The radicalized rebels?
Major thanks to Jay Rosen for taking national our solicitation to help us plot our online course.
"Adapt or disappear." It definitely focuses the mind. For a journalist, it shouldn't be a hard choice. Most of us go into the business to make a difference in the world. "I have something to say so shouldn't I go to where people will hear it? And shouldn't I listen to their responses because they will help me refine my work?" Blogging, talking to readers online, making the Web site more useful and dynamic, learning from others...I can't come up with any reasonable explanation that a journalist wouldn't embrace the potential. So why are so many of us resisting its obvious allure?
Tim Porter addresses the problem with newspapers and change. "In order to survive, newspapers must change their form -- form, not standard -- of journalism (not to mention their means of advertising delivery), but, as radical as those new forms may seem in most newsrooms, I no longer think that is enough. Many news executives know what to do, but they still don't do it. They are handcuffed by cultures that not only inhibit change, but frequently punish those who champion it. What's needed is a fundamental organizational makeover. The current newsroom structure -- segregated departments, hierarchical decision-making processes, platform specific (instead of agnostic) content, and strict producer-consumer division -- does not permit change on a large enough scale to break newspapers free from the traditions that bind them."
While we still have some of these issues, we've been encouraged by our corporate bosses to break free.
Rosen suggests that we may have been radicalized and are ready to rebel here. I don't call it rebellion. More like common sense. My still-evolving observation is that bloggers and newspapers want basically the same thing: to tell people the news. Some blogs are seasoned with more opinion than ours. Some are more personal than ours. But they all want to share information with others. It's not threatening; it's invigorating. And it feeds one of our fundamental purposes, which is to help build a strong community through the free exchange of information and ideas.
Keep the suggestions coming. We know we haven't cornered the market on innovation or brain power or reporting or knowledge. Many of you who have advised us in your blogs and in your comments are teaching us. Keep it up. We need your help.
Comments (4)
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That's right -- an organizational makeover. It's going to happen at the big 3 networks with the 6:00 news, too.
There are so many tangents on this topic it's hard to keep up. We're talking about what the N&R as a community entity could do -- improved website interactivity, linking, using bloggers as stringers -- and also what challenges the print versions of newspapers face, and what they could do to keep readers. I think they are two separate products in very different forms.
The N&R should want to set the standards high in both realms: be a thorough and wide open portal on the web, with reams of content available to everyone for free, and also figure out what purpose a newspaper needs to serve now, in the 21st c.
Sitting down to read a paper is a different experience from browsing headlines or blogs on the web. Both are valuable and I think still economically viable. But newspapers will never again contain breaking news. So does it become their job, as Peter Jennings suggested about the evening news, to provide analysis and context and in-depth reporting instead? I think so. And as a community paper, the N&R can offer a gathering of voices on community topics.
more later. lots o' reading to do.
Posted on December 20, 2004 12:07 PM
Just curious, but are there any minority bloggers out there? I know of a few from the area, but most of the blogs I've visited don't seem to have links to any of these folks.
If there are, I can't tell from the topics being discussed.
Minority bloggers: Make your voices heard!
Posted on December 20, 2004 10:31 PM
You are really making the rounds in the 'blogosphere', Greensboro. Good news!
See: "Greensboro, NC Bloggers: You're In the News" at my site:
http://iddybud.blogspot.com/2004_12_21_iddybud_archive.html#110367042331003633
As a blogger for my own city newspaper's website,
See: http://www.syracuse.com/weblogs/
I applaud you, Mr. Robinson.
Jude Nagurney Camwell
Syracuse NY
Posted on December 21, 2004 6:23 PM
Define 'Minority bloggers', 'Community paper.' Look at the community paper weblogs and see if you can identify a "minority" blogger. We didn't. But you don't know who or what is on the other side of a web page.
So, What community does this paper represent?
Posted on December 21, 2004 9:02 PM