Comments on: Media, heal thyself

By: Mike Azzara

Mike Azzara — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:44:32 +0000

That, my friend, I can agree with. Or, er, that is something with which I can agree.

But there’s still a painful problem – what business model will support such endeavors?

So it goes.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:30:50 +0000

Mike, good points. I didn’t articulate my point clearly enough, I fear. What reporters are doing today, almost 10 years after reacting almost a decade too late to the digital revolution, is reacting, rather than reporting. They’re reacting to TV coverage, to blogging, to political consultants and PR people whispering in their ear. Too little original reporting and questioning. Of course this has always been the way, but I think it’s worse in an age in which “churning out stories” takes on a new meaning for the digital factory.
At a good publication, there is a healthy balance between “reporter knows best” and “reader knows best.” A good publication tells its readers what “they didn’t know they didn’t know.”
I’m not suggesting they be sheltered from reality. I’m suggesting they get back to doing what they do best. Going out, talking to people and writing stories that put the live-streaming tidbits of today’s daily grind into context (or help create new live-streaming topics).

By: Mike Azzara

Mike Azzara — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:11:21 +0000

I respectfully disagree.

I’m not sure this is your intent, but what you’ve described – and your commenters agreed to – is a situation in which reporters insulate themselves from readers. Do you seriously believe that reporters in any field or beat should pursue the news they think important – or they think their readers think is important – without ever consulting the readers?

I’ve been a professional journalist all my life until the last couple years of forced independence. In all those years, including the last two in which I’ve primarily worked to produce “thought leadership” (a.k.a. “content marketing” or custom publishing) for paying customers, I have always found that the readers (who sometimes are also “customers”) know best. Not every single one, of course, but when a good reporter talks to enough of them the winning, or right, or most valuable, patterns always emerge.

So while you three may wish for a return to the sheltered newsroom of the 1960s-1990s, the new tools of modern journalism empower reporters like me to do what we’ve always done, but far faster and more efficiently.

OTOH, Brian, you’ve hit the nail on the head with regard to media’s biggest problem -its aging and reactionary leadership. I just don’t think armed guards insulating reporters from reality is the solution.

mike

By: Mark Gogolewski

Mark Gogolewski — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:30:13 +0000

Totally agree. The biggest challenge as a reader is finding content worth reading.

By: Lou Covey

Lou Covey — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:34:25 +0000

Could not agree more … now can we convince management to let that happen?