Towards a New Journalism

I wrote this originally for Press Gazette and an edited version was published on 23.05.08 - missed out a couple of what I thought were important points, so here's the original version in full:

Towards a New Journalism

Seems like I’ve spent the last two years talking about nothing else but the impact of new technology on journalism training.

Grinding away at fixed views that there’s actually nothing new except the technology and that the old journalism skills will see you through.

Well, cards on the table, that’s rubbish.

Let’s start with basic newsgathering – recognising a story, checking it out, telling it well (and safely) are still core skills.

BUT…..if at the same time you’re not also aware of audio, video, stills, mobile phones and websites, as well as print, are skilled in the different technologies required to work in them, recording and editing, studio work, what story lines will suit each, how to write for each, how to pitch each to your editor, whether there are audio, video and stills available to illustrate each, whether interviewees are available in audio or video and when, what the deadlines are for each, how you manage your time to deliver each and still, in effect, tell six different stories well and safely, you’re not much use to the present–day employer.

Writing properly for each medium is critical – one major employer I spoke to recently despairs of finding anyone who can write a decent story for a webpage or mobile phone. Busking it on the “old” skills won’t do.

The extended knowledge of all-media law (not just print-based), ethics and (broadcasting industry) regulation should be built into that, in my view. Anyone want to argue?

I recently watched with horror a newspaper reporter shooting video on a protest march, unescorted, backing into moving traffic, so add risk assessment, health and safety and hazardous assignment training or someone’s going to die.

Then there’s voice development and presentation training so you don’t sound like an android – now you’re talking. Add a dash of that special something – the creativity you need to make those media work for you, to make your work stand out and we’re cooking.

Creating that training content is not a major problem – fitting it all (and shorthand??) into a coherent training programme is. But that’s my very rough vision of how to produce our future journalists.

The best arguments I’ve seen recently for accepting that this is a new genre of journalism and not just brightly repackaged traditional skills, come from American newspapers.

Two particular sites have been the centre of attention in the last few weeks – no question, they’re the two best news websites I’ve ever seen.

Take a look - p://www.startribune.com/local/12166286.html and http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=photos

Fascinated by these two examples, I rang the papers to find out how they’d done it. The first is the Minneapolis Star Tribune, based in the city which suffered a catastrophic bridge collapse last year.

It opens with stunning stills and audio of the first incoherent emergency calls – but stick with it – the final shot is the killer. It’s an overhead, showing the remains of the bridge, still with dozens of cars marooned.

Each car is numbered – click on the number and you get the drop-down video story of what happened to the driver. Brilliant.

The Trib’s a big city paper, doesn’t recruit entry level journalists, naturally has highly developed print skills but the site impact could not have been achieved without an intensive in-house programme of retraining – staff have to meet stiff credit targets every month.

The Monitor’s small town, small team, great photographers, with someone who, by chance, knew audio. The story’s about a woman dying – up close and personal – parts of it very distressing. It takes a while to realize that what you thought was video is actually very cleverly edited stills and audio. What tells you everything you need to know though, is that the site was put together “by a kid in the office.”

Last month it won a Pulitzer.

I have no doubt in my mind that our target should be to provide trained entry level journalists, capable of producing work of that quality. The logical conclusion of what’s happening out there is that every training course, no matter how it’s presently badged, should have that aim.

Katie Allen’s piece in the Guardian on May 7 said that UK newspaper editors seemed to have got it – given any extra resources, a significant number would invest it in (re)training new media skills.

Another fascinating snippet of conversation to report from someone who should know (trust me). It’s broadcasting legend that Terry Wogan once said “The pictures are better on radio.” But one or two employers, with big investments in online journalism, seem to have identified those special skills - creating pictures in listeners’ minds with text and audio – as the key to that special something, that dash of creativity, “visualizing” the story to make it stand out and connect with an online audience.

99.9% of conversations I’ve had about the industry in the last two years have ended with the phrase – “interesting times.”

Interesting times.

Journalism's BIG Problem

So what do YOU think is the worst problem facing UK journalism? Convergence? Dumbing down? UGC?
None of the above. It's diversity - ethnic and social diversity in our own worksforce. The 2002 "Journalists at Work," survey reported that 96% of all UK journalists were white and middle class - things may have improved in the last few years, but it's still an authentic scandal.
Let's start with ethnic diversity.
Very, very, few decisions about any kind of news agenda, story selection, treatment or assignment of reporters, in UK print or broadcast journalism, indeed, in broadcasting, any kind of programme commissioning, are made by anyone with any knowledge of other cultures and ethnic communities, let alone by anyone actually from ethnic origins.
And the consequent, usually ignorant, grossly stereotypical, portrayal of ethnic communities in all forms of media does little to persuade black and Asian parents that journalism is a decent career for their children.
Black and Asian journalists I've spoken to (40+) have some pretty horrifying stories about their experiences in our industry - it's clear that racist attitudes don't stop at the newsroom door.
None of the above denigrates the the investment, time and effort being put into reducing that 96% figure - mainly in broadcast journalism - by the likes of the BBC, ITV News Group, C4 and Sky.
But too many still believe that one-hit policies will solve the problem. They won't. It's here for ever - in fact it's getting worse with growing populations and new sub-texts emerging - eg mixed races.
And what really staggers me is that, at a time when you can't open a business page without reading about falling media finances, the commercial sector simply doesn't seem to grasp the possibilities of the potential markets that ethnic communities represent.
Enough. I'll leave you with a question - two questions actually.
1. What is institutional racism? Here's one answer - it's from Lord McPherson's report for the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry in 1999 - and please don't try to tell me it was just about the Metropolitan Police. "The collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes, and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people."
2. Do we work in an institutionally racist industry? What do you think?
Haven't even started about social diversity - watch this space.
JL

The BJ Blog

Welcome to the BJ Blog.

The phrase “fast changing” is both over-used and under-sold in our trade and a definition of what a “journalist” will be in future, what “journalism” will be, is testing individual, corporate and academic minds industry-wide. So conversation in the BJ Blog will certainly be about issues in journalism and training – just drop the word “convergence” and stand back.

But it’ll also be about day-to-day practical problems – student work placements are a perennial headache and HM Customs and Revenue are just about to lob a grenade in our direction. It’ll be about swapping and testing ideas and hopefully coming closer to universal truth, passing information, answering questions, guiding careers at all levels, commenting on developments and events.