Feb
19
New role for online journalists
February 19, 2009 |
I talked with several other journalists earlier this week about how Web reporting is different than reporting in paper publications. It’s not a new topic, but it remains an interesting one to me since the role of the reporter and editor keeps changing as the technology changes. Much of the conversation was devoted to using Twitter to get people interested in local news publications, but that actually wasn’t the most interesting part of the conversation to me.
Traditionally, the role of editors and newspapers in general has been not to just throw out news willy-nilly but to be arbiters of what’s important. In print, this has been done by story placement; important stories go on earlier pages in the publication, on the front of inside sections and/or higher up on the page.
In online reporting, the “well” doesn’t represent that hierarchy the same way. The story on the top of a news Web page or blog is often just the most recent story, not necessarily the most important one of the day or week. So, online journalists have to find other ways to clarify when something is “news as usual” and when a breaking story is something really sensational, something we feel our readers should pay special attention to. This can include special graphics or making a post “sticky” at the top of a well or thread.
On the flip side, online reporting has diminished that arbiter role somewhat and has opened up opportunities for the general readership to explore and decide for themselves what is most important. In print, you must quote selectively for space considerations. You have to print excerpts instead of whole government documents. Online, you have the opportunity to post long audio clips or entire book-length legal documents for further perusal. This allows casual readers to get the bits you’ve highlighted from the main story, but also allows the more passionate reader to explore and delve into the story and source documents more deeply if she chooses to do so.
It takes extra work to scan those documents or upload those audio files, but it also makes our reporting more transparent. We can’t be accused of quoting selectively if our audience has the ability to hear the quotes or read the material in its entirety.
Over the next few months, I’m going to be giving more thought to how I can enhance online news reporting so that it’s not just a facsimile of a print publication. The Web brings complications to the presentation of news, but it also brings fantastic opportunities to make reporting richer, more transparent and more interactive for readers.
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