Journalism

Krugman, On The Web

Garth Beyer

Krugman does it again. His latest post, The Good Web, is why I always visit his blog.

Sorting out the wonkish for you, here are some of my favorite bits.

“What I want to talk about instead is the effect of the Internet on the quality of reporting, which I believe has been overwhelmingly positive.” Which goes back to my latest post about citizen journalism.

On the pre-internet era, “in fact, there was a sort of bias against having reporters with too much expertise, on the grounds that they wouldn’t be able to relate to the readership.”

More on citizen journalism, “The point is that real journalists, as opposed to the idealized picture of the way things used to be, benefit from the ability of knowledgeable non-journalists to get their knowledge out there, fast.”

“newspapers now have a much better idea of what their readers actually care about.” Can this help the industry? Maybe with its transition to the digital platform, but I still believe, like print books, Newspapers will become a thing of the gift shop.

And while Krugman refers to useful economic analysis, stating, “these are the good old days,” I can’t help but think the same about journalism in its entirety.

We’re All Reporters, Seriously

Garth Beyer

I check Yahoo! news every day and chuckle when I see a story that I already caught on Imgur, an image uploading site. Consider it an Image only version of Reddit.

People from all over the globe can upload images… immediately. Especially, eye witnesses.

The argument has been whether everyone is a journalist or reporter now that we can Tweet, take pictures, and upload videos of what will (when “legitimate” reporters get on the scene) be breaking news.

Now, NBC News is working to purchase Stringwire. A video sharing service that will allow users to stream videos directly to NBC News.

Let the conversation continue. Are we all citizen journalists? Deserving the same respect of a paid journalist?

Jeff Bezos – Letter to The Washington Post employees

Garth Beyer

To the employees of The Washington Post:

You’ll have heard the news, and many of you will greet it with a degree of apprehension. When a single family owns a company for many decades, and when that family acts for all those decades in good faith, in a principled manner, in good times and in rough times, as stewards of important values – when that family has done such a good job – it is only natural to worry about change

So, let me start with something critical. The values of The Post do not need changing. The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we’ll work hard not to make mistakes. When we do, we will own up to them quickly and completely.

I won’t be leading The Washington Post day-to-day. I am happily living in “the other Washington” where I have a day job that I love. Besides that, The Post already has an excellent leadership team that knows much more about the news business than I do, and I’m extremely grateful to them for agreeing to stay on.

There will, of course, be change at The Post over the coming years. That’s essential and would have happened with or without new ownership. The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment. Our touchstone will be readers, understanding what they care about – government, local leaders, restaurant openings, scout troops, businesses, charities, governors, sports – and working backwards from there. I’m excited and optimistic about the opportunity for invention.

Journalism plays a critical role in a free society, and The Washington Post — as the hometown paper of the capital city of the United States — is especially important. I would highlight two kinds of courage the Grahams have shown as owners that I hope to channel. The first is the courage to say wait, be sure, slow down, get another source. Real people and their reputations, livelihoods and families are at stake. The second is the courage to say follow the story, no matter the cost. While I hope no one ever threatens to put one of my body parts through a wringer, if they do, thanks to Mrs. Graham’s example, I’ll be ready.

I want to say one last thing that’s really not about the paper or this change in ownership. I have had the great pleasure of getting to know Don very well over the last ten plus years. I do not know a finer man.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bezos

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Letter found here

This makes me curious, not necessarily about where Jeff will take the paper (that’s a natural curiosity to everyone in knowledge of the ownership change), but what I or you would do if we all the sudden found ourselves in charge of the newspaper – or any newspaper for that matter.

Would we turn it completely digital? Would we break it up into smaller newspapers covering specific parts of Washington (and America)? Would we find a new way to challenge advertisers? Would we shift the writing toward more gonzo journalism?

These questions, as well as hundreds of others, I’m sure, are questions Jeff is asking himself. Think on them.

Now imagine if the answers you give to the questions turn out to be the same ones Jeff gives. Exciting, huh? Now is the time to make critical educated decisions on what to do with a newspaper company, when you’re not responsible, and you can verify what works, what experts* would do, and how to handle the ever-changing** newspaper market.

*You can argue Jeff Bezos is not a newspaper expert, but he brings enough to the table for me to call him one.

**Some say dying, and sure, the newspaper industry is dying, but when I answer the questions above, I think it’s changing more than dying.

