FoJ final report

Life in the Clickstream: The Future of Journalism Report (http://www.alliance.org.au/)

In a nutshell: the alliance is embracing the new world, recommending training to less tech-savvy reporters.  It tries to be sensitive to the damage being done by online, notably in the integrity of copy and quality of reporting. A few things I found interesting were:

1. A dilemma of sorts: “Some reporters are expected to run opinionated blogs, while writing unbiased news stories on the same subject. This reflects and impacts on journalism standards. Much of the internet material is simply cut and paste rather than real journalism. Reporters do not have enough time to do quality work when their days are divided between supplying newspaper and online copy.” p14

2. The race to the bottom editing model: “Suddenly, you find the day’s paper splash is hardly read; the page-five brief is most popular; the unusual animal story from a country you’ve never heard of gets mega-hits.”
…
“Feedback and data on story popularity let an editor crank up coverage or quickly downscale a story that isn’t working.”p17

Which is to say, popularity rather than substance now shapes journalism. Think Samantha Brett vs Ross Gittins.

3. And this oddity: “Journalists must also develop an extensive repertoire of reporting styles. Blogging requires a first-person approach that journalists may not be training for.” p18

Really? First-person reporting has been around for as long as journalism. It was also what the new journalism of Didion, Capote et al was all about.