journalism is in an in-between stage, where we still do the writing and the editing, but we are increasing the time and content that goes toward multimedia reporting.

This can also be a difficult stage for colleges and journalism students. Figuring out what area you want to pursue in any field is difficult, but especially in journalism, a field with many different facets. Then, of course, many colleges are still increasing the number of multimedia-based classes offered. Luckily, the UF College of Journalism and Communications has a few.

New Media, however, is not simply photos, graphics and videos. Networked Journalism has become a very important key to communicating with readers. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are important places to network and communicate with others around the world.  Using Facebook and Twitter is something that can be done much easier than learning how to take great pictures and shoot awesome videos.

The below video sums up how rapidly journalism is changing. In the video, VOA's Philip Alexiou talks about how society is moving more to online news and how journalism is reacting:




The problem now (at least for me) is, as a student, how do I actually learn to use some of these tools? So, I went somewhere I can usually find help with situations like these: Poynter's News University.  Poynter has free courses available in a lot of different areas, including photojournalism and multimedia.

With society changing even quicker than journalism, I suppose every journalists should jump on the bandwagon, too.