 

A New Point Of View

Garth Beyer

“This reporter’s point of view was now data for my own work on our shifting cultural expectations and technology.”  –  Sherry Turkle

Reporting doesn’t need to be done first hand. In fact, a lot of great reporting has been done by using reports from dozens of other reporters.

It’s information alchemy in my mind.

Five Minutes Ago

Garth Beyer

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Can anyone relate, that as kids, you were impatient? You couldn’t quite understand why you had to wait in the grocery line so long, or wait in the car while your parents went into a store, or wait for your sibling to get out of basketball practice, or wait for this, or wait for that.

No need to raise your hands with this question, how many have you have been told to have patience? Or that patience is a virtue? Or to just be patient?

We grew up being told over and over to be patient, to wait, to not rush. I’m actually happy to break the news to you … we were taught wrong. Patience is not a virtue – yes, from time to time we can benefit from it but that is simply because as we are being patient, as we wait, our expectations of the result slowly lower so that by the time what we were being patient about happens, we’re just happy it finally happened!

Let’s start with a story. I recently went on a tour of different public relations industries in Chicago with the Public Relations Student Society of America. We all want to be public relations specialists and journalists. I’ve been in the writing industry for quite some time and have some strong contacts here in Madison. While on the trip I got to talking with a girl who is a senior at UW Madison, getting her degree in Journalism. She wants to work in the magazine industry. We talked a lot about it and I mentioned to her that I knew a couple people in Madison in the magazine industry that I could connect her with. We talked it over and I said if she emailed me some examples of her writing, I would review them and then if they met my standards, I would recommend her to the contacts I know. I figured that weekend she would email me. She didn’t. Being forgiving, I sent her a message reminding her I was willing to help her out any way I could and to send me a piece of content. She never did.

This is how I see it. She had patience. She figured if I was willing to help her then she didn’t need to get me an example of her writing right away. Then, as she put it off fear sank in. That’s what happens when you’re patient: fear sinks in, always.

As she waited, taking her time to respond to me, her mind gave her dozens of reasons why she shouldn’t ship me her writing, her art. She began to doubt me because I’m a student too. Maybe her ego told her she wanted to do this on her own. Regardless, if she had reacted immediately, sent me her writing, she could be making progress. But she didn’t. Inaction always proceeds patience.

One last note on the pitfalls of patience. Many people use patience to think things over, to ask better questions, to contemplate the situation, to work their brain. To that I have one thing to say, doing so sparks more fear than certainty. Instead of being patient and letting that happen, that’s why we have what is called an “experience”, that’s why we have evaluations, that’s why we have feedback. If we always do the checking before finishing, we will never finish, never follow through, and never send that email.

Let’s take a different look at impatience, specifically, the benefits of it. In my writing, I always end with saying a reminder to Stay Positive & something else that relates to what I wrote about. Being impatient is one of the greatest actions you can take to stay positive. When you are impatient, you always expect the positive, the best case scenario. You don’t have time for road bumps, detours, or anything else getting in your way. In other words, when you are impatient, you never focus on what you don’t want. And in the case that something problematic does arise, there is no sulking in it, you fix it fast and move on. Impatience will get you places more often than it will prevent you from reaching them. When you’re focused and positive, those are traits of someone unstoppable.

“We must always work, and a self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood. If we wait for the mood, without endeavoring to meet it half-way, we easily become indolent and apathetic … sometimes you just get in there and just force yourself to work, and maybe something good will come out.” – Russian orchestrator, Peter Tchaikovsky

 

Stay Positive & Impatience Credits You To Choose Conventionality

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

Lies, Damned Lies and the Internet

Garth Beyer

We may as well give up the attempt to know anything about the fate and fortunes of our armies in any quarter whatever; and all in consequence of the infernal invention of the Internet. It is one of the worst plagues and curses that have ever befallen this human race. It covers us all over with lies, fills the very air we breathe and obscures the very sun; makes us doubt of everything we read, because we know that the chances are ten to one it is false; and leaves us uncertain, at last of our own existence. Men say it brings intelligence quick; yet every event announced by it is always so obfuscated by these quick-coming reports, all destroying one another, that the true story is generally longer in being ascertained than it was before.

On July 10, the editors of The Richmond Enquirer summarized their experience using the electronic telegraph. It just so happens the above paragraph is exactly how they summarized it other than the single use of the word “Internet.” Simply exchange “Internet” with “electronic telegraph” and there you have it.

Don’t mind me. Just putting technology in perspective.

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