“NEW WORLD JOURNALISM” by John Shrader

Originally written as a Journalism final, Spring semester 2005

              In the coming years, Journalists will not – in my opinion – be characterized as members of the print media, or electronic media, or even online media. The next generation of journalists will be trained in the craft of news gathering, and will be expected to deliver the goods in all forms of news presentation.  Today, we call this convergence, which has been described as “shorthand for bringing together telecommunications, computers and content, texts, images and audio.”

              We are, in today’s business climate, slowly merging all forms of the mass media. There are plenty of newspaper columnists who make regular television appearances. And when they are compensated for their time, they might be described as a “contributor”,  a “consultant” or an “analyst.”  Television and radio reporters are increasingly expected to contribute to their company’s online product. It has forced the broadcasters to return to their newspaper-style writing roots, and has forced newspaper columnists and reporters to learn the art of electronic media presentation, which is to say they need to be more succinct and better dressed. In other words, they are learning to be more “packaged” for the electronic media.

              Media companies are combining their resources whenever possible, and editors and reporters are learning to package their stories in varying ways. The exciting thing about all this is that we are learning the ways of the “New Media World” together. In some ways we are making up the rules as we go, and technology is pushing us along.

The following is a very recent example of what is happening these days. The San Francisco Chronicle broke a story regarding a media training video (that included racially sensitive and sexually explicit material) produced by the San Francisco 49ers.  They placed the story at the top of the fold on page one.  The two on-site sports reporters doing follow-up work on the day the story appeared, Ira Miller and Kevin Lynch, had several deadlines during the day, updated versions that needed to appear on www.sfgate.com, the Chronicle’s website.

              Reporters, in nearly constant communication with editors, will file stories when they have new information that needs to be passed along. This particular story also included the 15 minute long video that was the real center of the story. The Chronicle made the video available on line when the story appeared both online and in print.

              Newspapers and radio and television stations must all consider their deadline to be fluid, all day long, every day. There are plenty of reasons to consider: the internet, cable television, satellite radio, pod-casting, and scores and news headlines that can be acquired on demand on your cell phone.

              From Journalism in the Digital Age: “Today, the printed word changes to the visual image, the computer screen becomes a cinema theatre, the telephone changes into a combination of TV and computer. Multimedia is the future. The journalists of the future, and their audiences, will probably be answering their television sets and watching their telephones.”

              All the ideas that we’ve talked about as hallmarks of the electronic media are now in play in what we’ve traditionally considered the print media – timeliness, audio and visual impact, crisp and economical writing.  The important thing about the “New Media World” is that journalistic principles remain: What is the story? Who most affects the story? Who does the story impact? Where is my story? Why is this story important? Is it of great importance to the audience? Or is it of great interest to the audience?

              As we prepare to launch an online version of the San Jose City College Times, I would like to make some suggestions about how we can converge the media, and how we can make the most compelling online version of the school’s award-winning newspaper.

              If we are to develop a timely online version of the newspaper, we should determine how often the content needs to be updated. Shall we do it daily, weekly, or semi-weekly? We could make it a daily go-to site or we could make it an online version of the paper, updating it to coincide with the publication of the paper. Should we decide to make the City College Times online a daily exercise, we would need editors dedicated to its content.  And we would need to complement the stories with as much audio and video as is possible.

              There are several ways we could accomplish the complementary audio and video. Reporters should take with them audio recording equipment (not a bad idea to always tape interviews and press conferences to make sure we have quoted our news subjects perfectly) and on the big stories we should have the digital video camera available to the reporter(s).

After the interviews and information-gathering has been done for the print version of the story that would also appear on line, reporters could do: A) a 90 second to two minute audio interview with a news subject, B) the reporter could get a 20 to 30 second video sound-bite with a news subject, or C) the reporter could do a 30 to 40 second video clip explaining what the story is. In television, we call it a stand-up. This would be more of a way for the reporter to share with the reader/viewer what the gist of the story is. It is a good way for the reporter to learn how to gather information and impart it in a timely and conversational manner. This stand-up could be done in the newsroom after the story has been written and filed.

In practical terms here is how the three alternatives work:

• Let’s say the paper does a profile on a Jaguars baseball star, a story that appears in both the print version and the online version of the paper. In addition to the online version we could have a 20 or 30 second video clip of the coach talking about the young star. We would need to make it as simple as possible to get it online and with as little editing as is necessary. The idea is to get it online and, at least at this point in the process, not worry as much about the fine points of television editing as we are about getting it online.
•  We could do a short audio-only interview with either the coach or the star player. I would not suggest that we do an interview with both coach and player – or with two or more subjects on another kind of story. Again we don’t need to worry about editing them in a coherent form.
• The reporter gathers his or her thoughts after the story has been filed. Look presentable, but don’t worry about looking like a TV anchor. Talk into the camera and impart the information about the story – a synopsis – conversationally and with some style.  The exercise here is to augment the story and give the reporter experience in organizing the story and delivering the details in a short clip, and give the reporter on-camera experience. Because the video clip, or stand up, is on tape, we can keep doing it until the reporter gets it right. We’re not doing live television, though it’s not something that should be done ten or 15 times, either.

           While I don’t believe everybody is interested in making a career of radio or television, and not everybody is interested in solely working in the print medium.  In the coming years, there won’t be much that separates the various media. We will learn how to work in every part of the business. Television stations will be regularly supplementing their news stories – and news specials – with online content. They now often times do this with special reports and during “sweeps” months (which are the four important ratings months.)  Radio stations are adding blogs and they’re putting tape of their interviews online almost immediately after they were heard live.  

            A growing number of people rely on the internet for their news and information. We will service them – and survive in the business – when we learn best how to present our news product to them. And we need to present that product quickly, with visual pleasure, with journalistic integrity and with creativity.

We will expose young, aspiring journalists to all facets of the business with an aggressive and creatively structured multi-media online edition of the City College Times. We will certainly learn a lot in the coming months about what is possible and what is over-reaching. If we operate under the assumption that all the students want to be exposed to all aspects of the business – print, radio, TV, internet, pod-casting – we can ask more of them in the educational process.

Herbert, John: Journalism in the Digital Age  Focal Press, Oxford, England  page 13 

San Francisco Chronicle June 1, 2005

www.sfgate.com June 1, 2005

Herbert, John  Journalism in the Digital Age  Focal Press  page 21

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